Windscreen Replacement issue

[Ipitomb]

Following an incident in a 30mph roadworks zone where a speeding truck flicked up a stone, the windscreen on my VW T6.1 California Beach was cracked. A replacement windscreen has now been fitted, but I feel it is substandard to the VW original fitted screen . The original factory specification was for heat-insulating glass (green) in the front. However, the newly installed glass has a noticeably different colour tone and has prominent wavy lines across the field of view. I am not sure what Autoglass will say - probably something along the lines that it is within the manufacturers specification etc. etc. but I wondered whether other members of the forum had a similar experience?

 

[Kemper-van]

Your picture is showing a heated windscreen. All those wavy lines are in fact a heating element, that helps defrosting and defogging your windscreen when you turn this on via button on the dash.
If you don’t have the button (see attached picture), a heated windscreen is useless.
If you do have this option, this windscreens seems OK to me (& similar as my original one).

 

[Ipitomb]

Thanks - I do have this switch and it's a great feature. My issue was that the wavy lines weren't visible in the previous VW spec windscreen. The old screen had a slight green tint to it, whereas this screen is clear - apart from the noticeable lines. Given that when driving, I am concentrating on the road rather than the windscreen it is not a big issue, but not a like-for-like replacement.

 

[dspuk]

IMHO they should replace with the same tint - I recall in the past on a car they tried to fob me off with a different tint because that was “the one they had ordered” and I refused. Took a few more days but was a better look with all windows being the same. I assume the more prominent line for heater element is because it’s aftermarket.

 

[Ipitomb]

Thanks - I have made a “warranty” claim with Autoglass on the basis that the wrong glass was fitted. VW’s climate glass apparently has a thin layer of silver which eliminates the need for a wire embedded within the glass.