Winscreen Repairs In Spain

[Vernon B]

Just had the misfortune of picking up a couple of chips en route to Spain - both due to overtaking French drivers cutting in too soon. Can anyone confirm that it should be possible for these to be repaired in Spain. We're heading for what appears to be a very wet Murcia region and I'd like to avoid having to replace the whole screen.

 

V

[Mike88]

Autoglas are known in Spain as Carglass. I was once parked on Cambrils seafront where there was a mobile Carglass van repairing chips in a windscreen and I have seen a couple of Carglass depots on my travels. I'm not sure if the British and Spanish operations are integrated but if you have overseas breakdown cover why not telephone them (the breakdown cover people) for advice.

 

If you give them your location they should arrange for a mobile fitter to do your repairs and you might even find the costs covered under your motorhome insurance policy.

[Vernon B]

I'm counting on that being the case Mike but have been surprised by the "snags" I encountered in France. I have roadside assistance through my insurer but surprisingly they couldn't give me a contact - even for screen replacement - and suggested I ask a local garage. Perhaps unsurprisingly all garages in the Forges Les Eaux area are closed on a Monday!

 

I then contacted the CC as I have Red Pennant cover. They were able to give me Carglass's national freephone number but no local branch. On calling that I got an automated reply that my command of French didn't equip me to deal with and when a local Tourist Office kindly put a call in for me I became distinctly embarrassed when the "hold time" exceeded half an hour and made an apologetic exit.

 

Life being too short we decided to continue our journey and dropped the CC a text asking for a contact number for Spain. Only to receive a replying urging me to get the work done in France - it "would be far more straight forward"!

 

I should perhaps say that both my insurer and the CC people were easy to contact and showed a remarkable interest in my problem, but something that would have been sorted with a short phone call in the UK appears to have been mission impossible in France on 1 March 2010.

 

As it happens we'll be driving through Cambrils tomorrow and although it would be most unlikely that your chap will be around it at least shows they are out there and probably more keen on making a euro than our French friends.

 

Thanks for the help

 

V

 

[Mike88]

Vernon. This is probably not much help but the Cambrils guy, after repairing the windscreen, then got his paraglider out of his van and went into the sea. This was at about 5pm and, he knew a lot of the other paraglider people so I sensed he was local. There is a tourist office at the far end of the Marina near the entrance to the park so they might be able to help.

 

You probably know this but parking on Cambrils seafront is now much more difficult than it used to be but there is parking near the Tourist Office.

[kenroyce]

I have had the missfortune to have trouble with my windscreen in both France and Spain. In France I had a bad chip in my screen, in Spain the windscreen was like a spiders web.

In both cases I had no problems at all. I phoned my insurer SAGA they in turn gave me telephone numbers that got the job done. I had a bit of delay in Spain because they brought the wrong screen but apart from that they were great. (lol)

[Geoff Tuckley]

Ken,

Were you in a HYMER on the Almafra Site at Benidorm.

If so I was almost opposite you and can recall the Spanish people bringing the wrong screen.

If this was not you they must make a habit of it.

 

Geoff