Don't break your 'A' Class windscreen in France or Spain (6 Viewers)

[Dorset Diver]

Does anyone else find it worrying that the insurer has put a limit of £3k on the claim? I would expect that regardless of cost (unless the vehicle was to be scrapped as beyond economical repair) the insurer should pick up the bill, excluding the excess. Perhaps there is something in the Comfort small print.

 

[Tykatem]

I suppose the question to ask is why are the glass replacement companies now refusing to deal with Hymers?

No margin?
Poor payments?
Poor supply?

Is it just Hymer range or does it cover other Hymer Group A Class vehicles?

I think you'll find it affects ALL A Class motorhomes.

Pete

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Does anyone else find it worrying that the insurer has put a limit of £3k on the claim? I would expect that regardless of cost (unless the vehicle was to be scrapped as beyond economical repair) the insurer should pick up the bill, excluding the excess. Perhaps there is something in the Comfort small print.

That's standard with any windscreen cover, even on your car there will be an upper limit defined somewhere.

It's not a £3000 total limit as such. Windscreen claims are treated as no fault claims i.e. ones that won't affect your no claims discount. The limit is on the no fault element.

Over that amount they will still deal with it but it will be treated as a fault claim so your no claims will be affected.

It's something that anyone who has an A-class or an RV should be aware of, find out how much a windscreen is likely to cost and ensure they have sufficient cover.

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[Dorset Diver]

That's standard with any windscreen cover, even on your car there will be an upper limit defined somewhere.

It's not a £3000 total limit as such. Windscreen claims are treated as no fault claims i.e. ones that won't affect your no claims discount. The limit is on the no fault element.

Over that amount they will still deal with it but it will be treated as a fault claim so your no claims will be affected.

It's something that anyone who has an A-class or an RV should be aware of, find out how much a windscreen is likely to cost and ensure they have sufficient cover.

I have checked my policy and can't find a limit.

 

[adonisito]

Yes I was happy with the service from Aviva. I just wish there had been some info from Comfort before I bought the policy. Yes, replacement screen was covered, but it's not as straightforward as a quick call to carglass/autoglass.

 

[Clarky]

I have checked my policy and can't find a limit.

Safeguard have unlimited glass cover but I think most other companies, including Comfort, have a £3k limit.
That is one of the reasons we insure through Safeguard.

There appear to be many more A class motorhomes throughout Europe than there are in the UK so it seems strange that the main windscreen companies are refusing to work on them.

Richard.

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[Lenny HB]

Does anyone else find it worrying that the insurer has put a limit of £3k on the claim? I would expect that regardless of cost (unless the vehicle was to be scrapped as beyond economical repair) the insurer should pick up the bill, excluding the excess. Perhaps there is something in the Comfort small print.

£3k will cover most of the popular A class's unlesyou have a particularly large screen should OK but always worth cheching. Last time I was shopping around I came across one company offering Motorhome cover and their windscreen limit was £800 can't remember who.

 

[Tykatem]

There appear to be many more A class motorhomes throughout Europe than there are in the UK so it seems strange that the main windscreen companies are refusing to work on them.

Richard.

It must be stressed that it's only autoglass/carglass that refuse to work on A class motorhomes in France and Spain.

Pete

 

[Deleted member 29692]

I have checked my policy and can't find a limit.

It will be there.

It might not be obvious but it will be in there somewhere even if it's just a line in the t&cs saying something like "our standard policy limits apply to windscreen claims". I don't think it's glaringly obvious in my policy (Comfort) but I know what it is because I checked and made sure it would be enough before buying the policy.

If you have something standard like a coach built don’t worry about it, the limit will be higher than you ever need it to be.

It's only an issue for non standard screens as you would find in an A class or RV. Most of us who have that type of vehicle know that it's something that has to be verified every time we change insurer.

I see you have an A class so if you didn't know about this before you do now.

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[obanvanman]

We collected a chip on the windscreen of our A class Euromobil last week. It has been repaired by CarGlass in Beziers, but before they carried out the repair I was told that we would not have a warranty for the work carried out. He explained that if it cracks after the repair they would not replace the glass. I asked if it was because it was an A class or because it was a Euramobil, he replied A class.

 

[TinaLes]

Makes me wonder what changes we may see in the future, with insurance companies and their MH policy provisions for A Class Mh,s
i.e Higher excesses, limited max claim to specified amount say 3K, dealer only replacement facility, or wait for it!.....consultation between Insurance companies & manufacturers for the future standardisation of windscreen sizes between ALL A Class models, so one size fits all in affect.
Thinking about it, if an insurance company shells out 2, 3K or higher on any MH policy once every few years, they have lost out big time, so I guess we may see future premiums reflect this, as more and more hit the roads......or is it the roads hitting the MH,s ?

 

[Dorset Diver]

It will be there.

It might not be obvious but it will be in there somewhere even if it's just a line in the t&cs saying something like "our standard policy limits apply to windscreen claims". I don't think it's glaringly obvious in my policy (Comfort) but I know what it is because I checked and made sure it would be enough before buying the policy.

If you have something standard like a coach built don’t worry about it, the limit will be higher than you ever need it to be.

It's only an issue for non standard screens as you would find in an A class or RV. Most of us who have that type of vehicle know that it's something that has to be verified every time we change insurer.

I see you have an A class so if you didn't know about this before you do now.

Sorry to disappoint but there is no relevant small print in my policy and despite being totally confident I rang my insurer to check. No limit, other than BER.

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[Dorset Diver]

Makes me wonder what changes we may see in the future, with insurance companies and their MH policy provisions for A Class Mh,s
i.e Higher excesses, limited max claim to specified amount say 3K, dealer only replacement facility, or wait for it!.....consultation between Insurance companies & manufacturers for the future standardisation of windscreen sizes between ALL A Class models, so one size fits all in affect.
Thinking about it, if an insurance company shells out 2, 3K or higher on any MH policy once every few years, they have lost out big time, so I guess we may see future premiums reflect this, as more and more hit the roads......or is it the roads hitting the MH,s ?

Just to put this in context motor insurers have fixed priced agreements with glass replacement companies; usually for about £75-£100 per unit. This applies to your Ford Fiesta and to the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, and RR. It is worked out on the law of averages. They loose out on the expensive screens of which they do very few and win on the common replacements. In the meantime our excess covers the insurers costs in most cases.

For the most part this applies to MH cover as most are based on Fiat, Transit and Peugeot units of which there are many so the comparatively few A classes don't cause to much harm to their bottom line.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Sorry to disappoint but there is no relevant small print in my policy and despite being totally confident I rang my insurer to check. No limit, other than BER.

In that case congratulations. You have a totally unique insurance policy.

I just hope you don't get a bad surprise if you ever have to put it to the test

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Just to put this in context motor insurers have fixed priced agreements with glass replacement companies; usually for about £75-£100 per unit. This applies to your Ford Fiesta and to the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, and RR. It is worked out on the law of averages. They loose out on the expensive screens of which they do very few and win on the common replacements. In the meantime our excess covers the insurers costs in most cases.

For the most part this applies to MH cover as most are based on Fiat, Transit and Peugeot units of which there are many so the comparatively few A classes don't cause to much harm to their bottom line.

I don't know where you got that from but it's poppycock.

The excess on a car windscreen policy is usually to cover the VAT, nothing more. I suppose that would also apply to coach built motorhomes.

With a replacement windscreen for an A-class being between £2000 and £5000 and for an RV starting at £5000 and going upwards from there do you really believe that anyone is doing them for a "fixed price of £75-£100 per unit"? Really?

Someone's been feeding you nonsense I'm afraid.

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[Cavs]

Does anyone else find it worrying that the insurer has put a limit of £3k on the claim? I would expect that regardless of cost (unless the vehicle was to be scrapped as beyond economical repair) the insurer should pick up the bill, excluding the excess. Perhaps there is something in the Comfort small print.

You should be aware that Comfort limits the repatriation costs to £3,000 as well. This includes initial recovery and anything else you claim while trying to sort out the breakdown, such as taxi fares and accommodation. I wasn't aware of this until last year when we broke down and the limit would not have covered the repatriation cost.

 

[gus-lopez]

Can't find mention of that , but if limited and away from central vision I still see no problem in continuing .

Apologies ,there appears to be 2 threads running with A class damaged windscreens.
https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/windscreen-repair-in-spain.164750/#post-2594069

 

[Dorset Diver]

I don't know where you got that from but it's poppycock.

The excess on a car windscreen policy is usually to cover the VAT, nothing more. I suppose that would also apply to coach built motorhomes.

With a replacement windscreen for an A-class being between £2000 and £5000 and for an RV starting at £5000 and going upwards from there do you really believe that anyone is doing them for a "fixed price of £75-£100 per unit"? Really?

Someone's been feeding you nonsense I'm afraid.

I will tell my cousin, senior commercial director at a very large UK insurance group, and responsible for the department that negotiates such thing that he is talking, err, poppcock . Ops, he may not be that interested now as he retired a few years back.

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[Speve]

Ours cracked in Spain in Feb of this year and Auto glass told me I would have to wait till getting back to UK or find a Hymer dealer we waited till we got home it still took three weeks to source a screen the fitter said it cost around £1200 that’s for an Exsis i
The reason was that Caraglass will not touch Aclass screens because there are so many different types and they did not have the skilled teams to do them unlike Autoglass who sent a specialist commercial team out to do ours at home.

 

[funflair]

Just to add my 2p worth,

This is an extract from correspondence with a commercial automotive glass and glazing company,

Martin


As was your experience, most people would call their insurers claims line first of all. This line although normally answered in the name of your insurer, is normally a call centre for one of the main installation companies. These companies tend to have insurance deals on a fixed price basis. Believe it or not, some as low as £180 a job. That naturally encourages them to “Repair rather than Replace” and the average cost of a transit screen by example is around the £90 mark, so you can do a lot of Transit, Mondeo, Focus screens in a day and remain profitable. What they hope is there are enough £180’s in the pot that when the big spikes they suffer in doing big A Class work or Coach work don’t eat too much of the profit. Hence there are a lot of copied cheap screens in the aftermarket. That is also why potentially, although I note, not your experience, sometimes you find weighty delays in servicing A class, as they want to roll them over into the next month so that the branch makes bonus in it’s current month – Human nature I suppose.

 

[Dorset Diver]

It makes sense for the insurance companies, and for that matter the glass replacement companies, to agree a global replacement price with a few exception. That way there is no need for quotes, the whole process is quick and simple, and less expensive for both companies. You just need to get your head around the number of jobs done each year to see it makes sense.

I suspect that the delay in getting some work done is the limited stock and availability of the screen.

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[Deleted member 29692]

I will tell my cousin, senior commercial director at a very large UK insurance group, and responsible for the department that negotiates such thing that he is talking, err, poppcock . Ops, he may not be that interested now as he retired a few years back.

All windscreens for fitted for a fixed £75-100 according to you.

How much does a screen for say a Ford Fiesta cost to buy?

How many glass companies go bankrupt on a weekly basis?

I’ll leave you to mull that over.

 

[Dorset Diver]

The retail price for windscreen replacement, i.e. the price you would pay as an individual customer. Of course the cost charged by companies such as Autoglass to the insurance companies will be considerably less. It is simply the economies of scale. Note the low cost of the Transit screen, why do you think that is?

Ford Transit windscreen cost 2000 - 2014 £82.00

Ford Connect windscreen cost 2002 - 2014 £105.00

Ford Focus windscreen cost 1998 - 2005 £108.00

Ford Focus windscreen cost 2004 - 2011 £120.00

Ford Fiesta windscreen cost 2002 - 2008 £116.00

Ford Fiesta windscreen cost 2008 - on £125.00

 

[Dave and Ginny]

Can't find mention of that , but if limited and away from central vision I still see no problem in continuing .

In this instance it was not drivable I think most would agree.

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[Dave and Ginny]

To be fair, in the above link autoglass say:-



As most insurance companies seem to use autoglass/carglas, my thoughts are that before venturing to France and Spain one should contact their insurance company and ask them specifically what course of action they should take in the unlikely event of requiring a new windscreen, including obtaining relevant Tel numbers etc

Pete

I have done just that Pete and the information from Comfort was that I would need to source out a dealer, presumably a Hymer one, instruct the work to be done and submit a claim to the Comfort who would authorise work up to £3000.

 

[Dave and Ginny]

Ours cracked in Spain in Feb of this year and Auto glass told me I would have to wait till getting back to UK or find a Hymer dealer we waited till we got home it still took three weeks to source a screen the fitter said it cost around £1200 that’s for an Exsis i
The reason was that Caraglass will not touch Aclass screens because there are so many different types and they did not have the skilled teams to do them unlike Autoglass who sent a specialist commercial team out to do ours at home.

I think you are most likely spot on here. I had a chip dealt with a couple of years ago whilst at home and on the drive. It was Autoglass that came out and the fitter was so relieved that he didn't crack the screen whilst doing the repair. He told me it's a two man job and they are a nightmare that can take hours to do. This is why they don't want to do them, too many man-hours, not enough profit.

 

[Deleted member 29692]

The retail price for windscreen replacement, i.e. the price you would pay as an individual customer. Of course the cost charged by companies such as Autoglass to the insurance companies will be considerably less. It is simply the economies of scale. Note the low cost of the Transit screen, why do you think that is?

Ford Transit windscreen cost 2000 - 2014 £82.00

Ford Connect windscreen cost 2002 - 2014 £105.00

Ford Focus windscreen cost 1998 - 2005 £108.00

Ford Focus windscreen cost 2004 - 2011 £120.00

Ford Fiesta windscreen cost 2002 - 2008 £116.00

Ford Fiesta windscreen cost 2008 - on £125.00

Let's say Autoglass get 40% discount on those prices. Let's also take into account the many hundreds of more expensive screens, BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover just to pluck a few out of the air.

Are you still insisting that they fit them all for £75 because it "balances out"?

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[shawn&emma]

I have checked my policy and can't find a limit.

On our caravan guard insurance its mentioned on thew schedule

Section 5 – Windscreen Total Claim Amount Before Affects No Claim Discount £2,000

 

[Dorset Diver]

@shawn&emma Your comment triggered a thought so I checked another place in my insurance documents. What I found was this, and I quote:

"Unlimited cover for glass replacement and no excess for glass repairs. Glass replacement is subject to excess." Excess is £50 if using an approved company and £70 if not.

Of course your restriction dose not restrict the amount of the claim(s) you may make, it just affects you NCB discount if you exceed £2k.

 

[Larrynwin]

In this instance it was not drivable I think most would agree.
View attachment 198250

Totally agree, however did that happen

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