Toronto, Ontario — General Motors has issued an updated position statement on its standards for aftermarket glass replacements, hammering home the opinion that non-OEM glass could compromise the safety standards of their vehicles.
“GM vehicles, safety systems and components are designed, engineered, tested, and validated to protect vehicle occupants based upon both government mandated and internal corporate requirements,” GM wrote in its statement.
“The overall integrity of a vehicle’s Advanced Driver Assist System is dependent on maintaining the design specifications of each component of the safety system.”
The legacy automaker asserts that any glass but their own will cause problems with sensor systems that are housed within the windshield.
“With the safety of our customers at the center of everything we do, it is critical a service point calibration/learn be performed whenever a front view windshield camera or sensor is removed and reinstalled or replaced, or when a windshield is removed and reinstalled or replaced,” the statement said.
Several other OEMs, including Ford and Volvo, have issued similar position statements regarding windshield replacements.
While there are critics who say that such position statements allow OEMs to have a monopoly on certain parts, a spokesperson from GM insisted to Repairer Driven News that aftermarket glass cannot be tested and appraised in the same way the company’s proprietary offering can.
“We test Genuine GM Parts (OEM glass) as part of our vehicles’ structural and advanced safety systems. We do not approve or test aftermarket glass nor claims of Original Equipment Equivalent (OEE) glass,” they said.
“The windshield has always been integral to vehicle safety structure. With the evolution of ADAS, the windshield”has an even greater role in vehicle safety. For this reason, we only recommend GM Genuine Parts (OEM) for windshield replacement.”
