Rebel11983

Excuse my ignorance on this subject, but I was just curious to see if anyone else had a similar problem or more knowledge on the subject. I did a search on the topic, couldn't find anything pertaining to my questions. There's a small story involved, I'll keep it brief.

My 2010 GT is only about 4 months old, at least to me, and it only had 3 miles on it when I bought it. A couple of weeks ago I was taking a Saturday afternoon drive when I heard a bunch of small pings on my hood and roof, like someone was throwing a bucket of sand on my car. After freaking out momentarily, I noticed a dump truck about 5 cars ahead of me that was hauling sand with no tarp over the top. It was pretty windy out, so I figured that was the source of the sand, and turned off the road the next opportunity that I got. I was more concerned that it was getting the car dirty, but after cleaning the window and inspecting it, I noticed small chips covering the entire windshield! None of them are deep enough to repair without drilling out the chips and causing further damage, but now my windshield looks like it came off a 20 year old car! There are no scratches on the paint, and it didn't sound like I was being hit hard enough to cause any damage.

So here are my questions. Is it possible that I have a "bad" windshield that is too soft? I'm not sure this is possible, but my last Mustang, which was an '04, was 7 years old when I traded it in and the windshield looked a thousand times better! Are newer windshields just 'softer'?
Also, I talked to a repair guy who said he wouldn't recommend changing it just for appearance, because "Once you break the factory seal, the windshield will never be the same." What does this mean? And in your opinion, is replacing the windshield just for appearance foolish? Keep in mind that this is my daily driver, and its not like I will be taking it to car shows or anything. I just can't stand looking at the dozens of little white dots!
Last Question: Does window tint help hide the white chips? At least from the inside looking out, because I know tint put on the inside will obviously not hide chips on the outside.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Kotobuki

My 06 windshield is the same. It's covered in little tiny almost imperceptible chips. But, this is my only car, driven rain or shine, no matter what the roads are like or where they take me though. If you drive a car, it's bound to get dinged up, and if you replace the windshield it's probably just going to happen again. I will say, that when I clean mine up real good and Rain-X it, that seems to make them slightly less apparent.

Art161

The windshield on my Mustang is more prone to getting those small chips than any other car I have owned.

Derf00

Do you have glass coverage on your car? If so, get the windshield replaced at no cost to you. Just be aware that many insurance companies count this as a claim against your policy so depending on that, they may or may not raise your rates. (some allow 2 claims in 3-5 years before raising your rates, others do it per incident).

2cokeman

These windshields are no different than any other car, they must be manufactured to a minimum standard, best just claim through your ins. covered on all policies with collision.

StickShifty

i have 23,000 miles of snow, rain, wind, sun.... windshield is perfect. i dont drive much on the highway tho.

DnDMan

I've had my 2010 going on 11 months. I had three rock chips within the first month. It's stupid.