I’m posting this on here because maybe someone knows what else I can do/ I want to let as many people possible know what a horrible company Honda is. I was driving down the street with no other cars, nothing that I could hit, no mail boxes, no trees, at like 20 mph and my sideview mirror exploded. It was a huge bang, I saw red, I saw it fly into the window and the ricochet into the street. The body of my sideview mirror was completely in tact. In perfect condition. My car, other than the window where the mirror crashed into, is in perfect condition. So I took it to the nearby Honda dealer, the service manager before even looking at my car was like you crashed into something. I ask her can you please look at the car I didn’t crash into anything. They did and they kept insisting that I hit something I felt like I was being gaslighted. I asked them if something hit it where is the damage? There were like well something must of hit it something must of hit and we don’t cover external damage. I called corporate and they are siding with the dealer they said the dealer sent pictures of my crashed car (mind you I sent them, corporate, pictures of my car in perfect condition the DAY maybe, 10 minutes max after showing it to the service manager). They told me to take it to another dealer for another opinion. So I did, spent half a day waiting and the 2nd dealer took pictures and agreed with me that my car was fine that nothing hit it and sent it to corporate for approval. Corporate again says yeah, but that first dealer sent us pictures that show that you hit the car (which is like what the heck why did you make me waste a day if you’re just going ignore what the 2nd dealer says, and where the hell did these picture even come from) . So I ask them please send me these pictures because that cannot be my car, I have never hit my car. They refuse to forward the email with the alleged pictures. They tell me you want to see the picture? call the dealer you went to first. So I did and they were like we deleted them so there’s nothing we can do about it. My car is brand new and fixing the side view mirror and the window it messed up when it exploded costs upward of 1k. It ridiculous.
If you have the information from the second dealer in writing, you could try filing a claim in small claims court. I don’t know if it would help, but maybe.
I have the email where they sent pictures to corporate with my car in perfect condition…Would a small claims court be more expensive? I called my insurance and Im fixing it through them since my deductible is 500. Im just shocked at how a car company like Honda would treat its costumers. I seriously will be telling anyone I know do not purchase a Honda. This is so dishonest on their end.
You would have to call your local Clerk of the Courts and ask them about filing fees and who pays the court costs.
As much as I despise all things social media related, this is an opportunity for you to shame them on their social media pages. But I would recommend you re-write what you posted here and make sure everything’s spelled correctly and your story is more coherent. Also, don’t come out of the gates with “Honda is a horrible company,” because it’s not and that just makes you sound like a dope.
Some corporate drone in Honda screwed up. That doesn’t mean the whole company sucks. If you want results in this, you need to stick to the facts and not embellish.
It’s possible something actually did hit the mirror and you didn’t see it. Years ago I used to ride a motor-cross bike(dirt track motorcycle) During one ride at about 50 mph my plastic helmet exploded for no apparent reason, split in half, fell off my head and onto the road. I had no idea what happened, but the rider behind me said he saw a low flying pheasant (large game bird) hit it.
What exactly are you postulating was the cause of this “event”? An explosion? As in a pyrotechnic chemical reaction with fire and smoke? Mirrors do not just “explode” and as surely as they do not just explode, they also do not jump off the door mount and impact the side of the vehicle in this instance the window glass of the door.
OK, so lets say something like this actually happened… how is it the task of Honda to solve this strange event for you? It is not the dealerships burden nor the car mfg to figure this out either. The only way the onus is upon either of these two is if your theory is that Honda had installed a mirror that spontaneously explodes at a random time onto your vehicle…if that is your theory then by all means go right after Honda, as you should.
However if you do not believe that Honda installed a spontaneously exploding mirror on your vehicle, then the only one who needs to get to the bottom of this issue, is you. I would not go to a dealership or a car mfg to ask them what happened, because that makes no sense at all…it only does if you genuinely feel they had some sort of hand in this, and if you feel this way, what is your theory and how does it involve them?
Until you know what happened, you have nowhere to turn and no one to blame here. Physics says the mirror struck something and honestly that is the most rational explanation. Only a chemical test would prove or disprove if there were an actual explosion here, but that sounds far fetched and I am trying to be kind with my words here. Be careful with this one on Social Media as well it would be an excellent platform to air out your “crazy” online…I personally vote against that idea.
Does your vehicle have auto dimming mirrors?
Electrochromic (auto dimming) mirrors have been known to shatter or rupture without cause but it does not occur frequently enough for an average person to be familiar with the problem. Most Dealer staff members will naturally be suspicious of impact damage.
If you inform the people at the Honda support that you are aware of electrochromic mirror glass failure it may help your case.
Not necessarily true. Tempered glass is under strain in its default state. It’s trying to shatter apart, but can’t, unless there’s a flaw in the glass. A tiny chip, or a nick in the edge of the glass can cause it to shatter in the right conditions. Just the vibration the glass experiences from driving down the road is enough to do it if the glass has a flaw - and those flaws aren’t necessarily going to be visible.
Interesting read here,.
I have no argument regarding the propensity of tempered glass to want to shatter @shadowfax I am in agreement with you on that. But tempered or no, it does not explain why the side mirror physically departed its mount and then, in its entirety, it struck the window glass in the door (passenger side window, I had assumed).
That part involved some energy via physics / bodies in motion and it just so happens that a vehicle traveling forward would tend to send any piece of itself backward if it were to strike any stationary object seen or unseen by the driver. As I am sure you will agree.
I saw that the body of the mirror (which I took to mean the housing for the mirror) was intact, but I did not see where OP indicated that the mirror itself was intact until it hit the window. I would guess the mirror shattered in its housing, and energy drove some or most of the fragments into the passenger window.
@shadowfax you know the more I re-read the OP’s post the more questions I have in my head… lol Somehow I read it as if they were saying the side mirror glass exploded…and then or at the same time it flew off its mount on the door and into the window… Ugh… I dunno…Now that you pointed it out to me some more I think I am incorrect in my play by play of things here, haha, not the first nor the last time that will happen! Anyway…I will shut up and just watch the thread continue, maybe enlightenment is on the way soon. Peace!
This kind of failure has been occurring for some time. I recall discussing it previously here. Check out this older thread on this site- Exploding passenger side mirror
Interestingly enough, I had a 2007 Honda Accord and the exact same thing happened to the driver side mirror. I was driving along and the glass spontaneously shattered. No damage to the rest of the mirror. I fixed it myself and never had a problem after that. It has been known to happen. Glass is a peculiar substance. I once had a drinking glass explode in my hand as I was setting the dinner table. If you want to see some really wacky glass properties Google “Prince Rupert’s Drop”.
The passenger door window “exploded” on my minivan a few years ago. I thought maybe someone had shot at it, but there was no evidence of that - just thousands of small dull pieces of glass inside the car, and who knows how many on the highway. A county police officer came and couldn’t discern anything else, and said he’s heard of seemingly spontaneous glass breakage on cars.
Spontaneous glass shattering is indeed … spontaneous.
I’ve read about shattering moonroof glass, not a particular make, but “happens”.
I had a friend of mine telling about his glass outdoor table to shatter for no apparent reason, it was not hit and had no scratches, it just “happened”.
I might assume the “younger” the glass, the more chances it would have to shatter from the internal stress.
The common thing here is that it is a tampered glass what is reported to be shattering, as this type of glass is deliberately made with an internally-induced stress to make them shatter into relatively safe small pieces in opposite to big and dangerous shards.
I have seen many broken automobile mirrors, non of them were tempered glass.