Locked Out of Your Car? Read This Before You Do Anything!

Have you ever been locked out of your car and thought about breaking through the windshield or back window to get in? Maybe you locked your keys in your car with your small child or with your dog still in the car. You definitely need to get in there right then.

If you aren’t in an urgent situation, that’s potentially life-threatening, then it’s best to wait for the locksmith to arrive. That’s the least expensive option.

But if there’s an emergency, like your young child is still in the carseat or your dog is jumping all around inside your vehicle in the freezing winter or blistering summer, then you may need to break in the car.

Maybe you remember hearing about Carrie Underwood’s dog locking her out of her car with her four-month old son in side?  That’s the kind of emergency we’re talking about here.

Unfortunately, most people’s first instinct is to either try and break through the windshield or through those little vent windows on your back window. Thanks movies!

But your windshield is made of laminated safety glass. The glass consists of two curved sheets of glass that have a plastic layer of lamination between them. You can learn more about how windshields are made in a previous blog post.

Because it’s made with two layers of glass, and because it’s a major safety component in your vehicle, it’s extremely difficult to break.

And if you realize that your windshield is probably more expensive to replace than a window, your next thought might be to go for the smallest window. But those back passenger windows, even though they’re smaller, are actually more expensive to repair!

The least expensive window to replace is actually your driver window. I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that!

The back passenger vent window is actually more expensive to repair because it’s not mass produced as often as, say your windshield or door window. If you break through that tiny window, you’ll pay more because you’ll have to custom order the replacement. It also takes more time to ensure it fits in that small area perfectly!

So if you’re locked out of your car and almost late to the interview for your dream job, break your driver door window to get in. Your windshield will be harder to break, and your vehicle will be undriveable if you do get through the layers of laminated glass. And your vent window is going to cost you more than twice as much as your door window to repair.

Ultimately, if you don’t have to break in ~ don’t. But if it’s an emergency, go for that door window.

And we hope you don’t have to, but if you needed to break a window,
call us and we’ll handle the repair from there!