Clarity PHEV Windshield Replacement -- Lessons Learned

I am posting my somewhat difficult very recent experience with a windshield crack and replacement so that others reading the forum might avoid some of my mistakes and possibly benefit from some of the lessons I learned during this whole thing.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but a new Clarity windshield turned out to be a long (and expensive) story.

First, I am the 13-month owner of a 2018 Clarity PHEV (touring trim) with approximately 9K miles on the odo. BTW, a great car, IMHO!

In late June, I drove my wife in our Clarity some 300 miles (one-way) from our home in North Texas to Houston for her appointment there, taking the direct route down IH-45. As usual, the Clarity performed flawlessly. But, when we passed through downtown Houston, still on IH-45, I heard a rather loud "snap" and suddenly had about a 5" crack appear in the windshield from the left side toward the driver, just approaching the driver's usual field of view.

Since there was nothing else to do and since we were within 10 miles of our destination anyway, I continued to drive until we reached our hotel. By this time, the crack had reached maybe 8" or so and was clearly "growing" by the minute.

Long story short: by the time we got back home in a couple of days, the crack had extended further, curving up and down, until it was long enough to really impede the driver's view. I also knew that, with the cracked windshield, I would never be able to successfully get a vehicle safety inspection, which is a necessary precursor in this state to getting the annual registration renewal.

Anyhow, time for a new windshield, thanks to whatever road dung hit the windshield in downtown Houston.

Some three weeks later, a new windshield was installed at our local dealer's service department. Along the way, I had to deal with my insurance company, the local dealer service guy, the local dealer parts department and several other parts departments, salvage yards and etc.

Here is what I learned:

1. First, take the car to a dealer to see if they will classify the problem as a "spontaneous" event covered under the new car warranty. They will inspect the glass to look for an impact point of road debris. In my case, they found a small, but definite impact point. No warranty coverage for me.
2. Next, read the D80 extended warranty coverage (if you bought that) for anything resembling glass coverage. Nope. Specifically excluded.
3. Check your auto insurance for glass coverage. Sadly, in my state there is no "special" glass coverage, so it is treated as just another "comprehensive" claim, subject to the usually pretty big deductibles in order to keep the overall policy premiums down. My comprehensive deductible was $1,000. Ugh.
4. I investigated the cost of replacement of the windshield, forgetting for the minute the issue of whether one can find a replacement piece of windshield glass for a Clarity. The quote for the glass ALONE from the dealer's parts department was nearly $1,600, and the windshields were said to be "NBO" with no date ("National Back Order" -- order now and you may get it someday).
5. With the total cost of the windshield replacement now estimated to exceed $2,200 (with labor, seals, re-calibrating the windshield-mounted camera, etc.) and (at best) uncertain parts availability, I filed a comprehensive claim with my auto insurance company. They readily paid the claim within 4 days, but I ignored their "recommendation" of several local body shops (that only work on bent metal or busted plastic, not cracked windshields).
6. So, unless you want to pay a couple thousand bucks just for a replacement windshield, make sure your auto policy either has glass coverage with a low or no deductible OR look at your "comprehensive" coverage deductible to see if you are comfortable with that amount. (I changed my comprehensive deductible, after-the-fact, to $250 for a modest premium increase. But, too little, too late for this incident.)

There is no third party Clarity glass to be had, even from Safelight, so OEM glass is your only choice. I went online to try to find some dealer somewhere that had a Clarity windshield in stock and would ship it to me in North Texas. (BTW, the Honda part # of the windshield glass is 73111-TRV-A01.)

I did a pretty extensive online search, sometimes supplemented with emails to potential suppliers. I found offered online prices (for the glass alone, no shipping) ranging from $984 to $1,500. Several, citing the NBO, said they just didn't have the glass, and a few said even if they had it they wouldn't ship it anyway, fearing breakage.

Remembering I had read on this forum about some Clarity parts being listed on eBay by salvage yards, I sent emails to those folks. I found one with a salvaged (unbroken?) windshield glass, but they wanted $350 just for shipping it. Since it wasn't new anyway, I had no idea what I would be buying, but at least they are out there at some price.

But, eureka! I finally found an in-stock, new, OEM Clarity windshield at a Honda dealer in (you guessed it!) Houston, and they were willing ship it to me by truck for just under $200. It arrived in just two days and was installed yesterday by Safelight at the local Honda dealership, and then the windshield-mounted camera was re-calibrated by the Honda techs.

Of course, the SOC of my Clarity's battery (which was about 95% when I took the car to the dealer) was 0% when I picked the car up. The last lesson of this story is to use the HondaLink app to check SOC of the traction battery remotely before picking the car up & paying the bill, and if necessary insist that the dealer restore the charge to at least where he found it. I have no idea how they managed to consume an entire traction battery charge. Whatever. My bad, once again.

 

The local Honda dealer's service department actually farms out all its glass installs to the local Safelite company. Because they "farm out" a lot of installs, they get a preferred (lower) rate from Safelite than if I had tried to have Safelite do the install myself. And, since the Safelite installer goes to the dealership to do the work, the camera re-calibration job can be more easily accomplished by the Honda techs afterwards. Finally, the online quote I got from the Houston dealer for the new OEM windshield was less than the local dealer quoted for the glass (had they even had it), so I purchased the glass myself directly from the Houston dealer to reduce the profit layers a little, and it kept the state sales taxes on the parts a little lower too.

In addition, I used the Safelite web site to get a replacement quotation, and now they specifically state as part of the online quote that the vehicle would "most likely" have to also be taken to an OEM dealership for the re-calibration procedure at the car owner's expense. They also say on their web site that the car requires a "special" glass that "may take a few extra days" to obtain. LOL.

BTW, I did pay out-of-pocket -- the $1,000 comprehensive deductible + the cost of a 95% traction battery lost charge. But, not next time, since I (as stated) have lowered the deductible to a more palatable $250. And, if there is a next time, I will use the HondaLink app remotely before picking up the car and paying the bill to confirm the traction battery SOC is at or above the level it was when the dealer got the car for the windshield replacement.

 

Yeah, the auto insurance adjuster assigned to my comprehensive claim told me he had some other claim once for a new windshield for a Maserati that cost over $7,000. I know he was just trying to help me feel better with my $1,000 deductible, but I bought a Honda -- not a Maserati. I had no idea that a Honda windshield replacement could possibly cost over $2,000, but they can and do!

 

It is difficult to generalize like that. My local Honda dealer actually has TWO (not just one) L2, free charging stations on its premises, with reserved parking for four EV's in front of the charging stations. But availability doesn't always equal knowledge, and this is one reason that I was so perplexed to get my Clarity (albeit now with a new windshield) back in late afternoon with a completely depleted traction battery after being delivered to them in the morning at 95% SOC. The service people didn't have any excuses about availability of a L2 charger on premises with restricted EV parking. I just expected more from them, I guess.

I took my Clarity to one of their L2 chargers, brought the traction battery up to 15% SOC and went home without using the car's ICE.