Windshield Pilkington or OEM Volkswagen

Do not replace your windshield with Factory Glass. Get aftermarket glass, preferably Pilkington Glass.

It varies/depends. There are some cheap replacement windshields out there, but in my case, I found one who uses Pilkington glass for my Camry (the OEM supplier), came in at less than half the dealer’s quote, and looks identical to the glass that was on before.

That sounds reasonable. I just had the windshield on my wife’s 2021 Santa Fe Calligraphy replaced (because it failed NH state inspection due to a rock chip in the driver’s line of sight ????). Thompson Auto Glass, the company who handled the replacement and calibration, said the glass itself was $685 and then $250 charge for the calibration. The windshield was made by Pilkington, which is a premium auto glass manufacturer (the OEM replacement windshield on my 2001 BMW M5 is a Pilkington brand).

We have a 22 OBW and are on our FOURTH windshield. The first ones we replaced with OEM. This last one we replaced with a Pilkington brand. Pilkington is still going strong and has lasted almost twice as long as the others combined.

Pilkington, the brand that makes Honda oem glass, was around $570 installed. It’s noticeably thicker than the oem R glass, which may be heavier and affect track time? But the quality is good. No distortion either.

Last glass we replaced with a Pilkington. It’s lasted twice as long (so far) as all the other windshields combined. It’s had a couple of similar ‘minor’ stone chips as what did in the OEMs. It’s still going strong.

Some Outback owners are already on their 3rd or 4th windshield in 2 years. So far the only solution is to demand a non OEM third party window replacement. Owners who can convince the insurance to use Pilkington glass for a replacement are having far less issues.

Yep. Was especially noticeable on my 15 GTI. Less so on later models but all have it to some degree.

I have it on the eGolf and the trade off of seeing the heating elements is not worth the benefit. If you ever drive in direct sunlight, you'll see these hundreds of wires reflecting making it very difficult to see.

Dealer informed me that my windshield was scratched at some point during the transit from Germany to Canada and offered to replace it as soon as they were able to get a new one. About two weeks after taking delivery of the car I brought it back to the dealer for replacement. I was worried and apprehensive they would screw something up, but went ahead because the scratch was quite big, noticeable and right in my field of view on the drivers side. Came back at the end of the day to pick up my car, and my worst fears were realized. Plastic around the mirror was all chewed up from installer trying to pry it apart with a screwdriver I assume. Both the driver and passenger pillar trims were all chewed up from when they were cutting the old windshield out. To top all that off, they put way too much of the sealant on the new window, so when they pressed it in it oozed onto the pillar trims on the inside of the car. Total butchers!!