Coupe Rear Glass

[ss95003]

Is the rear glass on the coupe tempered or not?

I saw pictures on the other forum of a broken rear glass and it clearly looks like it is not tempered glass. It actully looked pretty scary. I would not want low back seats and that behind me in an accident.

[Georgia Coupe]

This is a very serious issue. No way is that glass tempered!


http://www.ffcars.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=22351&d=1302896847

[Dave Smith]

I recvd an email this morning at 3:45 am about this glass issue. I am in DC with the family for a two day trip to see the National Mall, Declaration of Independence, etc. This is a serious issue, and I called the engineers. This glass was made by a registered automotive glass manufacturer and to DOT specs. I cant say that i know what is normal... I assumed that small peices was the
Norm. In either case, I would say that right now give us a few days to get an answer from them. In the meantime, if you have a Coupe, for safety sake dont drive it for a few days while we get an answer. We will do a comprehensive review on Tuesday as Monday is a holiday in Massachusetts. Thanks to you guys for letting us know quickly and I'll have an answer and action plan for you shortly.

[Dave Smith]

Guys,

I wanted to give you an update on the Coupe rear glass issue.

This affects the all-new rear glass hatch for the Type 65 Coupes that we just started shipping the last few weeks. I recvd an email on Sunday am about a customer who reported that his glass hatch was broken into large pieces in shipping. I posted here on the forum about this and said I would follow up when we got back in on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday here in Massachusetts).

On Sunday, Jesper (Director of Engineering) emailed the manufacturer. This company is a major automotive glass manufacturer and we have never had any similar issue reported to us on previous products. The glass was made to a DOT standard.

I gathered the team here this morning (yesterday was a State Holiday in Massachusetts) and we drafted an action plan with the goals being to make sure our parts are safe and that customers are fairly treated.

We all agreed that based on reports from the field, even though we have not heard from the manufacturer yet, we are simply NOT confident in these parts. Regardless of what the manufacturer says, we all agreed that we want to replace all of these glass hatches (about 40 have been shipped). Here is the plan.

Right now we are alerting anyone who has this part (via email, phone and web posting) that they should not install and drive their car with this glass harch. We are compiling the master list right now (as I type this) and we will be contacting everyone today. We will be requesting that customers re-pack and return (we will issue call tags or pick up where needed) the glass hatches to us here at FFR. If (as in 2 cases) the glass was broken in transit, we would like photos of those parts before discarding. This will be handled on a case by case basis over the phone, via email, or in person.

Additionally, we are testing random samples of all glass that we sell, not just from this supplier. Over the years we have had glass breakage (goes with the part) and the parts have always performed as expected.

We will be working on this as quickly as possible and I do not have an exact answer this morning about how long it will take to get replacement glass hatches. The priority right now is to make sure that people know what we are doing about this. More information as soon as we know more. On behalf of everyone at FFR, I am very sorry for the inconvenience of this but am grateful that with quick action, no-one is hurt.

Dave Smith
President

[Dave Smith]

Yesterday, engineering tested the new Type 65 Coupe rear glass hatches and we found the exact same problem as reported by customers 3 days ago. We also tested every single piece of glass that we sell and were satisfied with the results. Other than destroying over $5,000 worth of glass, we did importantly confirm this problem and have communicated this directly to the DOT registered manufacturer. I am not waiting for their reply since I feel this is a safety issue. We are immediately recalling all 38 of these parts.

I've posted a detailed report on our website and you can follow this link to read about the Coupe rear glass hatch and our other glass testing. (http://www.factoryfive.com/whatsnew/tech/glass/report.html)