On 2016-02-02 8:49 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

>
> Many places do the mobile thing now. Very convenient. If you have more
> than about 75,000 miles, getting a new windshield is almost as good as
> getting a new car. No pitting, etc.


When I worked in the equipment section of the highways department we had
automotive glass installer at the shop almost weekly Thanks to
government tendering processes we ended up with a lot of International
trucks. They were quite capable of handling the hydraulics and the
plows. The only drawback was the flat windshield. The plows threw a lot
of snow slush road sand up on the windshield so they were constantly
being rubbed with the sand. Some trucks went through 2-3 windshields per
season. We went through so many windshields that our contractor got a
really good deal on volume purchases.


I lucked out with a broken windshield on my Mazda van. It was about 10
years old and the glass was badly pitted, making driving into the
setting sun pretty difficult. One day I was driving home from work and
took a route that took me past a golf course. I spotted the golf ball
out the corner of my eye and watched it come down and hit my windshield
smack in the middle.

I waited for someone to come looking for his ball. His insurance paid
for a new windshield. I had been thinking about getting a new one, and
I ended up getting one for free.