Thin windshield?

In Montana, having at least ONE rock chip is part & parcel with driving. We got one, driver's side, low near the bottom. Nothing to do w/ thickness. It's just the luck of the draw.

 

It's also a very BIG windshield. There is a lot of target area.

Tom

 

Driving dad's Nissan Patrol on a highway in Melbourne a rock that could only have been thrown up by the wheels of a Mitsubishi Lancer put a rather large star crack in the Patrol windscreen.

Just the way it goes sometimes.

 

When I lived in Cleveland, there was so much road construction that thrown rocks were an unavoidable fact of life. My poor little Honda CRX had a cluster of rock chips on the driver's side that looked like a shotgun pattern. They didn't block my view, and the windshield hadn't cracked, so I left them there. I used to tell passengers that I got them running a police barricade.

Tom

 

Many cars have the windshield glued in, and it provides structural strength to the front of the car. It also means it is stressed when the frame is loaded. Coupled with the temp change, small cracks rarely stay small anymore. It's probably normal and most cars would react similarly.

By the way, many insurance policies cover window damage outside of the usual deductable, so be sure to ask.

 

Not just Prius, I got numerous rock-hit from my previous car(s) too (almost inevitable!) Some are just scratching the glass, some created tiny hit craters, and couple of small bull-eyes as well.

Not all windshields will crack by the hit, it depends on what type of rock (hard rock, soft rock or rock salt) got kick up, how fast it got kicked up (40mph vs 70mph) and angle of hit (scratch on the surface or bulls-eye direct hit).

Luck counts because you never know the way will hit you. The only thing we can do is to minimize the chance to get 'rocked' by avoiding to follow cars with big tires (Semi, SUVs, Vans) and slow down slightly when you first hear debris-hitting sound (when cars going through a freshly dig/patch up road).