12 Jul 06
About an hour later, but for the telltale strips of tape holding the screen in place as the bonding mastic sets for another hour, you wouldn't know the RAC had been at all. A perfect job. 'Don't forget to take the tape off' they chorused as they sped off hoping for a simple job like a Fiesta next. 'We passed someone yesterday who still had the tape on a week later...'
Given that a cracked windscreen seems to be a more frequent occurrence than a puncture these day (with the notable exception of that time of year when the farmer's brutal hedge trimmer sprays clumps of needle-sharp blackthorn all over the local back-roads) it is worth checking that your insurance cover includes a free replacement windscreen clause.
Particularly if you live in Oxfordshire, where road resurfacing standards seem haphazard at best. On the one hand, we have a stretch of new road boasting so much surplus aggregate that wholesale windscreen damage is almost inevitable; on the other, the lane leading to my house was resurfaced last year with such a paucity of the stuff that half the village is still trampling exposed tar all over their carpets.
I've called the local council so many times about it that the number is now on speed-dial in the phone. Yet, despite numerous promises to fix the problem, and the threat of the biggest cleaning bill ever sent to a county council, absolutely nothing has yet happened. Thank heaven for the RAC.
