The warranty excludes glass so the dealers don't want to know.

These are all cracking spontaneously from the lower midline.

Every single person I know with a defender (sample size of 3 myself included) has had their windshield crack in this manner in a short space of time owning the vehicle. Non-impact irreparable crack from the lower midline appears to be the dominant trend. . It's a waste of time contacting the dealer IMO. They wouldn't entertain a warranty issue suggestion and were about $800 more expensive to use than a third party glass company.

I filed a report with NTHSA

A quick troll through the Defender FB forums will show this issue again and again. The pattern of fractures is common in all.

 

Only a matter of time before this happens to some lawyer or litigious person and the class action starts. I loathe legal trolls with a passion, but if someone creates one - I'd seriously consider signing up.

 

In most class action suits, only the lawyers win. They milk it for big bucks and the plaintive gets a fraction of what they should have. It has, unfortunately, created a lawyer tax attached to everything in the USA. Kind of sad, but folks wonder why certain things, like pharmaceuticals are so much cheaper out of the us. Now that being said, I have joined a couple of class action suits. One against Apple and one against VW. The Apple one netted some trivial credit on iTunes. However the VW one was substantial. VW produced the Tiguan with a total POS engine design. Well the water pumps would die going on 30,000 miles. VW did not cover it on warranty, neither did the extended warranty and it ended up costing, at least me $3K to change it. I would have done it myself, but you almost needed to cut the car in half to get to it. Anyhow, I thought that paying 8% of the value of the car new was absurd for a water pump. Apparently so did a lot of Tiguan owners. So class formed up, letters went out, went to court, VW settled. So if you wanted to get the payout, you needed to provide copies that VW serviced the vehicle and only used their magic unicorn derived coolant and only used approved oils, for each and every maintenance interval back to birth. Luckily, I had kept the records and the receipts. It is the wife's car and if it dies while I am away (frequently) it becomes a hoop-de-do. So the car goes to the dealer so my hands did not touch it and I remain safe in the argument. 46 pages scanned had to be uploaded to the attorney's office in Oregon to their special web page. Did this and months pass, then letter; "Claim Denied!" Denied due to lack of documentation. Wait a minute, I had everything from birth, serviced on the dot by their service department. Pissed, since I am now invested time wise. I go back to the web page, upload again. Copy everything and send it return receipt. Again denied for lack of documentation. Holy $hit, this is not right. I call, but I may as well go to the pound and talk to abandon dogs. The people their where clueless, lets say, idiots. This has become kind of a crusade now. Heck VW is just a shady car company, but these lawyers are crooks. Grandfather was a top judge in Italy, so there is a long tradition and an exceptional amount of lawyers in the family, in fact I think outside of me and my siblings, everybody else is. So I draft a rather long letter, attach the copies, and draft a letter to the Oregon Bar Association, outlining legal malpractice in a Class Action (which can cause whole offices to be dis-barred). Anyhow, 18 months pass, I take a deep breath and get on with life. Surprise! Check from VW arrives for $2,200.

So, inexplicably my wife still loves her car, I will have to pry it out of her dead hands. I will defiantly not get another VW in my remaining life. They all have had crap go wrong and it was expensive and hard to do (I like to do my own maintenance, being a licensed aircraft engineer and all). Besides, VW is the Snidely Whiplash of car companies. Of course, my wife says, you get the car you want, I get what I want, case closed. So perhaps this illustrates exactly who wins in Class Action suits, not us. If I had not been tenacious, bordering on a jerk, I would be empty handed and some $hitty lawyers in Oregon would have new boats.

 

Honestly with all of the issues being raised here and the lack of any type of support from JLR I'm questioning whether I actually want to spend the money on the truck I ordered. Along with content being removed and the prices going up it's all starting to leave a bad taste for me (this being my first JLR purchase).

Matt

 

@Dogpilot - I agree with almost everything you wrote. I, perhaps, wasn't clear on my objectives. I really wouldn't join the village mob for any thought of winning any monetary damages. I would join solely to include my voice & increase financial penalty in trying to get JLR to FIX the problem. In my mad logic, I'm optimistic (fantisizing?) that VW made design changes as a result of that. In my alternate, imaginary world - I think that most of these automotive class action lawsuits result in certain lawyers (aka, crooks) making criminal profit but that the manufacturer also has to make changes. THAT is what I would hope for.

 

It's never a waste of time contacting retailers about an issue. If you do not get the response or information you wish then your next step should be contacting JLR North America. All calls and information shared are recorded and compiled. If we are not made aware of a problem we cannot solve the problem and it creates a terrible cycle.

Retailers in the US are all independent franchises and each is able to behave in the manner they see fit. Some retailers in the United States go above and beyond and do not rest until an issue is sorted while others are managed poorly and focused on short-term profits. If your experience is unpleasant at one retailer try another. If your retailer options are limited and you are not pleased with the response please reach out to corporate. There is an entire floor of customer response teams and engineers in the US market whose singular purpose is to solve customer issues and feed information back to the engineers and factories here in the UK.

That said, personal or anecdotal experiences with a vehicle do not equate to what's happening amongst an entire population. While it may appear that everyone is having a windscreen problem, that may not be the case. In fact, the corporate Defender fleets used by employees around the world show almost no instances of windscreen cracking. It may be a localised problem or a specific run of vehicles.

Glass cracking can be caused by substandard glass (ours is the same as other OEM's), tension in the frame, uneven application of adhesive material, rapid heating and cooling (spraying an icy windscreen with hot water), extreme exposure to intense sunlight combined with high temperatures (glass does not heat evenly and thus can crack). Again though, we can't investigate a problem if we don't know about it.

 

It's very disheartening to read a statement like that. Who at JLR has not been providing support to you or the wider community? We have thousands of employees supporting our customers on a daily basis.

Employees at every level (up to the CEO) regularly reach out to customers and try to support them. In fact, board members and the CEO of North America have gone and met owners in multiple cities this year. In some instances, the CEO has personally dealt with a vehicle problem and the retailer.

You won't see Mary Barra or Oliver Zipse doing the types of things our executives are willing to do for our customers. Our internal company motto is "customer first" and every JLR employee is expected to assist our customers. That includes board members stopping to assist JLR customers on the side of the road.

 

First, and I know I've said it before, but I still think the windshield thing isn't a thing. I had two replaced in my last vehicle (both "magically" appeared), people on the new Bronco forum are also complaining about weak glass / bad install, and I'm endlessly dodging construction trucks throwing / dropping debris and backing off from people in gravel-covered construction zones. I don't know what it is, but the roads seem messier than ever.

Second, regarding trying to support customers, can one of those people rush order two replacement front air springs for my 110 so I don't have to cancel my road trip next month?

 

Here here @insider - To the others posting on here, just as FYI, I'm not for a moment doubting the issue here, but I think there is an issue on newer cars with glass. Like, really a big issue. My immediate family here also owns and I'm on these forums sniffing around constantly, on which I regularly see:

BMW M4 - all over the M4forums about cracked windshields, BMW windshield thin-ness, and spontaneous cracking. FYI I had 4 (!!!!) on my convertible in 2 years, none of which I could find an impact, none of which BMW would cover under warranty.
2020 Subaru Outback - all over the outback forums about cracked windshield without impact (actually far more reported / louder volume than on these Defender forums)
Defender 2020 - All over the Defender forums and Facebook about cracked windshield (obviously!)
2019 Tesla Model 3 - not as much windshield but more of it's about spontaneously cracked roof panels ($$$)

I think all new glass sucks.

 

It's evident a lot of people are working hard but based on this community and the shared experiences the outcomes of those wonderful efforts are not being realized. I pay attention to the outcomes more then the effort.

For a moment wear the shoes of the customer, the people who are paying for the trucks / cars and indirectly paying all those people doing wonderful work. As a customer the truck I ordered will be delivered with less features that I paid for. JLR is doing nothing for the customer in regard to this. I've asked if customers would be made whole like other manufactures are doing and if I understood the response, the answer is no.

Another note from a customers perspective - I posted a simple question here: With the recent price increase on the Defender will the customers who ordered their trucks before the increase, but have not taken delivery, be required to pay the incremental cost. No answer yet to that. Although one person on this forum indicated he was required to. Less features and more money with no reaction from JLR to do right by the customer. The optics don't make it look like "customer first". That's disheartening as a new customer.

I've been fortunate in my life to have had many cars (I'm old ) from many luxury brands and have always felt appreciated, even in tough situations. Being a first time customer of JLR, a luxury brand, I was expecting the same commitment to the customer. I just haven't experienced it yet nor based on the content of this board neither have others.

I very much value your contributions here and it's clear you wear your JLR colors with pride.

And I know, it's up to me to decide what to do next. It's just disappointing to be in this spot to have to make a choice instead of being excited to get a Defender.

Thanks
Matt