Disclaimer: I work in the trade and have only had excellent experiences with work performed on customers' cars by my local (Glenfield) Smith & Smith technicians.
I've had a stone chip just outside the CVA on my windscreen ever since we've owned the Outback, and recently found a new stone chip slap-bang in front of the passenger. Happened to have a local Novus tech at the workshop swapping a rear windscreen over on a customer's car, so I brought him over to ask him his opinion of my windscreen.
Verdict:
Not salvageable.
Reasons:
- Attempted (and failed) repair on driver's side stone chip - resin was either not correctly injected or the resin itself has gone opaque. This chip is now permanent.
- "Delamination". He didn't explain whether this was the windscreen itself or if the windscreen wasn't adhered to the car properly, but my windscreen has had unsightly air pockets under the glass around the edges since we've owned this car.
- Windscreen not genuine anyway.
One call to insurance and a referral later, the Novus tech comes back to pop my windscreen off. Halfway through doing his thing...
His words: "At your request, I can put the new screen on if you want me to, but I wouldn't sleep at night."
This is not "minor surface rust". This is the sort of rust that causes windscreens to rust out of their frames 10, 15 years down the road if not treated, and it's entirely preventable if the technician takes some extra time to apply some rust prevention if his blade cuts too deep.
The windscreen was replaced by Smith & Smith before we bought the Outback. The car was, at most, 4 years old when this windscreen was replaced. The windscreen has been on the car for at least 2 years.
EDIT: rust visible in the photo is where the windscreen adhesive has pulled the paint off the car due to the rust underneath.