Toyota told Patron nothing was wrong with the car. After having the mirrors replaced, she noticed the mirrors on the car parked next to hers were also melting. Patron then observed a powerful beam of light that was reflecting off the window of a next door condominium, casting a concentrated beam over her carport. “I’m positive that this window is what is causing the damage to my car,” she says.
Patron is not alone. Reports across the US have alleged damage brought on by concentrated sunlight reflected off of energy efficient windows. The National Association of Home Builders is now conducting a study on the matter. “I just don’t feel like it’s fair,” says Patron.
“I feel like it needs to be known that this is happening. And a lot of people probably have damage out there, that they aren’t aware that it’s the windows that are causing this.” The Los Angeles City Department of Building and Safety says even if the window is the source of the damage, there are no code violations involved. The department say it’s not against the law to install a window that reflects sunlight.
With news video.
4 comments:
Maybe it isn't illegal, but you can sue the homeowner for the damage.
Paint the mirror housing white.
Problem solved.
"Toyota told Patron nothing was wrong with the car."
And she believed Toyota. Oh yes they're well known for telling the truth. How many people took their Toyota back to a dealer and were told there was no sticking throttle pedal before they finally issued a recall?
Or all those Vauxhalls/Opels where the dealers said there was no fault with the hand brake?
Or the Nissan I had with an airbag fault. Every time the airbag fault light came on the dealer would tell me there was no fault and rest the light. Eventually I took it to another dealer who connected the car directly to the Nissan factory via the service computer and they identified a fault with the airbag in the drivers seat back.
If the fault isn't listed in a service bulletin most main dealers have trouble diagnosing it. Let's be fair your average main dealer couldn't locate his own arse without GPS.
I can't say whether this is good or bad news, but if the windows were really able to radiate off such amount of sunlight, then I think that's the brighter side of this news. All that heat being reflected back to the surrounding must have kept that condominium quite comfortable inside. Now, that's one impressive energy efficient kind of window. I just hope they already had them repositioned to prevent such damage from occurring again (if they were really the cause).
Post a Comment