No I’m not a small business owner. I personally think it’s classeless when you don’t own up to your mistakes and try to take care of the customer for a mistake you did as a business owner.

You are probably correct. I wonder if there’s any recourse from the auto body shop if that were to happen. But removing and reinstalling the windshield has a greater chance than 70% of cracking which is also a huge liability.

yes, they are trying to work with me. However, I feel he isn’t really being honest. Initially, he said he wanted to go the repair/repaint method. When I asked him why, because since it’s a plastic piece you would not technically paint a plastic piece, he said Newport Beach AM service advisor told him that the dash is a matte black painted piece. And because it’s a painted piece, the correct way to fix it is to repaint it. I asked him if it’s a cost issue with the insurance company because replacement costs $4500 and repair costs $1200-$1500. His response was no, he is trying to fix it the “right way”. In my position, the correct way is to replace it to the condition that it was when I left the car with him. A plastic piece, not a painted piece. But now that corporate AM got involved and we discovered that it’s actually a plastic moulding, his reasoning doesn’t hold water. The “right way” is technically just one way. Replacement is the other way. 3 certified AM body shops have told me it’s better to replace it because you wouldn’t want to paint plastic and deal with the windshield. I’m guessing it’s all because of cost and he’s just not being honest with me.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve commented on this owner’s issue about taxes on battery core charges...

Personally, I’ve obsessed over the slightest imperfections in my cars, so I get it. And I get the principle of a thing... But sometimes you gotta let it go. Like someone said, buy another <perfect> car if you can no longer live with this one. Mine has a couple of jacked-up buttons, but I can’t fathom the cost to replace. So I just avert my gaze and love my Aston...

I wish it were that easy to buy another car just like that. You guys must do that all the time or just joking. It’s a manual in a configuration that took me a few years to land. It took a long time to actually pull the trigger on this one after looking for it. Now it’s finally here, it’s brought more headache rather than joy. I’ll acknoeldge everyone’s comments and drive it rather than fix it I suppose. The owner isn’t going to pony up $4500 to replace it and neither is his insurance. I don’t have time not the energy to go small claims over something like this. I guess its best to leave it be rather than risk the windshield and other parts breaking........

Two weeks after buying my Vantage with 3700 miles on the odometer and the car is essentially as new condition I was driving behind a truck. Something fell off the truck and put a small chip on the windshield.
Devasted I rushed to the dealer to have the windshield replaced. Every time I drove the car I was fixated on the chip. The small defect was not enough that my insurance would pay for it and I was prepared to pay out of pocket.
Then sanity prevailed. I could just as easily get another chip with a new windshield. I went to safelite and had them repair the crack by injecting resin and curing it. It’s been a few years, and unless I am specifically looking for it, I no longer see the chip.
Drive the car, enjoy the car and try not to sweat the small stuff that you have no control over.

Do you know how much or if something like this would appear on the car fax, if insurance pays for it?

Body shop was saying they believe anything over $1000 work even if it’s not collision paint or body work might go on the carfax, when it’s going through insurance it is reported.

I have learned that it is a coin toss. It’s all up to how the insurance reports it. Sometimes they report to Carfax and sometimes they do not. I’ve heard from some people that something minor that was done to their car eventually showed up on their Carfax even though the shop said it wouldn’t.

I discovered that three months after this ordeal, he finally opens up a claim thru his insurance yesterday. So the entire time, he was just trying to pay under the table. Could have done it right and opened up a claim in Dec and saved both of us some valuable time. Now when his insurance contacts me, they will assign an estimator which will probably low ball me. I have the AM $4500 quote. If I choose a payout, I wonder how the insurance decides on an amount and would a payout show up on the carfax?

Hopefully it won’t go on CARFAX now as that would put you in a less desirable position.

Do you plan on selling the car at some point? If not, I don’t think CarFax should matter then