I've done a lot of complaining over the last year or so regarding distortion "waves" in the factory Audi glass. (Sort of like vertical stripes in the glass that turn horizontal lines outside the car into wavy lines - annoying while driving). I had 2 replacement factory windshields installed, and all exhibited varying degrees of the problem. Today, I had a PPG windshield installed by Novus. No waves! (A PPG one I looked at a year or so ago did have a trace of this wavyness, but it is undetectible on this one).<p>Disadvantages of the PPG, non-factory glass:<br>- Mirror bracket has to be glued on instead of coming already mounted, so you're at the mercy of the technician's skill.<br>- Fade-out black paint dots around the edge of the glass are painted on the inside surface instead of between the glass layers. (I can't ever see this being a problem unless a person is in the habit of using a razor blade to clean the windshield).<br>- The edges of the PPG glass aren't smoothed and rounded like the German glass. However, all of the edges are covered by trim anyway.<p>Advantages of PPG glass:<p>- No distortion waves!<br>- It is slightly thicker than the German glass. That should provide more resistance to cracking and road debris damage.<p>So, my recommendation to anyone having a windshield replaced, unless they are totally happy with the factory glass (and have never noticed distortion in any A4) is to go with PPG (or other non-factory brand).<p>By the way, before the BMW crowd jumps all over this as an example of Audi quality, BMW uses the same suppliers as Audi for factory windshields (Sigla, Securit, Secursiv, and possibly a couple of others). So does Mercedes. I've seen minor "waves" in the Mercedes glass lately, but haven't checked BMW.<p>Dale

 

Thanks, Dale. As you know, had similar good experience with Safelite, VIRACON had similar details as PPG, although unsure about mirror mount. I still need a windshield in the Porsche 993, which I believe from the part no. Safelite gave me would be a PPG piece. Looks like I have a chance of getting something decent with PPG as well. <br>

 

--- Fade-out black paint dots around the edge of the glass are painted on the inside surface instead of between the glass layers. (I can't ever see this being a problem unless a person is in the habit of using a razor blade to clean the windshield). ---<p>On my 97 1.8T the dots are on the interior surface of the factory windshield. You can actually feel the dots with your finger if you run it along the edge of the glass. Are you sure your original windshield had the dots "inside" the layers of glass? (Not that this is really of any importance one way or the other. Just curious).<p>Sean<br>97 1.8Tqm<br>

 

Yep, positive. On the previous replacement "Sigla" glass and on a new Sigla that was ordered for comparison to the PPG (that was just installed) the spots were internal (they couldn't be felt on the surface, and the shop commented on this also). However, the solid paint band around the border was external (inside of the car surface) all windshields. I don't know about my original glass - it may have had the dots on the external surface. I'm pretty sure that my rear window glass has the dots on the inside surface (where they can be felt) also.<p>Now, this is A4 trivia!