Car insurance windscreen question

[notorious]

Please explain me. Situation: I'm insured with Aviva, my A8 has heated windscreen and I want to understand what exactly happens when I need to change it when it breaks by wayward stone.

Heated windscreen from Audi costs about £600. Proper labour costs about £150, so about £750 in total if I do it privately. This is how much Aviva should reimburse me if I break windscreen. Right? No wrong. I called Aviva and they said they have arrangement with Autoglass and they basically compensate Autoglass only £110 for each windscreen change. £75 for windscreen part and the rest for labour. Obviously, this is not what I want. I want genuine Audi heated windscreen and I want to control any part on labour process, including what fillers and primers they use.

In my particular case Aviva offered to compensates me £110 cash and I can pay delta from my own pocket.

Question: Where the right people insure cars so when it comes to windscreen change insurance company pays for: 1. Expensive genuine Audi parts. 2. Private labour. No autoglass.

Maybe I'm an idiot.

[snapdragon]

They will (and have to) replace like-for-like in my experience with various insurers, either Saint Gobain or Genuine Audi branded. Sometimes I have had non VW-Audi but rejected them due to distortions and AG have replaced them with genuine dealer-supplied glass. The screens are difficult to make and so the best ones get sent to the manufacturer, the next graded ones are branded and the next ones are unbranded or branded something like Guardian.

[Adrian E]

I would lay money on a heated front screen only being available from Audi - maybe ring Autoglass and ask?

Glass cover is a flipping disaster area. Our A6 had a 'pattern' screen fitted after it cracked and it's very noticable that after 1 winter of using a scraper to clear ice off it the screen is scratched to hell whereas the factory screen never did. I gave them the benefit of the doubt but wish I hadn't now.

I suspect if you were really pedantic about it in terms of getting what you wanted you could just keep sending them away every time they turned up with a non-genuine screen and if they couldn't produce the necessary required parts for fitting. If you wanted to be helpful you could order those bits yourself from Audi for them to use.

If you spoke to a manager at Autoglass you might even get a non-muppet sent out to do the job if you explain how tricky it is to do right.

Because your windscreen cover doesn't mess with your no claims bonus I suspect it's covered on a courtesy basis - if you REALLY wanted to make an issue of it I suspect they would class it as a 'fault claim' against your NCB and screw you accordingly the following year

ETA - think the A6 screen is Guardian branded......

[notorious]

So there are insurance companies out there who will do what I want, no questions asked?

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

I would lay money on a heated front screen only being available from Audi - maybe ring Autoglass and ask?

Yes, I called and it is only available from Audi. ... And I'm extremely pedantic about quality.

I wonder what should be my insurance strategy?

1. Find company that compensates stuff on no questions asked basis (I provide genuine Audi invoices and labour invoices) and never screw me next year. Could someone recommend a company please?

2. Insure to legal minium. Third-party-only coverage and go completely private in terms of all repairs. This is what Im doing now. I appreciate insurance companies will screw me this or that way, cause the whole insurance business is to gather some money from people and then return them back **less money**

[Adrian E]

Depends what you consider your insurance cover to be - the absolute legal minimum to allow you to drive on the road, or to cover each and every knock/scratch etc repair on the car and pay for it at renewal time.

Glass cover is, I think, seen as a convenience to have available via your insurance. Hence why the excess is much lower and it doesn't count against your NCB. They work on the basis that most people don't care about the quality of the job and act accordingly. By tying up with national franchises they cut out the number of middle men and are sure to put x thousand jobs their way a month.

If insurance is there to sort out the legal side of things and get your car roadworthy it's questionable whether you would go near your insurance policy to replace a windscreen, if they didn't offer you replacement windscreen cover for £75 excess.

If you know for a fact that only Audi can supply the glass, that's not a problem. if they turn up with non-heated you can send them away in any case. I would price up the parts for fitting and either agree with the glass replacer that they will source those bits, or if not that you will at your cost and they will use them. Then watch like a hawk to make sure they do it as intended. Who do your local Audi dealer use to replace screens, as I'm sure they won't do them in house?

[snapdragon]

Are you sure it's Autoglass? Aviva website says Auto Windscreens.
In any case, just tell them it is Acoustic and heated and they will replace it with that.

[notorious]

Local Audi outsource this job. To Autoglass of someone like them. It is not important to whom. If company is more than 3 people they can't control quality. And best technicians go off on their own anyway.

snapdragon: Yes, they were Autoglass.

I wanted to control **who** is doing the job and which what parts are used. Buy parts from Audi myself and call the guy I trust. Then send invoices to insurance. If it simply doesn't work like this I'll go for a minimim coverage from next year.

[Adrian E]

These guys have been mentioned previously, although their website appears out of date and not maintained.

http://www.glasstecauto.co.uk/index.html

Sounds like they cover your area, or close to it. Might be worth a call to see where you stand with insurance.

Maybe a half way house is you screw the insurance for your £600 glass for your £75 excess and pay the fitting yourself? If necessary get the glass delivered by their monkeys but tell them you don't want it fitted

[notorious]

Yep. That's Paul Ralhan. I think the reason why site is not updated is because he doesn't need it -- word of mouth does all the marketing. And it's a company of one man. No management, no bullsh*t. I can recommend him. Paul's skill is windscreens removal and installation. I don't want to involve him with insurance discussions to be honest.

I'm control freak. I want to source parts myself, call Paul Ralhan to install and then send invoices to insurance for reimbursement. Same applies to all repairs -- parts I trust (genuine Audi) and people I trust. If it doesn't work like this for insurance I'll simply insure 3rd party only and be happy.