Well, the Cooper was officially christened on Saturday... and not in a good way... about a half mile from exiting I-10 on its first road trip (to Tucson) and with less than 300 miles on the odometer, we got hit with a kicked-up rock/pebble which ding-ed the windshield.
Here is the photographic evidence.
Not too bad... it didn't "spider"... so the plan right now is to try and repair it ... though the only concern is that it is in my "line of vision"... so it may not totally work since chip/crack repair is never 100% perfect.
Rocks and other debris on the roads of Arizona are pretty common, it seems as if everyone has replaced a windshield at least once... so this was an "only a matter of time" scenario... that said, I'd be lying if I ever thought my "matter of time" would be 7.5 days into my ownership!
But I am putting everything into perspective. Driving home from dinner on Friday night, I turned the corner down our street and heard this crash and crunch sound. I thought I had run over something and was dragging it... but when I looked into my rear-view mirror... I saw a car (on the street I had just turned from) with its front-end totally crunched up. There is a bar right there... so I am guessing some St Patrick's over-celebrating was likely to blame... and also guessing I was 20 seconds (or less) from what looked to be a pretty nasty accident.
So I'll take my windshield ding and consider myself lucky... and maybe now that that "first" is out of way it'll be smooth sailing... or motorin'!
Fragile windshields are a "known issue" on Minis, and I had forgotten just how common rock chips are in the Arizona desert. I've had one windshield crack on my two Minis, and the dealer did replace the windshield, but it took some back-and-forth. Good luck.
Posted by: Bill | Monday, March 20, 2006 at 08:24 AM
So sorry to hear your Cooper got a boo boo.
BTW, did you decide on a personalized plate?
Posted by: Scott C | Monday, March 20, 2006 at 01:35 PM
Uh oh! I hope it gets replaced or fixed soon.
Posted by: Ria | Monday, March 20, 2006 at 04:25 PM
yeah, the same exact thing happened to mine...and mine looks just like yours!! It pissed me off.
Posted by: ro | Monday, April 03, 2006 at 09:15 PM
I just got a rock chip filled on my MINI last week. Grrr... I'm irritated about it... So... my question is: Have you gotten any more rock chips? Or have you replaced your windshield yet?
Posted by: Randy | Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 08:30 AM