[Doug D]

Ohhh man, I just found a chip in my windshield this morning as I was cleaning it and putting gas in at the local Murphy station. Now, I'm not the only one that drives the car and can't remember anything happening in the past few days, but a couple of weeks ago when the wife and I were traveling to a doctors appointment for her, a gravel truck was traveling north and were were heading south. As it went by, I heard a tap on the glass like a rock hitting it, but never spotted a nick at all. I just wonder if that was the start of it? My son nor wife have ever mentioned anything hitting the windshield, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't have happened. Got an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:30 with Jack Morris Glass to see if they can repair it or if I'm going to need a new windshield. I'm not happy about it, but he said forty bucks if he can fix it. Lots cheaper than a new one, I'm sure. I didn't even ask about that! I'm bummed, but on my trip back and forth to Nashville today, I got 31.8 mpg. And that was traveling between 70 and 75 on I-40. Got 8,600 miles on it now and the oil change reminder still hasn't shown up. I make go ahead and take it to the dealership Friday and let them change it and check the brakes. Sounds like the right front one is squealing from time to time and I don't like it one bit. Got the warranty, might as well take advantage of it, right? I'm also going to have them rotate and balance the tires.

So long as the chip/crack is smaller than the length of a dollar bill it is repairable. I would have it repaired as soon as possible. I neglected a chip one time and first time I turned on the defroster, there was a crack that made it unrepairable. Eventually I had to replace the windshield.

In VA, glass coverage falls under comprehensive and I haven't found an insurance company that has a separate windshield rider. Typically, they only pay the cost above the deductible if you have to replace the windshield. Most insurance companies will waive the deductible for a "repair".

Chuzz and Valiant, I'd watch Liberty Mutual like a hawk. Upon renewal time, they wanted to increase our premiums by 25% and we've only had one small claim ($400) and one minor speeding ticket the last 5 years. Said we qualified for all the discounts, but would not admit there was a general rate increase across the board. They admitted I had a very good driving record.

If you have to replace the windshield, I found Safelite to be among the highest in cost. Check around with your local glass shops. Safelite gave me an estimate of nearly $250 to replace the windshield on my Ram. Found another shop that did it for well under $200 - I think I paid about $180 or so.

 

[Doug D]

So, Doug, since Liberty Mutual tried to jack your rates up, who do you insure with now?

Esurance (closely related to Allstate). They had the best rates for my needs. Geico was a close second. LM wanted $2940/year for the new policy. The previous policy was $2340 for the same coverage. This was for 3 driver (myself, wife and 19 yr old son) and 3 vehicles with two full coverage. I still ended up paying more, but not as much. About $2600/year. - ~$1300/6 months.

Despite their advertising claims, Progressive, State Farm, Allstate and many others were nearly as much as LM - more in some cases. I'll be checking rates again when it's time for renewal in November.

Don't be surprised if your rates from LM go up significantly when it's time for renewal. The funny thing is our rates had gone down the previous two years. Then this.

We still have our homeowners with LM, but I'm going to look into changing. I am thoroughly disappointed with them.

 

[Doug D]

At one point we had switched to Allstate (both auto and home), but then Allstate dropped us when the found a tree "touching the house". Never even gave us a chance to cut it down (which we eventually did) so we stayed with LM (policy had not lapsed yet). I was so PO'd I cancelled the auto policy and went to LM. Yes, we got a "discount" for having both policies with them (LM), but even so, the last renewal was still high.

LM also jacked my daughter's rates (auto only - seperate policy from us - she live on her own). She went from $80/month to $110/month. So it wasn't just "us".