Quebec woman says her car’s rear window shattered spontaneously

A Saint-Lazare woman says her car’s rear window shattered spontaneously after she turned on the rear defroster on a cold December morning.

On a cold December morning, the last thing a Saint-Lazare woman expected was for her car’s rear window to spontaneously shatter.

But that is exactly what happened to Stephanie Burke after she started her car and turned on the rear defroster to let it warm up for a few minutes before driving to work.

“I heard a weird noise, but it wasn’t very loud. I didn’t even think it was coming from the car,” Burke explained in a recent interview.

“Five minutes later, when I came back out, I looked in my mirror and saw, so clearly, the centre of my back window — but I couldn’t see anything else around it. Then I looked down and saw shards of glass. I thought to myself: ‘This is impossible. This could not happen.’”

In the upper centre of her 2020 Hyundai Elantra’s rear window was a jagged hole roughly the size of a small bowling ball.

Burke said she immediately called her dealership but was left troubled by the response.

“They didn’t really seem to care at all. They wanted to find out if I wanted to get it fixed by them,” she said.

‘It could have been a lot worse’

Burke said though they offered to repair it at a cost, she declined and was told her warranty had expired in July, and that there was nothing they could do. According to Burke, the dealership suggested she call her insurance company.

“I was really upset by that, because I thought to myself, I was very lucky I wasn’t in the car when it happened. I wasn’t driving. But had I been driving, I could have been so startled that I could have lost control of the vehicle,” she said.

“I could have gotten glass in my eye. Someone could have been sitting in the back. It could have been a lot worse. And it was especially the nonchalantness that bothered me the most.”

Burke said she sent a complaint to Hyundai Auto Canada a few days after the incident, but never received a reply.

‘We cannot speculate’

In a written statement to CTV Montreal, Hyundai Auto Canada said it takes customer concerns seriously.

The company explained tempered glass can break for several reasons, most commonly due to prior impact damage, sudden temperature changes and other external factors, and added it has not observed any pattern of rear glass panel breaking on the 2020 Elantra.

“In this case, the customer contacted a Hyundai dealership after the warranty had expired. The dealership offered to inspect the vehicle and explore possible solutions if it was brought in; however, the customer did not follow up,” Hyundai Auto Canada said.

“Because the vehicle was never assessed by an authorized Hyundai dealer, we cannot speculate on the root cause of the rear glass shattering on Ms. Burke’s vehicle.”

The company added that its new-vehicle limited warranty covers glass for defects in material or workmanship for five years or 100,000 kilometres, whichever comes first. She was outside the warranty limit and therefore not covered.

Burke maintains she was not offered anything other than an appointment to repair the glass. She said that, to her knowledge, the rear window was in good condition and that she was not aware of any cracks or other issues.

“This isn’t supposed to happen. These cars should be built to withstand the environment they’re in,” Burke said.

George Iny, director of the Automobile Protection Association, said his organization occasionally receives complaints about glass shattering spontaneously, including rear windows equipped with electric defrosters.

He said heat combined with stress or a weakness in the glass can cause tempered glass to shatter.

Iny said Quebec law also provides what he described as a second warranty under the Consumer Protection Act, which requires products to be reasonably durable and to perform the service for which they are intended. He said that the warranty is not limited to five years.

“In some cases, if you write a demand letter or you escalate, you’re able to get compensation. And in some cases, people go to court for that reason and win because the manufacturer or the dealer, we’re not providing the legal standard for wanting coverage,” Iny said.

He added that some insurance companies cover shattered glass, but deductibles and the risk of paying higher premiums can dissuade consumers from making claims.

Burke said the experience left her disappointed and out about $650 for repairs.