Car Insurance Renewal

I had to pay a couple of hundred to have mine replaced. The guy who did it said 'without insurance, its over a thousand'

Holy moly, it must have had an awful lot of tech hanging off it!

I thought the practice of offering a lower rate to new customers had been outlawed.

Not at all really. Just the heater., But it takes several hours, a call out fee, and a very large lump of specialised glass and a tech who knows what he is doing.

Of course he was Polish...

After collecting yet another stone chip, I needed a new windscreen last year for the MOT, only cost me £100. I think the excess for a glass claim is higher with this year's insurer ...

rain sensor, front-facing camera, some have de-icing.

I don't think the rain sensor is in the screen, it's behind it in the base of the rear view mirror.

No front facing camera either. Just the de icing bit. I think. Even that may not be there. Relies on plenty of horsepower to blow hot air on the screen

After I had mine replaced I had to take it in to have the cameras adjusted, they couldn't do that at home.

Yes, mine had to go through a 'recalibration' but the whole fitting process was done in just over an hour, I took it to them and they opened early to fit me in.

One of my cars - a Citroen Xsara, I think - had two new windscreens in quick succession. The OEM screen was shattered by a stone catapulted by the tyres of a car in front of me. I reckon the second one was badly installed and was under too much tension. It just "went" of its on accord. The third screen was the only one in stock at Autoglass - deluxe, tinted and a step up from the OEM.

All on insurance.

Mine is a Suzuki Vitara SZ5, about 5 years old. It picks up speed limit signs and shows them on an LCD on the dash. Would be useful except when you drive into a village with "gates" at the boundary it has always shown a different speed limit for each of the gates!

In theory it has, but there are so many variables in play for insurance (postcode, age, driving experience, likely mileage, make and model and age of the car etc) that there will always be an excuse for a lower rate for a new customer which will be difficult to challenge.

I've just had a heated windscreen replaced on my ford focus. Time on the job just less than an hour, £125 excess insurance fee. I elected to have the mobile service and the travelling time from the previous job was 20 minutes and the fitter said his follow on job was close by.

It was the first windscreen replacement I've had in approx 50 years of motoring. A stone chip became a 2 foot crack in a few hours. The stone chip was half an inch from the edge of the windscreen.

National windscreen suggest up to 4 hours to replace a windscreen and to re-calibrate all the tech associated with it. My heated windscreen without any other tech took just under an hour.

I seem to have one replaced every 3-4 years, I once had front and rear glass replaced on the same day ...

A lot depends on the miles and the raod quality...

The heated front windscreen on my ford is slightly over £1000. It was £100 for a chip to be repaired. Excess was about 10% of teh full prices.