does car insurance cover accidental damage to in car displays

sunshinewelly · 8 Oct 2018 at 15:40

I am currently waiting for my dealer to respond but basically i was cleaning my in car display (used a clean cloth and water) and noticed a mark on the screen. did a bit of research and it seems that the anti glare coating has come off in a small patch in the center of screen. It seems to have happened to others - its a bit like the macbook stain problem where the anti glare material comes off too easily.

car is 2 months old and under warranty

waiting for my dealer to respond.

my car insurance policy states that it covers accidental damage to car audio/displays etc

however there is no actual description on what accidental means.

a new screen is going to be around £1000. I am hopeful that my dealer will sort it out but if not its either a case of living with the mark or getting a new screen fitted.

UnworthyBean · 8 Oct 2018 at 16:23

sunshinewelly said:
my car insurance policy states that it covers accidental damage to car audio/displays etc

Answered your own question there, haven't you?

As for getting it sorted with the dealer, probably comes down to if you can argue it was a fault with the car or if they're feeling nice and just replace it.

kaiowas · 8 Oct 2018 at 16:58

What you have described is not accidental damage, it's either wear and tear or a manufacturing defect. It'll either be covered by your warranty or not (I'd seriously kick up a fuss if this wasn't covered on a 2 month old car).

If what you're really asking is "If the dealer says they won't fix it can I smash the screen and claim on insurance", that wouldn't be accidental damage either

GinG · 8 Oct 2018 at 17:00

At this point I wouldn't even be considering taking the hit for this one. The car is two months old, unless you have used acid or something to clean the screen with previously?

Could it be possible the new car prep done at the garage could have caused this also?

ahenners · 8 Oct 2018 at 17:18

I wouldn't be claiming on car insurance for something like this even if it was covered.

What car and what screen? £1k seems steep for just a display.

If it is the anti glare coating and it's been partially removed (usually an ammonia or alcohol based cleaner will do this) then you may find it better to use a polish or similar that will remove the remainder so it's at least consistent and even.

acemastr · 8 Oct 2018 at 18:39

Yep, turn up to dealer "I bought this 2 months ago... wtf is this?" and point at screen. Let them explain what they will do rather than asking/telling anything more.

Orifice · 8 Oct 2018 at 19:39

It is not actually a 2 month old car. The thread starter has owned a 2017 model S4 for 2 months. Either way it would still be covered under warranty.

I suspect you will struggle with the dealer. The mark does look its been caused by a contaminated cloth when cleaning. Assuming you did a through inspection on handover, are you 100% sure there wasn't a slight mark there and its been enlarged by cleaning?

IC3 · 8 Oct 2018 at 20:03

2 months and it's already falling apart? What car brand is it? This just shows how robust the modern cars are...

sunshinewelly · 9 Oct 2018 at 16:53

its an Audi S4. it has the remaining 2 years left on the warranty. I mean it is 2 months old since i purchased it from Audi. I have not noticed any marks there previously. I have had a couple of previous issues in that 2 months ie the car charging mat failed and the piano black trim was scratched and to be fair to Audi they replaced it without any worries. I am quite OCD with my stuff and have a couple of micro fibre cloths that I use. I actually used a new cloth as i do keep one in the car which i use to give a quick dust over. on Sunday however i noticed some marks on the screen and used a new cloth which i dipped in water. For some reason it took off a patch of the anti glare coating from the screen. There was nothing else on the cloth and the rest of the screen is fine. its around 2 cm in diameter. Its only really visible when there is a solid color on the screen and cant be seen when displaying maps for example. I am not keen on taking the rest of the coating off. I did have a passenger in the car last week who sneezed and did find a post which said that spit has been known to take off a sat nav coating but cant believe that can be correct.

IAmATeaf · 9 Oct 2018 at 17:03

Just take it in if it has warranty.

The sneezing saga did make me laugh though

theone8181 · 9 Oct 2018 at 19:51

sunshinewelly said:
its an Audi S4. it has the remaining 2 years left on the warranty. I mean it is 2 months old since i purchased it from Audi. I have not noticed any marks there previously. I have had a couple of previous issues in that 2 months ie the car charging mat failed and the piano black trim was scratched and to be fair to Audi they replaced it without any worries. I am quite OCD with my stuff and have a couple of micro fibre cloths that I use. I actually used a new cloth as i do keep one in the car which i use to give a quick dust over. on Sunday however i noticed some marks on the screen and used a new cloth which i dipped in water. For some reason it took off a patch of the anti glare coating from the screen. There was nothing else on the cloth and the rest of the screen is fine. its around 2 cm in diameter. Its only really visible when there is a solid color on the screen and cant be seen when displaying maps for example. I am not keen on taking the rest of the coating off. I did have a passenger in the car last week who sneezed and did find a post which said that spit has been known to take off a sat nav coating but cant believe that can be correct.

Clearly you need to get the person who sneezed to fix it. Can you ask them in a serious voice and video the response

.

Dav4 · 9 Oct 2018 at 20:32

You sound a little ocd op

the only solution is to keep a couple of breaking bad style Hazmat suits and gas masks in the boot for any passengers to wear when entering the car.
I would love to hear the conversation when ringing your friend “ hi mate remember when I gave you a lift last week and you sneezed in my car? Well it took the coating off my sat nav display so you owe me a grand! Will that be PayPal or bank transfer?”

jpaul · 9 Oct 2018 at 21:12

it is a touch screen though ? so daft question, how resilient are they to a finger nail or ring abrasion say, during everyday knocks ?
it is not gorilla glass or is it

IAmATeaf · 10 Oct 2018 at 09:22

Does gorilla glass have sneeze protection

sunshinewelly · 10 Oct 2018 at 12:27

jpaul said:
it is a touch screen though ? so daft question, how resilient are they to a finger nail or ring abrasion say, during everyday knocks ?
it is not gorilla glass or is it

not a touch screen.

if i had my way the only person who i would allow in my car would be me.