After a long and hot summer, the winter is just around the corner. The period in which your car deserves extra attention, because it has to perform in more extreme circumstances. Attention for window damage and the winter tires is of great importance for anyone who wants to get through the winter safely. Bad tires are the cause of many accidents on a winter road and window damage still causes too many problems.
Problems on the winter roads
In the winter, more accidents occur as standard, often involving more cars. This often has to do with car tires of poor quality or having to drive on worn tires for too long. Less attention is paid to the risk of window damage. Typically, an asterisk or crack outside the driver's field of vision will not result in disapproval during the MOT, but continuing in the winter with a star means there is a certain risk of more damage to the windshield. And that can lead to accidents as reflecting light in the crack can cause blinding.
It is precisely in the winter that the chance of further cracking of window damage is high. With the large temperature differences between the outside temperatures and the desired temperature in the car, much is demanded of the windscreen, much more than in the summer. The temperature fluctuations are also often abrupt. The average motorist in most cases sets the heating to maximum after starting the car. On the one hand to get the windscreen free of ice without scratching, on the other hand to get the temperature in the car higher so that you can drive comfortably.
These strong temperature differences cause the car glass to expand (when heated) and contract (when cooled). Due to the high quality of the car glass, this is not noticeable when there is no window damage in the windshield. This is after all calculated during the making of the car glass. However, if there is an asterisk or crack in the windshield (or the rear window if it is made of laminated glass), this abruptly causes contraction and expansion for further cracking of the window damage.
What to do with window damage with the coming winter?
Drivers with window damage are advised not to set the heating to maximum after starting the car and to scratch the windscreen instead of having the heating do the work. That of course is not a solution for the problem itself, it is merely reducing the risk of further cracks. It is therefore wiser to look at permanent solutions. Many small asterisks can be easily repaired and often no (full) deductible is charged by the insurance when you are insured for window damage. This depends on the conditions of the insurance policy that you have taken out; you will find everything about this in your insurance policy.
Replacing a windshield in the event of greater damage is also covered by the car insurance that includes window damage, but in almost all cases this does include deductible. If you only have liability insurance, the costs of the repair will not be covered. Nevertheless, it is possible to replace the windshield without insurance coverage at attractive rates by choosing after-market car windows that do not have a brand logo. The quality of the car glass is the same, just like the place where the car glass is made. The lack of a brand logo only results in a price that is much lower than a car dealer's window.
Repairing window damage and checking car tires before the winter comes
The number of accidents on Dutch roads can be greatly reduced if more drivers pay attention to the condition of the winter tires and repair window damage. In this way, the average Dutch driver not only has more grip on slippery road surfaces, but there is also less risk of spontaneous further rupture of the windscreen while driving. This can lead to particularly dangerous situations and that is reason enough to demand more attention.