SourOnCivic
Member
- Joined
- May 27, 2016
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 1
- Location
- Rockville, MD
- Vehicle(s)
- 2016 Honda Civic LX
- Thread starter
- #1
tl;dr: 2016 Honda Civic LX sedan windshield has unacceptable level of distortion
Hi, new guy here, also new to Honda. I posted about another issue here (tire pressure gauge turned on, sup wit dat), but the windshield issue is why I joined (after lurking a couple weeks).
Bought an LX last week, been noticing subtle warping, rippling/wavy distortions in the windshield glass when stopped, driving slowly or turning -- especially in parking garages (i.e. my daily drive). It's distracting enough to mess with my focus and thus gives me eye strain. It's hard to explain unless you see it yourself. The glass also has a TON of glare and reflects every line and surface on the dash, making the glass even less transparent.
The mirrors do funny things with glare too, and the effect of the interior rear view mirror on the sloped rear glass gives it a super out of focus, funhouse mirror effect, making it useless. While the mirror issue can be rectified with an aftermarket clip-on, the distorted windshield is unacceptable. I could live with it, but I'd not want to drive it anywhere.
I took it back to the dealer yesterday and none of the techs or sales guys could see what I was talking about. We sat in a few cars and I told them to look at a sign and shift your body side to side and look at the distortion. Or look for the waves when you're driving. I think if they saw what I saw in my parking garage they might change their minds and I even offered to drive a tech to my parking garage half a mile away, but they declined my offer and said that since they couldn't see the issue to begin with on their lot they couldn't put in a warranty order to Honda to fix the perceived defect. Six people at the dealer couldn't see what I was talking about, so I'm resigned not to keep pushing it. Were I really interested in pushing it, I'd go to Honda dealers all around the area until a tech noticed what I was talking about. Instead I will get my eyes checked and/or go with plan D (we'll get to that).
To my horror, I sat in a couple other LX on their lot just to see if it was only my car and the others had even WORSE distortion. Could it be my eyes? I've never had a Civic before and my prior car was a Mazda 6 which had an absolutely clear windshield -- as you'd assume all cars would.
I've read Honda's FAQ about "cross-car distortion" that appears on the edges of a windshield due to sitting too low in a car, but that's not what this is; it's all over my field of vision. It's so subtle that it's almost not worth complaining about if I had the car temporarily or as a rental. But not for a car that I planned on driving until the wheels fell off.
Also FWIW, I reported that the brakes make a light airy hiss when you step on them at low speeds but I'm going to chalk that up as a minor issue since none of the techs noticed it when they tested the car. I'd have to realistically give it a couple thousand miles to break in the brakes (pardon the pun)...not that I see myself giving it a couple hundred more miles in this lemon.
Anyhoo, since there is nothing I can do if OEM glass is distorted across a bad batch of cars and/or this is just my eyes (I assume this issue isn't across the board or this forum would be littered with complaints), my options are basically to (A) get my eyes checked (yup), (B) live with a crappy windshield (nope), (C) take it to a professional glass installer shop to pay for a new windshield out of pocket and risk getting non-OEM replacement glass and/or OEM replacement glass sourced by...Honda (meh), or (D) sell/trade my car to someone else who doesn't see the distortions (sure why not it's Memorial Day). I *think* the dealer's return policy means you trade the car in for the same model, so that's a non-starter. I could risk waiting for the Maryland lemon law to extricate me from this jam but I don't want to wait around for that. Hence plan D.
My question to you guys is: is your windshield fine? Wondering if this is just a bad batch or if they're all terrible? I don't want you guys to go looking for distortions on your windshield -- I didn't have to go looking for them; I saw them once and now can't unsee them -- but at the same time I want to make sure this isn't a model-wide defect in the redesign.
fin
Hi, new guy here, also new to Honda. I posted about another issue here (tire pressure gauge turned on, sup wit dat), but the windshield issue is why I joined (after lurking a couple weeks).
Bought an LX last week, been noticing subtle warping, rippling/wavy distortions in the windshield glass when stopped, driving slowly or turning -- especially in parking garages (i.e. my daily drive). It's distracting enough to mess with my focus and thus gives me eye strain. It's hard to explain unless you see it yourself. The glass also has a TON of glare and reflects every line and surface on the dash, making the glass even less transparent.
The mirrors do funny things with glare too, and the effect of the interior rear view mirror on the sloped rear glass gives it a super out of focus, funhouse mirror effect, making it useless. While the mirror issue can be rectified with an aftermarket clip-on, the distorted windshield is unacceptable. I could live with it, but I'd not want to drive it anywhere.
I took it back to the dealer yesterday and none of the techs or sales guys could see what I was talking about. We sat in a few cars and I told them to look at a sign and shift your body side to side and look at the distortion. Or look for the waves when you're driving. I think if they saw what I saw in my parking garage they might change their minds and I even offered to drive a tech to my parking garage half a mile away, but they declined my offer and said that since they couldn't see the issue to begin with on their lot they couldn't put in a warranty order to Honda to fix the perceived defect. Six people at the dealer couldn't see what I was talking about, so I'm resigned not to keep pushing it. Were I really interested in pushing it, I'd go to Honda dealers all around the area until a tech noticed what I was talking about. Instead I will get my eyes checked and/or go with plan D (we'll get to that).
To my horror, I sat in a couple other LX on their lot just to see if it was only my car and the others had even WORSE distortion. Could it be my eyes? I've never had a Civic before and my prior car was a Mazda 6 which had an absolutely clear windshield -- as you'd assume all cars would.
I've read Honda's FAQ about "cross-car distortion" that appears on the edges of a windshield due to sitting too low in a car, but that's not what this is; it's all over my field of vision. It's so subtle that it's almost not worth complaining about if I had the car temporarily or as a rental. But not for a car that I planned on driving until the wheels fell off.
Also FWIW, I reported that the brakes make a light airy hiss when you step on them at low speeds but I'm going to chalk that up as a minor issue since none of the techs noticed it when they tested the car. I'd have to realistically give it a couple thousand miles to break in the brakes (pardon the pun)...not that I see myself giving it a couple hundred more miles in this lemon.
Anyhoo, since there is nothing I can do if OEM glass is distorted across a bad batch of cars and/or this is just my eyes (I assume this issue isn't across the board or this forum would be littered with complaints), my options are basically to (A) get my eyes checked (yup), (B) live with a crappy windshield (nope), (C) take it to a professional glass installer shop to pay for a new windshield out of pocket and risk getting non-OEM replacement glass and/or OEM replacement glass sourced by...Honda (meh), or (D) sell/trade my car to someone else who doesn't see the distortions (sure why not it's Memorial Day). I *think* the dealer's return policy means you trade the car in for the same model, so that's a non-starter. I could risk waiting for the Maryland lemon law to extricate me from this jam but I don't want to wait around for that. Hence plan D.
My question to you guys is: is your windshield fine? Wondering if this is just a bad batch or if they're all terrible? I don't want you guys to go looking for distortions on your windshield -- I didn't have to go looking for them; I saw them once and now can't unsee them -- but at the same time I want to make sure this isn't a model-wide defect in the redesign.
fin
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