General Stilo: Exploding Window!

[x19]

On Tuesday 6th May the front passenger window on my 4 year old Stilo exploded. The car was stationary, the engine not running. Simply pushed the button to lower the front passenger electric window and when half way down, the window simply exploded and shattered glass flew through the inside of the car. Three young children 8 years and below were seated in the car and the child in the front passenger seat was cut by the flying glass. It was only by luck that fragments of glass did not enter her eyes.

Called FIAT customer services and they gave me an reference number saying that they would get back to me. Nobody returned the call. I had to chase every day and finally after I insisted that someone talk to me about this, on Friday 9th May FIAT said take the car to Thames Fiat in Slough for inspection. Thames Fiat conducted the inspection on Monday 12th May and reported that they could not find anything wrong to have caused the window exploding. All they said was that the repair would have to include a new motor and the total cost would be £369.00. I informed them that I was not happy with their assessment because windows do not simply explode. There had to be a reason why such an incident occurred. I informed Thames Fiat that I would collect the car and take the matter further. When I mentioned this, Thames Fiat said that they would charge me £69.00 for carrying out the inspection. I argued my case, saying that I had purchased two cars from them and if this is the way that they treated their customers, I would not be giving them ny custom again. The car was collected on Tuesday 13th May, Thames did not chage for the inspection and wonder of all wonders, the electric window motor worked and did not need replacing! My concern is that a child could have seriously been injured as a result of this incident and concerned that this could possibly happen again. Has anyone experienced such a problem? My vehicle has only just covered 20,000 miles and has been well maintained. It is a thumbs down for Fiat as they did not seemed at all concerned about the seriousness of such an incident. Alerting them to a potential issue like this should give them cause for concern and react quicker without the consumer / customer having to chase to get them to take matters seriously. Some fault must be apparent to have triggered this incident. I wonder how Fiat would have reacted if a child had lost their sight?

 

[Argonought]

This thread may interest you.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

I don't know much about this but hopefully it might point you in the right dirrection. Firstly if you have the glass still (I suspect you cleaned it up and threw it though, Just like I might have done) keep it as it might need to go off for testing.

Back when the smart car first came out they had a problem with exploding glass roofs. It has been tracied back to the method of glass production. When produced glass for cars is treated I think, or somthing like that. It involves heat the glass and cooling it or something, and it need to be cooled at a certain rate (slowly) or crystals (not visible to the eye) form and make the glass more brittle than normal glass.

The glass can be fine for years and then these crystals can cause it to just shatter. I think its on hot sunny days when these crystals change size again due to the heat.


As I say, I can say for definate its this, or that I've even got it right, but it was something like this from what I remember. It will need alot of research, but might get you somewhere. As I said I think its when the glass gets warm/hot, and I assume it was hot hence why ou were putting the window down. I hope this helps a little and makes sence.

Jon.

 

[Deckchair5]

I'd make sure that the window anti pinch sensor is checked out properly

 

[bozzy]

Stories like this is the main reason that a Fiat will never feature on my drive again. The bahaviour of the dealers emulates that of Fiat UK; incredibly poor service and techs who should never be allowed in a garage. They are at the very bottom of the tables for a very good reason, they are **** year in year out. I saw a post about someone who was anoyed at the depreciation of their GP, only offered about £6.4K? There is not a Fiat in the land that I would pay more than 6K for regardless of it's age.

 

[JTD_Liam]

That is pretty shocking customer service. I thought Fiat dealers & Fiat UK were meant to be shaking things up abit in the customer services area?

Fiat have currently got a range of cars which are very worthy of purchase & people are buying Fiats more than they have done recently, but the scary thing is, the more Fiat owners there are, the more Fiat owners there are to get pi**ed off. If Fiat don't pull their finger out within a year & sort their aftersales out theyll soon be back to where they were a few years ago, with hardly any sales. And theyll have themselves very much to blame.

I love their cars but there's no way id buy a new one and put myself at the risk of getting the experiences that so many people on here get at the moment.

 

[wotnowarninglight]

My Dad had this happen on his Phase 2 JTD MW. Was due to bodyshop refitting window regulator incorrectly after repairing dent in drivers door.

From experience, any issue where you are trying to get Fiat's CSD Dept. to resolve a problem or refund money for a repair that you had to get done and took them to task on (i.e. my front springs, Mrs WNWL's persistance got us full settlement... eventually!) is an uphill struggle which the Dealers seem reluctant to get involved in, on your behalf.

JTD_Liam - you are spot on, Fiat: Nice cars but with a general reputation of patchy & indifferent quality, warranty and customer service backup they are in danger of not being able to capitalize on sales potential of their current product range! To be fair I am pleased with my local dealer, then again my car is 5 years old, has no warranty cover and visits them for 2 gold services & an MOT a year at least...

 

[Argonought]

To be fair I am pleased with my local dealer, then again my car is 5 years old, has no warranty cover and visits them for 2 gold services & an MOT a year at least...

I can't say I've had any dealer issues either.

It's kinda bizarre that the issues tend to get less as the car gets older :chin:

As you say you can even save on servicing costs too

Aside from the inevitable minor dents and marks picked up in car parks mine is close to 100% still :spin:

 

[zebraman]

Last year our passenger side front window disintegrated, this was just a few minutes after something hit it, a stone thrown up from the road perhaps. This may be a reason, but still no excuse for the dire customer service !

 

[volxstu]

It must be a fault on most stilo's as my windows are extremely scratched and make a terrible noise when opening and closing perhaps it is faulty over expanding glass.

 

[JTD_Liam]

JTD_Liam - you are spot on, Fiat: Nice cars but with a general reputation of patchy & indifferent quality, warranty and customer service backup they are in danger of not being able to capitalize on sales potential of their current product range! To be fair I am pleased with my local dealer, then again my car is 5 years old, has no warranty cover and visits them for 2 gold services & an MOT a year at least...

Its just such a shame coz several of the dealers are as good as any manufacturer, but there's no consistency to the experiences people have, so no matter how good the good dealers are, people won't take the risk incase they get caught out.

 

[wotnowarninglight]

It is a shame... the amount of stick I get for driving a Fiat at work. Funny when I think of some of the issues colleagues and company car driving colleagues have had with Bini's, VW's, Mazda's, Jaguar's & Volvo's!

I'm on my second Stilo as is my dad, we swapped 1.6 petrols for 115JTD's. Mum is on a 105JTD Mk1 Bravo which replaced her 55S Mk1 Punto. Ex wife is on a Multijet Mk 2.5 Punto... a family affliction obviously

My Stilo seems to be improving with age so will stick with it and carry on using my local dealer and taking the FiatCare servicing option for cars over 3 years old...