I would like to report a dangerous event that occured while travelling at highway speed, approximately 70 mph, in our 2000 Volkswagen Passat. Our car originally imported to the USA and we purchased it in Statesville North Carolina.
My family and I were on a road trip recently on a sunny afternoon when we heard an extremely loud BANG near the front of the car's roof! We were puzzled by this because we had not seen anything approaching the car (such as a rock) prior to the noise, but had been about sixty to eighty feet from a semi-trailer truck when it occurred.
Approximately 20 or 30 seconds later we were again shocked to experience a second loud explosion as the sunroof was sucked upwards (as evidenced by the angle of the glass that remained in the frame after the event) and then finally several large pieces of glass and many small fragments fell down into the car. The entire glass sunroof was shattered and crazed as is typical with tempered glass when it breaks.
My wife suffered a deep gash in her upper arm which sliced through the skin into the muscle tissue. The cut opened wide to expose the muscle tissue bulging out.
We now believe that there was in fact no rock or other object that hit the sunroof glass. The sunroof just shattered and then, due to the difference in pressure inside and outside the car, the glass was sucked upward until it exploded into tiny pieces and larger pieces composed of the tiny fragments still interlocked. The sunroof was closed at the time, but the sliding cover below was open. The day was very warm, approximately 80 to 85 degrees, and the airconditioning was set to 68 degrees.
Is this a common occurance with VW sunroofs? Is this a fault in the manufacture of the tempered glass?
Of course we have been quoted approximately CAN$1,000.00 for the replacement part, glass only, by VW. THIS IS A RIPOFF!
John
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
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