Help side glass smashed in France!

[klang180]

Hello

 

We are from the UK and are over in France on holiday. Unfortunately someone thought we had left valuables in our car and so smashed our passenger side rear window and quarter glass in order to access the boot (through the rear seats). Having found nothing they left the car and left us with a bit of a headache.

 

We are staying at a friends house at the moment and this actually happened a couple of years ago too but was easily solved as we just drove back to the UK and replaced it ourselves. This time however we had planned to go to the alps for a two week camping trip after our stay here and need the car to be secure. We have a few days to spare for this and so hence why we are not rushing anything.

 

We have Admiral fully comp insurance with 'Windscreen cover' and I think this doesn't affect your NCB but unfortunately their whole operation seems to be online and only directs you towards UK Autoglass to make a booking. We've been to a local garage and they just don't seem to be very competent in ordering the part, insisting on the manufacture date even though we have given them all the possible details and it is clearly a MK2 Skoda Fabia. I would have thought it would be easy to order glass for such a common car but they seem to be incapable of doing so.

 

Anyway, the question is, do we just try and claim through Admiral (by calling them and making a point) or do we just do it privately through Car Glass here? We had hoped this local(ish) garage would be able to give us at least  quote for the job but they just seem hopeless so I am a bit of a loss.

 

Does anyone have experience of getting their window fixed whilst in France (Roquebrun near Bezier to be precise)? Does anyone know of anywhere in France I could buy the glass and fit it myself? Perhaps someone could tell me the exact part numbers of these windows so that I can provide this to the garage? 

 

Basically, what would you do in our situation? Any help gladly received as this is really getting a bit silly over here and doesn't seem to be a simple answer.

[sepulchrave]

Call your insurance company, they will arrange repair with a European partner.

 

That's what insurance is for.

 

If you have NCD protection then it's protected isn't it!

[rum4mo]

I've never considered that side and rear glass was covered by windscreen cover and I'm with Admiral

 

But, here are the part numbers

LHS rear door glass  5J6 845 205 J for clear glass,      K for normal tinted glass,  L for tinted but darker tint beyond B pillar

 

LHS rear fixed glass inc bits  5J6 845 209 AF for clear glass > 29/09/13  AJ for clear glass 30/09/13 onwards   AG for normal tinted > 29/09/13   AK for normal tinted 30/09/13 onwards

LHS rear fixed glass inc bits  AH for tinted by darker beyond B pillar > 29/09/13     AL  for tinted but darker beyond B pillar  30/09/19 onwards

 

Edit:- would an emergency temp fix with plexi glass not work and be easier at least for your insurer to arrange?

 

Another edit:- I've assumed that your car is not a combi.

 

Edited 30 August, 2021 by rum4mo

[Phil866]

When I had a rear door window smashed on my Corsa a few years ago the insurance arranged for autoglass to fit a temporary plexiglass substitute until a replacement could be sourced and fitted to suit my work timescales. (edit) Sorry, should have said that the window was smashed in Perpignan (France) and the temp repair was fitted there. The replacement was fitted in the UK once we had returned home 10 days later.

 

Edited 30 August, 2021 by Phil866

[sepulchrave]

3 hours ago, rum4mo said:

I've never considered that side and rear glass was covered by windscreen cover and I'm with Admiral

 

Of course it is.

 

There is a LOT of overthinking going on here, this is a really simple problem being made complicated and the clock is ticking.

[klang180]

3 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

Call your insurance company, they will arrange repair with a European partner.

 

That's what insurance is for.

 

If you have NCD protection then it's protected isn't it!

 

I did already try but they put me straight through to UK autoglass. I will phone the more general number tomorrow once we're not in BH anymore.

[klang180]

6 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

 

Of course it is.

 

There is a LOT of overthinking going on here, this is a really simple problem being made complicated and the clock is ticking.

 

Well that isn't exactly fair as not everyone buys NCD cover, I haven't got it for instance and so I wanted to know what the non insurance options were in case it was easier to just keep them out of it, my preference in most cases.

[klang180]

3 hours ago, rum4mo said:

I've never considered that side and rear glass was covered by windscreen cover and I'm with Admiral

 

But, here are the part numbers

LHS rear door glass  5J6 845 205 J for clear glass,      K for normal tinted glass,  L for tinted but darker tint beyond B pillar

 

LHS rear fixed glass inc bits  5J6 845 209 AF for clear glass > 29/09/13  AJ for clear glass 30/09/13 onwards   AG for normal tinted > 29/09/13   AK for normal tinted 30/09/13 onwards

LHS rear fixed glass inc bits  AH for tinted by darker beyond B pillar > 29/09/13     AL  for tinted but darker beyond B pillar  30/09/19 onwards

 

Edit:- would an emergency temp fix with plexi glass not work and be easier at least for your insurer to arrange?

 

Another edit:- I've assumed that your car is not a combi.

 

 

Thanks a lot for this, might be easy for the local garage to get their heads around a quote if I give them the part numbers directly. It also doesn;t hurt to know all these numbers for if/when it happens again and I want to fix it myself.

 

The emergency temp fix is good if it weren't for the fact we want to go camping for a couple of weeks and I am not sure all our stuff will be secure (when out walking) with just plexiglass. It is basically what we bodged together last time mind!

[Madvlad65]

Unfortunately if someone wants to get into the car they will get in wether it's glass or plexiglass the world is full of $#@&*^

[sepulchrave]

7 minutes ago, klang180 said:

 

Well that isn't exactly fair as not everyone buys NCD cover, I haven't got it for instance and so I wanted to know what the non insurance options were in case it was easier to just keep them out of it, my preference in most cases.

 

How much NCD do you have?

 

Even without NCD protection you'll only lose a year and I think you'll have kittens when you see how much the genuine parts are.

[klang180]

1 hour ago, Phil866 said:

When I had a rear door window smashed on my Corsa a few years ago the insurance arranged for autoglass to fit a temporary plexiglass substitute until a replacement could be sourced and fitted to suit my work timescales. (edit) Sorry, should have said that the window was smashed in Perpignan (France) and the temp repair was fitted there. The replacement was fitted in the UK once we had returned home 10 days later.

 

 

Ah this is interesting but a little worrying as we wanted a secure replacement for our camping trip. We did a temp fix last time which was fine when we were heading back and could do it ourselves but in this case it won't help us do our trip. Good to get your perspective though.

[klang180]

1 minute ago, sepulchrave said:

 

How much NCD do you have?

 

Even without NCD protection you'll only lose a year and I think you'll have kittens when you see how much the genuine parts are.

 

Actually I think the NCD might not be affected and to be honest it might be a price worth paying if they can fix it!

[sepulchrave]

1 minute ago, klang180 said:

 

Actually I think the NCD might not be affected and to be honest it might be a price worth paying if they can fix it!

 

Bingo.

[Phil866]

2 hours ago, klang180 said:

 

Ah this is interesting but a little worrying as we wanted a secure replacement for our camping trip. We did a temp fix last time which was fine when we were heading back and could do it ourselves but in this case it won't help us do our trip. Good to get your perspective though.

It was our choice to have the replacement glass fitted in the uk at the time. iirc there was the option to have it replaced in France once they had sourced the correct glass. Too many vineyards and too little time. 🙂 

[klang180]

On 30/08/2021 at 21:16, Phil866 said:

It was our choice to have the replacement glass fitted in the uk at the time. iirc there was the option to have it replaced in France once they had sourced the correct glass. Too many vineyards and too little time. 🙂 

Ah I see, that makes sense.

 

To update on the situation it seems that Sepul was right. We phoned the number for admiral and got through to Autoglass UK who then arranged a cal back from Car Glass in France. In the end we got a replacement time set up for Thursday at 2pm for the princely sum of £115 excess. Hopefully it'll be ok but I will report back the overall results for posterity.

[Pagan-Image]

Glass replacement does not affect you NCD whether you have protection or not. It doesn't even go on the history of making a claim.

[cheezemonkhai]

5 hours ago, Pagan-Image said:

Glass replacement does not affect you NCD whether you have protection or not. It doesn't even go on the history of making a claim.

 

Maybe for a windscreen, but that doesn't automatically cover all glass, and I know of someone where it wasn't applicable to "body glass" such as the panoramic glass roofs.
As a general rule I'd check on the policy/with the insurer before making a claim if you're unsure.

Edited 1 September, 2021 by cheezemonkhai

[Chris]

On 01/09/2021 at 11:21, Pagan-Image said:

Glass replacement does not affect you NCD whether you have protection or not. It doesn't even go on the history of making a claim.

Windscreen claims are logged by some insurers and posted to the MID. Mine was a few years back.