Nothing fancy. Various home, car and other DIY projects that help me pass idle time.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Project Eclipse Windshield Mishap

Summer officially starts on June 21, 2010. I decided it was perfect time to use the eclipse as my daily driver as opposed to the explorer. I do not need four-wheel drive for casual everyday driving (unless I opt to play offroad). The best part is that I can cruise with the sunroof cranked open, enjoy the sun and at the same time save on gas.

Earlier this month, I had the fluids changed on the car. Engine oil, manual transmission, flushed the cooling system, the brakes, clutch fluid and power steering fluid. I also made sure that the heating and cooling systems were topped up and ready for summmer.

Last Friday June 11, I decided to take it out of the garage, clean the insides and eventually polish the outside for summer. At around 5pm I went out to get some supplies, had dinner outside and came back around 8pm and this is what I saw

HPIM1621

HPIM1622

HPIM1627

Nobody claims to have seen anything. It's parked at the very end of my driveway about 150 feet from the nearest street. It's practically at the backyard !

Here's the sad part, I didn't have storage insurance on it since I figured I wouldn't need it anyway since the car was inside the garage. I haven't taken any roadside insurance for it since I was intending to do that on the first week of July. Bottomline, I had no coverage and everything was going to come straight out of my pocket.....sigh :-(

I made a couple of calls to local glass repair shops. If I had insurance on it, I would still need to pay a deductible of $200-300, add to that the hassle of having the car towed (since it's not drivable with that kind of driver-side damage) and temporary insurance for at least a day. However, since I would be paying for everything, I received quotes between $480-$530 plus taxes ($540-.... looks like this is going to be another DIY project.