You’ll need the cameras recalibrating as well. If you have a HUD then it’s a special screen…..in case they missed that part.

 

Main thing to know is best you get OEM replacements. The OEM windshield is designed for the car, features, insulation and no aftermarket will be on par regardless of what the sales person say

 

Check your insurance policy. Many carriers don't increase premiums for windshield replacements and most reputable plans include windshield replacement.

 

They already told me that many insurance won’t cover full cost of OEM replacement and I may have to pay the delta.

 

BMW doesnt manufacture windshield, they buy some and rebrands them with their logo.

If you look at the little sticker on the side of your windows, it will say the real brand name.

So your se ond best bet after OEM would be one of these brands.

Mine is Pilkington brand, and rebranded BMW (OEM)

 

Non-OEM windshields for HUD can have problems with either dim image or a blurry image. If you get talked into a non-OEM windshield, sit the tech in the car and get them to acknowledge how bright and how sharp the image is before they replace it. Take photos from the drivers seat. Ask the installer what they’re going to do if the replacement windshield fails to live up to the OEM standard so you know whether they’re going to hit you up for more money. Ask me how I know….

 

Have you called your insurance company yet? I'd find out what they cover... if you're paying ayou deductible at least, see if they allow you to select any installer up to and including the dealership. State Farm did for my parents' Honda so they ended up with OEM glass and apparently a pretty good install. Compared to the collision-repair places in the area the difference in price was only $100-300 (but they had to pay the same deductible anyway). SafeLite was a lot cheaper but as opposed to chip repair I haven't heard great things about SafeLite windshield replacement, and saw one friend's SafeLite BMW windshield replacement that looked terrible.

They were immediately selling the car to CarMax or similar (who didn't mention the repair during evaluation so it didn't really matter) but I wouldn't have accepted that repair on a car I was keeping.

 

I recommend getting an OEM screen if you have have the HUD. When we replaced our X5 screen, the OEM wasn’t available quickly. I replaced it with an aftermarket one that is made by the same supplier. It worked well, couldn’t tell a difference. However, the HUD was visibly off. It wasn’t as bright and defined as the OEM was. But otherwise, it worked just as well.

 

I had my insurance use OEM, they told me only OEM version was available, perfect but that was about 8-9 months ago. As others have said, aftermarket windshields have issues with HUD (had this experience in a different car). Cost out of pocket for me was $100 deductible but the cost of the windshield was ~500-550 with installation and another $350-400 for the camera calibration (not DAPP).

 

In the end found a good local shop to do this (Primer Auto Glass in Dublin CA). Lots of good reviews on Yelp. They had a bit of difficulty with their OBD reader (it didn't have the i4 model, only the i3!) but I noticed it did have gas 4 series G26 body and that worked fine (they said they have to use an OBD reader to check for car faults first, otherwise if there are faults the car won't let them calibrate a windshield). They did BMW glass, windshield and other parts was $1k, labor $220 and calibration $275. $1500 total and I paid $500 deductible. HUD looked good when I checked, no chance to check DAPP/lanekeeping yet but will report if any issues.

 

Funny enough when my windshield was replaced, the tech also had trouble with the calibration. same issue, only found i3,

 

I had mine replaced last July by the dealer. Cost was around EUR 1350-1400 including labour. Delivery time was about two weeks.
Recently a friend waited almost 5 months for replacement window on his G21. Broke his mid October got it installed at the end of February.
Both were 100% covers by insurance.

 

My glass shop got the BMW windshield in 2 days. In the US almost no one has 100% coverage in car insurance would be too expensive. Usually you must pay deductible of between US $100 to $500 and insurance pays rest (lower the deductible the higher the insurance rate). I chose $500 deductible because occurrences like this are rare and lower deductible is much more expensive long term.

 

Tested driving assistant pro, traffic jam assistant, lane warning, parking assistant, rain detection for wipers, HUD (things I usually use that might depend on windshield calibration) and all were good. Definitely can recommend Primer Auto Glass in Dublin CA for anyone looking for BMW OEM glass and reasonable price. As mentioned it was $1500 total from Primer, to give you an idea local dealer quoted $2800 for the same job. Primer was one of my insurer's recommended shops, with dealer insurance would not have paid that huge delta. Biggest difference was labor, dealer wanted $1100 labor for the install.

 

Hey, @tonyquan, I appreciate your post, few weeks ago I got a crack on my I4 with similar features. I looked for Primer Auto Glass. I think they were partners and separated into different shops within a year or so. I reached out to Frank Primer who works as Auto Glass in Motion now. He is based in Dublin as you posted. However, he comes to you with his own van now, as the name suggests. Everything including calibration was done in a few hours. It also took 2 days to procure OeM glass through insurance. I am happy with the work so far.