I need some help with a problem that I have had with my car.
I have a 2 month old Nissan Altima. This afternoon at about
3:30 in the Los Angeles area, my girlfriend was getting into
the car. After closing the door, she heard a loud pop and looked
in the rear view mirror. The back windshield had shattered
a little left of the center. (In other words, it broke into tiny
pieces the way that side and back glass does).
The area at this time was about 1 foot in diameter.
The car was parked in our driveway which is in a good neighborhood
and off of the street so it is almost impossible that a rock or
something hit the window at that time.
The first question is:
How did this happen?
Here are a couple of plausible explanations that I have considered:
1) Something hit the window a few hours earlier and
caused a crack that was
not visible to the eye. Then after sitting in the
heat the window shattered after she shut the door.
I have talked to one window person who said that
glass like the back windshields ussually either
shatter or they are fine after an impact.
2) That either there was a defect in the glass or the
car frame which caused the glass to sit a little bit
out of kilter. In other words, the glass did not fit perfectly
and was under pressure. The glass then shattered due
to the heat and the closing of the door.
Any other ideas?
Here is why I was wondering:
I have gone to the dealership and they are claiming that glass will
not break like this. So hear are some other questions:
1) Is there anything that an independent glass dealer
could find if they looked at the car? The entire
window is now knocked out because we drove
it to the dealer.
I would rather have the dealer fix it because I feel
that there is a much better chance of getting them
to cover at least what my insurance does not cover if
they do the repair.
2) What are my legal options? It seems like it would be very hard
to prove that the glass did not break due to an impact.
3) Any similar experiences?
I figured that if I kept going up the chain of responsibility at
Nissan that eventually I would get someone who would be willing
to pay for it.
Any and all suggestions are appreciated as soon as possible.
Thanks
Dan Clancy
I have no sympathy for you.
You should have bought an American car and let the money help american
workers.
I think you got what you deserve.
Be American, Buy American. Buy Japanese…GO THERE.
Daniel Nathan
Pelham, AL
daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com
09-11-93 21:38
In article <667.3858.uu…@the-matrix.com>,
Daniel Nathan <daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com> wrote:
>I have no sympathy for you.
>You should have bought an American car and let the money help american
>workers.
>I think you got what you deserve.
Just like my friend who bought the ’88 Ford Tempo and it was literally
falling apart two weeks ago when he bought his new car? What did he
deserve? Both my cars (’86 Subaru and ’84 Mazda) are in WAY superior
shape to his car even though his was 2 years newer. His biggest criteria
for his new car was "Not Ford" followed by reliability. He bought an
Acura largly because Consumer Reports rated them and Honda as very
reliable.
And that’s completely beside the point that if people stop buying ‘Japanese’
cars there will be SHITLOADS of people unemployed. From the Americans who
build them in the American plants, right down the the Americans who make a
living selling them.
A small handful of American cars can pass my strict requirements, and most of
them either weren’t built when I bought my cars, or are built with a
collaberation of the American company and the Japanese company. Not to
mention they were about $8K more expensive than I wanted to pay, and when
I was buying, there WASN’T an American car that fit my criteria.
>Be American, Buy American. Buy Japanese…GO THERE.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I plan to. They have a wonderful culture and I’m hoping to take a vacation
there in a couple of years.
Oh, and I’m sure glad that a lot of people in the UK don’t share your views
of ‘Buy <insert homecountry>’. My company sells a good percentage of it’s
goods to the UK. We’d be in bad shape if it wasn’t for people being able
to look past boundries and see that there’s room enough in this world for
everyone to live and work and play.
Sean
—
"Most American cars are like heavy metal music. Lots of noise and vibration,
but not much performance." – A friend after spending the day car shopping.
Sean Reifschneider, Supreme hack <j…@accum.com>
I got gasoline from 7-11 and my car stopped running. New gas, ran fine.
In article <667.3858.uu…@the-matrix.com>, daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com (Daniel Nathan) writes:
>I have no sympathy for you.
>You should have bought an American car and let the money help american
>workers
>I think you got what you deserve.
>Be American, Buy American. Buy Japanese…GO THERE.
I’m on my way……
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -
>Daniel Nathan
>Pelham, AL
>daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com
>09-11-93 21:38
In article uu…@the-matrix.com, daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com (Daniel Nathan) writes:
|>I have no sympathy for you.
|>You should have bought an American car and let the money help american
|>workers.
|>I think you got what you deserve.
|>
|>Be American, Buy American. Buy Japanese…GO THERE.
|>
|>Daniel Nathan
|>Pelham, AL
|>daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com
|>09-11-93 21:38
Got a life yet?
Geez, just when I thought people were getting smarter, the neanderthals show up…
j…@miranda.accum.com (Sean Reifschneider) writes:
>Daniel Nathan <daniel.nat…@the-matrix.com> wrote:
>>I have no sympathy for you.
>>You should have bought an American car and let the money help american
>>workers.
>>I think you got what you deserve.
>Just like my friend who bought the ’88 Ford Tempo and it was literally
>falling apart two weeks ago when he bought his new car? What did he
>deserve? Both my cars (’86 Subaru and ’84 Mazda) are in WAY superior
>shape to his car even though his was 2 years newer.
Give me a break. I’ve seen trashed out beaters from EVERY major
manufacturer of cars sold in this country on the road, in as little as
four or five years from when they were new. Any one instance may weigh
heavily on your mind, especially when you were involved with the car,
but has little to do with the overall likelyhood of the next car from
brand-X being that good or bad. I will say, I think quality varies a
LOT between models of US makes, much more so that between models of the
same japanese make. And the Tempo is probably the one model of Ford
that I would’nt even think of owning in the last half-dozen years, both
for design/engineering AND quality reputation.
Most US manufacturers have made tremendous gains in the last decade,
putting them in the same ballpark at least, and sometimes ahead, of
various japanese makes in quality and satisfaction. Not that I’m
saying you should buy or want to buy a US car (hey, that is up to you,
I’m a free-trader), but blanket "all US cars are shit" statements are
stupid.
Also, how a person takes care of, maintains as it were, the car in
question, makes a huge difference in how long a car will last and run
well. By your comparison above, where your Subaru is better than your
friends Tempo, I suppose I could claim my 1980 Pinto, still running
reliably after 13 years before I got rid of it, is even better than
your Subaru (and if you believe that …)? I was a poor, sometimes
student during most of the life of this car, and only managed to do the
minimum (keep it tuned, though not quite as often as it should have
been, keep the salt and road dust washed off enough to keep it from
rusting out, and change the oil as often as possible) upkeep on for
five or six of those years, and the Pinto is not exactly heralded as
the pinnacle of Ford quality, design, or engineering any more than is
the Tempo.
>His biggest criteria
>for his new car was "Not Ford" followed by reliability. He bought an
>Acura largly because Consumer Reports rated them and Honda as very
>reliable.
Honda=Acura, they are the same company. Like Ford=Mercury, or
Dodge=Chrysler, or Buick=GM. At least one thing that the Japanese did
learn from the US automakers is brand name engineering.
I may buy a car early next year, and if it is a "new" car it will
probably be a Honda Civic. Unless the new Dodge Neon gets some good
reviews and competes in that price class. I would’t buy an Escort
(even if it is made by Mazda) for reasons I don’t want to go into
here. Also, I’d need to shop around, see what Nissan, Toyota, Geo,
Mitsu, and some others have to compete with. So I’m not saying buy
Ford, I’m just saying not all Fords (or US cars) suck just because your
friend’s Tempo went to an early grave.
–
cmclark
Disclaimer: My dad worked for Ford from ’71 to ’80, minus a year being
laid off. Also, my family has owned 9 Fords, one of which was totalled
in infancy and one of which was sold in infancy. Of the rest, the
minimum they lasted while running reliably was 8 years, and that was
one we bought used. I have a ’79 F250 in the driveway right now. It
has over 130000 miles on it (should have more, but it was a "second"
(or third) car all its life). So my main bias toward Fords is that
they have worked well for me (*I* never worked there).
In article <1993Aug28.200319.26…@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
sand…@epunix.susx.ac.uk (Greg Sandell) writes:
> … in the UK …
>the pedestrian is "just something that’s in the way" as far as drivers
>are concerned…in short, there’s no consideration and in the eyes of a
>driver, you’ve no more business being in the road than a wandering dog,
>regardless of who was there first! Consulting the UK highway code, I
>see there is in fact no rights given to the pedestrian: in not so many
>words, it says if there are any cars around, don’t try to cross!
The UK Highway Code gives a number of rights to pedestrians. A driver
must give way to a pedestrian crossing a road into which he is
turning. A driver must, at a give way line (yield), give way to
pedestrians crossing the road entry (inter alia).
It is rare to see these honoured.
Gavin
"Pedestrian: anyone who is knocked down by a motor-car" — J. B. Morton