I was judging a very nice one owner 1993 convertible (bright aqua metallic exterior/white interior/white top) last Saturday and when it came time to look at the windshield there were two obvious problems:

1) It had a newer date code than the car.

2) It was delaminating and had a radar detector slot - in other words, it was a ZR1 windshield.

We talked to the owner, who freely admitted that it was a) not the original windshield and b) it had been replaced under warranty (the original windshield was excessively wavy - safety issue). He even produced the appropriate receipt.

We deducted the appropriate points and moved on - the car easily top flighted.

Here's my question: does anybody know if there was ever a time where a dealer would have swapped in a ZR1 windshield (almost certainly more expensive) for a defective 'standard' windshield?

I would be shocked... price and availablity would have made that an iffy proposition.

Unless that is what they had and they dealt with it accordingly. If he has the docs, then believe it.

We do it where I work. It is called customer service. We take the hit on the difference as warranty only pays for the correct part, but that is just part of doing business.

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I highly doubt you would foot the bill on a 2,500 windshield over one that is 500.

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Was that the approximate difference then or is that it now?

This was one of the strangest things I've seen over judging about a hundred different C4s.

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First, those are retail prices, dealers look at cost, not retail when making customer service decisions. Second, there might have been policy warranty compensation from GM.
It could have even been an error by the dealership. But you are right, we would not absorb that huge a hit without some further recourse.

Dealer cost on the base windshield is 253.13 based on what I see in dealerworld. The ZR-1 windshield does not show as a valid part number as it has been discontinued for so long. But as i remember the winshield retail was in the 2,300-2,500 range. So dealer cost is probably 60% of that. So say 1,500 Still a huge difference for a dealership to want to pay out of pocket. I mean these are some of the cheapest assholes on the face of the planet.

Lol, I took my NEW truck back to the dealership to get an interior panel replaced after discovering it had holes drilled in it.

Cheapskates wouldn't even give me a new one. Finally they decided that they would break it and then claim it as a warranty issue so that Ford would pay for it. Gee, I wonder who drilled holes in it...

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Having worked in dealerships, this would not surprise me at all. Aside from whatever retail might have been, I doubt that dealer cost was a factor. A call such as this was quite likely made by a Chevrolet warranty rep at the corporate level. To Chevrolet division, any cost difference was likely very negligible at that time and they thus instructed the dealership to install what they had in stock.

Thanks all - so the gist of what I'm getting is not normal, but not stunningly unusual, either.

I'd agree that if thats what they had on hand then they might use it. If you include the cost of shipping to get the corect windshield, a possible rental for the customer (if the warranty authorized it) and customer satisfaction, it may have been a more negligible difference than we think;)

shadow makes a great point... if they had to comp the guy a loaner car for a week waiting for the right glass, the ZR1 glass starts to look cheap.