GregGebhardt

The "star" is as about as big as a dime. Just happened today.

Hate to have the windshield replaced and was wondering if they could repair this rather than pulling and replacing the whole windsield.

Opinions?

How good are these star repairs?

How much to replace the entire windshield.

Have good Allstate Insurance, do they cover the replacement or the repair in the USA.

DUTCH

In Florida you get a windshield replacement with no deductible.

That being said, if the star cannot be covered by a US quarter, most windshield repairers will say that it cannot be repaired.

In Georgia we are covered under the comprehensive portion of the policy with the deductible taken out first. I had one larger than a US silver dollar coin that I got along the AlCan Highway in August. One repairer said no repair. I found an artist that repaired it so that it is completely invisible; and it's held now for several months. I would definitely recommend and use him again. He is really good! Personally, even if I were in FL, I would go with a repair of a dime sized nick/star; and forego a replacement.

Cost to replace the windshield, if you had to pay for it would probably be in the neighborhood of US$1,100-1,200. MSRP for the glass and the adhesive kit is $933.50. The labor is probably whatever the market will bear; and depending on the skill of the replacement technician, you may or may not have a leak free windshield when he's done.

Hope this info helps.

Nanook

Mostly any damage can be repaired nowadays..even cracks but they must drill a hole into the glass to force inject the silicone or what ever material they use and these holes remain visible...for a crack they drill two holes...one at each end and pressure the material into the crack..damages mostly disappear but seldom 100%

jtorrebl

This sounds steep but it's covered under comprehensive coverage for sure. Sometimes there's special windshield coverage and it turns out to cost $50.
I've replace Audi and Mercedes windshields for this cheap coverage with factory glass. Insurance has a special division to cover windshields

DUTCH

All MB parts are "steep". The numbers I quoted are MBUSA's MSRP. Many dealers use Matrix Pricing, and mark the MSRP price up. On the other hand, there are dealers who will discount the MSRP, so it pays to shop around.

GregGebhardt

Thanks everyone for your comments. I have scheduled Safelite to come to my office to repair next week. My insurance company, Allstate, said that I could take it to the dealer and have the windshield replaced but I told them I would like the repair rather than them removing the windshield.

She also said if I were unhappy, I still have the option of replacement with zero deductable.

DUTCH

Thank you Florida Insurance Regulations.

In Georgia, they'll do a repair for no charge; but a replacement is done under the comprehensive part of our insurance. We do have to pay the deductible, which in my case that's $1k. That's why I was so pleased to find a really skilled glass technician who repaired my larger than supposedly repairable stone star. $0 out of my pocket instead of $1k!

Subatomic Power

Chip and star repairs cost about $35 and take 15 min. They prevent additional cracking. Keep a piece of clear tape over the chip or star until you get the repair in order to prevent additional cracking. MB sells a diamond windshield package for $1500 that gives you 5 windshield replacements over 3 years with unlimited chip repairs. I had to use the service in the 1st week of my new ML550 ownership.

DUTCH

Let's not over generalize. Because of the size of mine, it took the tech more than 1 hr to do mine. I don't know how much the insurance company gave him, but I'm sure it was not enough.

GregGebhardt

Safelite arrived at my office and completed the job in less than an half hour. A little dissapointed as it far from making the star invisible. It was much better but left about 40% of the damage still visible.

DUTCH

That's a shame. The tech that did mine was a real artist. He worked about an hour on it; and the star which was much larger than a silver dollar is almost completely invisible. You have to know it's there and look for it carefully in order to see a very faint shadow of what it was.

Subatomic Power

That is the way of chip repairs. Only very superficial starbursts can be repaired "invisibly". Most often, they end up being "invisible" from the outside, but you can see them from the inside. The idea is to get as many chips repaired as you can until it is time to replace the windshield. ML550's cost about $1200 to replace. I bought the extra insurance that gives me 5 in 3 years and I also have it on my insurance policy. In my 1st wk owning my ML550, I got a big starburst! It was 90% fixed by the chip repair service....then I got another one that is more like a dent....and it can't be repaired. I'm going to keep fixing fixable chips until the summer, when I will get a new windshield.

GregGebhardt

Looking at my widshield closely, I can see multiple areas with there is a tiny ding from a rock hitting it. Makes me wonder about how hard these MB windshields are if I only got 13k on my ML.