My Stilo did me proud last Friday morning.

Some poxy bar'steward decided that they wanted to be inside my Stilo at 6.30am and to enter un-invited they threw a brick at the drivers window. There is a brick sized bunch of scratches on the window, scratches which are permanent it would seem, BUT THE M.F.'s DID NOT GET IN.

The also tried prying the drivers window down, again, she resisted their advances............ the CAT1 alarm going off probably played a part in their failure to enter uninvited, but still, she kept them from entering her.

The door window seals seem to have gone back into shape, and the only scar is the scratches. I dunno how happy I'll be with the window strengh if I drive into a river, but that's not something I'm hoping will happen, ever.

Smashing out will be different to smashing in, but why would you want to smash the window when you can simply lower it? and what do you carry to smash it with anyway??

Best avoid driving into river in the future.

Stilo_ste said:

Smashing out will be different to smashing in, but why would you want to smash the window when you can simply lower it? and what do you carry to smash it with anyway??

Best avoid driving into river in the future.

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but if your in a river, wont the electric windows stop working?

serin said:

but if your in a river, wont the electric windows stop working?

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Exactly.

The main thing to do just before driving into a river is to crack the door open, since you'll find it impossible to open against the water pressure until the car has completely filled with water. The technique (as demonstrated on Top Gear) is to either get out quick, or wait until the car is almost completely filled, then take a deep breath and open door.

This all came to mind today when I saw in the news that two people in a car drowned when they drove into a river yesterday, in a fairly remote part of NZ. http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-6712344,00.html

In other non-water situations, for older cars the best way was to try and push the windscreen out with your feet (mounted in rubber, it was quite easy) but in the Stilo (and similar) you need a life hammer, basically a small plastic hammer with a sharp conical point, clips into the glovebox. That can get you out of anything and cuts seatbelts too... it is best to break the side window, since the windscreen is laminated.

Incidentally another tool favoured by low-lifes is a spring-loaded centrepunch, the type intended for making indents in plastic or steel prior to drilling.

Jay - good news that your Stilo wasn't 'penetrated', hope you'll be able to get around to changing the window some time!

-Alex

The windows would work for a short time, even submerged.

As stated previously, best to avoid rivers of that depth. In reality there are probably greater risks around. Not many people die in cars in rivers, yes a few, but not many. The chances of it happening are very low. Especially in UK with all this 'drought' - there aren't any rivers here anymore, as they have all dried up. Is this why we have hose pipe bans for months on end???

Some theiving skunk-***** tried to get into mine by pushing down the drivers window (that was fully closed) on this thread

Its never been right since (as in slower and noisier than the other) but as long as it goes up and down- it works for me.

Out of curiousity why will it be easier smashing the windows out than in? Side glass isn't laminated, just toughened! I'd have though whilst submerged it would actually be more difficult to smash out the way with the pressure of the water counteracting the force of you bashing the glass from the inside! lol I think your car "intruder" was just limp wristed... couldnae fling a brick if his life depended on it!

On a plus note, least its not just the windscreen that scratches easily lol

No rivers in UK? I think you are wrong my friend, maybe in England where you don't have suitable resevoir reserves for your burgeoning population of Chav's! ;-) Plenty of water in Scotland, lucky if it ever stops raining haha! Our Chavs are like drookit rats!

The shape of the window glass (ie concave on the inside) would mean that breaking out would be easier than breaking in. I am not considering the effect of being submerged in water (or any other liquid, including custard)

In England, we have no rivers left now at all. All of them have dried up and we pipe water in from Scotland to survive. Not a drop of water landed anywhere in England over the last 5 nanoseconds, so the pipe ban continues.