Windshield glass is trash

[C.R. Rivian]

I just joined the club - got a small chip yesterday. Is it worth patching with one of those repair kits? I've never dealt with this before.

Patch if you can...

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[C.R. Rivian]

We need better quality domestic sourcing. Depending on potentially unfriendly countries for sourcing parts is not a good long-term strategy.

Boy, howdy, this is right on. Pretty obvious when it comes to chips; but also steel, glass, the other stuff that allowed us to be 'the arsenal of democracy' in the past...

 

[aasailor]

I've previously read several comments re the windshield glass and when my 1st windshield got a 10" crack from small pebble in Month 2 of ownership, I chalked it up to bad luck. But now in month 6 of ownership and windshield #2 cracked from a smaller than small, barely bigger than a grain of sand @ 60mph, the glass is crap!

Having had many vehicles hit by rocks, stones, pebbles, etc and not getting cracks for decades and now taking two tiny hits that result in large cracks is not bad luck but bad glass.

And this is an adventure vehicle? Not when any little particle will result in failure of your windshield! @Rivian, you gotta do better!

I got two chips in the first month. I put super glue on them and so far so good.

 

[Beachbum]

I had a small chip near the base of the windshield that grew before I had it patched. The leg was 4" and was initially deemed unrepairable. However, a mobile repair guy said he would attempt to fix it but without a warranty. So far the best $100 I have spent with no evidence of growing. It's out of sight (lower edge of glass).

Found out wholesale price of glass is $612. Also, seems Rivian has not made this an easy plug-and-play process due to the electrical connections requiring calibration, sealing (interior parts need to be removed), and 24-hr leak testing.

The exterior film looks promising.

 

[tbolts10]

I am on my third windshield on my R1T In 10 months. Since I live almost 2 hours away from the nearest SC I had my tint/PPF vendor install glass protection film on the exterior of the windshield. After 1 month it has absorbed 2 rocks with only a little nick in the film. Like others have mentioned, I now avoid large trucks on the highway like the plague. Coincidentally, I have driven the same roads with my wife’s Tesla Model Y with no such bad luck.

Do you know what brand film was used?

 

[Riviot]

FYI if you live in WA you have the option for $0 glass deductible!

Tell me more!

Echoing others, I miss my UV/tint protection since getting a new windshield. Gonna get a quote for just this in a minute. Might be worth a layer on the outside if it helps.

 

[Riviot]

Tell me more!

Echoing others, I miss my UV/tint protection since getting a new windshield. Gonna get a quote for just this in a minute. Might be worth a layer on the outside if it helps.

I got $350 for regular, $425 for ceramic. The ceramic was totally worth it, but hard to eat once a year.

They also no longer do Stek DYNOflex on the outside. They never saw it, but reports of hazing from the company.

 

[FL_EV]

Do you know what brand film was used?

ClearPlex. $600 for a 1 piece install.

 

[MoreTrout]

Not going to bother to read through another 4 pages of an anecdotal experience. I have had multiple windshields crack in prior vehicles. My R1T's windshield has already taken several hard, one of them very hard, hits from rocks and not a single crack. Unless you are a Rivian engineer with actual data over thousands of vehicles for actual rates of cracks per number of vehicles and insurance data to compare to other manufacturers, both of these anecdotes are meaningless. Sorry for the OPs bad luck, but I see zero evidence that Rivian's glass is any better or any worse than any other manufacturer. Based on where I live and where I drive, I'm completely expecting to get a crack eventually.

 

[CascadianApe]

Tell me more!

Echoing others, I miss my UV/tint protection since getting a new windshield. Gonna get a quote for just this in a minute. Might be worth a layer on the outside if it helps.

I had the option when picking insurance drop downs with Progressive. I've also had this added to policies from past insurance providers. You'll have to ask your insurance provider on what options you have. Just added the same policy to my Tacoma.

 

[Corewhit]

2 weeks with my new R1S and already got a chip with a 10" crack. Not sure when it happened, only been on the freeway twice...for about 10 minutes. Glass is complete crap, I have a 2012 F150 that has been on a dozen 20 hour road trips for hunting and only had one replacement in the 10 years I've owned it. It's had a chip in it for the last 2 years with no crack.
Question: Can only the Rivian SC can replace the glass?

 

[FD234]

I called to find out, it costs $600 with installation and they warranty it for 2 years.

I got this installed today. Let's see how this works...

The sentiment towards Nationwide (Rivian Insurance) on these forums has been fairly positive, so I decided to give it a go given all the good press and OEM replacement parts. To make any insurance company work, I have to bundle my house and umbrella policy with the same insurer. The market for homeowner's insurance in California is getting pretty terrible, so there are really only a few insurers left where you can get auto-home-umbrella in the same place and it is generally the bigger names.

And almost from day one I've regretted it, and let me tell you why. NOTE: Rivian Insurance agency was lovely and very good to work with. This is more a review on Nationwide. Also, almost all the problems came from the homeowner's policy and not the auto policy.

The signup process with Rivian Insurance was fairly straightforward and easy. They have a dedicated call number with people who are honestly super friendly and helpful. I never had a long wait when I called.

That's honestly where the niceties ended in my book.

1. About a month after my coverage began, I received a letter from Nationwide saying my homeowner's insurance went up because I hadn't signed a certification of occupancy. Note that Nationwide never sent me this or ever asked for it. The first letter I get from them says, "Your occupancy discount has been canceled". This was fixed in ten minutes with a docusign, but they had already contacted my mortgage provider to have the difference in insurance cost paid out of escrow.
2. About 2 weeks after that I get the same thing but for my centralized monitoring alarm discount. Again, they never asked for the certificate. I get the letter saying again the discount was canceled and again they contacted my mortgage provider for the difference even though I had emailed it to them within an hour of receiving the letter.
3. About six weeks into the coverage they sent out a home inspector for a safety inspection of the house
4. About six weeks after the inspection I get a letter saying my homeowner's policy was canceled (again no one called before this). In order to reinstate the policy I would have to:
   1. Fix my 70 year old brick pathway to the house. I have a few bricks that are cracked that they want to be fixed. I live in a historic district in Socal and one of the best parts of the house is the masonry. If you saw the bricks you would think this is total overkill.
   2. Repour my driveway. I have a crack in my driveway and one side of the crack is about 1/4" higher than the rest. They wanted me to repour my driveway. If you saw my driveway you would think this is total overkill.
   3. They claimed I had trees touching my house. I have one tree in my front yard that I always have about a 6 foot clearance between the lowest branches and the roof of the house. I'm pretty retentive about this because the ideas of rats getting in my attic scares me. This was a flat out lie.

After all the terrible issues with the homeowner's side I'm not going to even try to remedy the above. Going back to state farm with a wonderful agent who is helpful and ALWAYs will notify me if he needs anything, and has never given me issues with any of the above. At first I had geico for auto insurance and didn't want to insure the rivian with Geico after stories on this forum, but I do have more faith in state farm and ultimately cannot deal with the Nationwide shenanigans. To go back to state farm for the whole enchilada was $200 more a year, and will end up being $200 less in 3 years when loyalty discounts kick in for the auto insurance. Given time it will be about the same cost

PSA: Nationwide sucked for my s

 

[FD234]

I got Exosheild installed. Let's see

 

[Riviot]

Not going to bother to read through another 4 pages of an anecdotal experience. I have had multiple windshields crack in prior vehicles. My R1T's windshield has already taken several hard, one of them very hard, hits from rocks and not a single crack. Unless you are a Rivian engineer with actual data over thousands of vehicles for actual rates of cracks per number of vehicles and insurance data to compare to other manufacturers, both of these anecdotes are meaningless. Sorry for the OPs bad luck, but I see zero evidence that Rivian's glass is any better or any worse than any other manufacturer. Based on where I live and where I drive, I'm completely expecting to get a crack eventually.

I usually brush off anecdotes, especially on here, but this one is seriously bothersome. Just picked up my second crack in a year, 3 months after replacement, granted that's 20k total miles.

What bothers me is how these happened. Both came from small cars in lanes next to me, not a big truck in front and be riding their ass. They both hit the right side, low.

I've driven that road plenty of times in previous vehicles, taken rocks, never a crack. There's absolutely something about these windshields that makes them prone to chips and cracks.

 

[zefram47]

Literally just took delivery 4 days ago and while doing ceramic on all the glass tonight I noticed some pitting already in the windshield. Kinda ridiculous. Never got close enough to anyone to hear stuff hitting the glass either.

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