PULSCAR ANALYSIS - WINDSHIELD REPLACEMENT, REPAIR AND CAMERA CALIBRATION IN NHTSA'S PUBLIC FILES PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, November 2026. License: CC BY 4.0 Attribution: "PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, November 2026." Published alongside https://www.pulscar.io/blog/windshield-replacement-cost ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prepared November 2026. Source data: NHTSA public flat files (complaints received 1 January 2015 to 4 October 2026 - the latest received date in the files; the index of manufacturer communications; the recalls table) and documents downloaded one at a time from static.nhtsa.gov. The NHTSA complaint file is public: anyone can download it from NHTSA and check any number here against it. 1. Complaints (3,986) First search (3,159): complaints whose narrative names the front windshield in a glass sense (not a wiper, washer, fluid, nozzle or motor, and not the rear window or tailgate glass), has a repair or replacement word near it (replace, repair, install, fix, new, aftermarket, OEM, calibrate, resin, reseal), and also has a crack, chip or breakage word, a cost or insurance word, or a camera or calibration word. The word "windshield" alone matches 21,700 narratives (mostly wipers, washers, defrost, glare and camera mounts) and was not used as the pool. The exact patterns are in codebook.txt. Completeness search (827): a second search over every other narrative that names the windshield in a glass sense and has damage or repair wording within 200 characters of it (1,582 narratives) was read in full; 827 were added (most because the repair word was not near the word "windshield", as in "windshield cracked"). found_by in the complaints file says which search found each complaint. Sorting: each complaint was sorted twice by written rules (codebook.txt; the rules were written and dated before the sorting). One category (R windshield replaced; P chip or crack repaired in place; Q replacement or repair quoted, recommended, ordered or refused, not done; D damage only; N not about this vehicle's front windshield glass) and five flags (maker, insurer, adas, spont, after). Where the two sortings differed, the written tie-break rules in codebook.txt settled the complaint; rule_applied names the rule. Result: 3,607 relevant (not N): R 1,575, Q 794, D 980, P 258; 379 not relevant. Flags among the 3,607: maker 161, insurer 464, adas 466, spont 1,613, after 1,285. Makes among the 3,607: Subaru 2,087, Kia 255, Toyota 198, Hyundai 159, Ford 146, Honda 134, Nissan 71, Land Rover 58, Jeep 54, Volkswagen 47, Mazda 46, Tesla 45, and others. Seven narratives were filed twice with the same text; each filing is counted as a complaint, and the repeats are not counted again in the amounts. Counts are counts of complaints, not cars. A complaint is evidence that an owner wrote to NHTSA; nothing here is a failure rate. 2. Documents NHTSA's index of manufacturer communications lists 416 records whose summary names the windshield together with glass, replacement, calibration, cracking, adhesive, bonding or camera wording (wiper and washer bulletins were left out). Chosen and downloaded in the first search: 158 records whose summary names windshield glass, replacement, cracking, bonding, adhesive, calibration or a camera (156 files; NHTSA gave no file for 2). Completeness search: after the article was drafted, a second search of the index for records that name the windshield together with warranty, extension, coverage, goodwill, customer satisfaction, campaign or free-of-charge wording and were not already chosen (97 records) was downloaded and read. It found documents the first search had missed because their summaries did not use glass or crack wording, among them Subaru's 2024 to 2025 windshield warranty-extension and settlement papers. found_by in the documents file says which search found each document. The other index records (226) were not downloaded and are listed in documents.csv as "listed in NHTSA index only, not downloaded". Recalls: 42 recall campaigns whose defect, remedy or component involve the windshield glass, its bonding, sealing, primer, bubbles or camera mount (wiper and washer recalls were left out) were found in the recalls table; their 353 files were downloaded. Reading: 581 distinct documents (25 exact copies set aside). One representative of each group of near-identical documents was read in full, or, for long files, the pages that match the windshield wording (435); the other members were compared line by line with their representative (146). Pages that were only images were read as images. Every verbatim quotation in the article was checked against the text of the named document, with the page number. The document list says, for each file, whether it was read in full or compared, whether its own text names the windshield, and its relevance (DIRECT 413: about windshield glass, bonding, cracking, replacement, warranty cover for the glass or recall; PROCEDURE 9: a repair that includes windshield removal or a camera calibration after windshield work; RELATED 124: trim, camera bracket, rain sensor, recall administrative reports, software updates or the windshield in passing; NOT RELEVANT 35). Vehicle years, engines, build dates and coverage terms are as printed in the documents. Coverage status "as of November 2026" is the authors' computation from printed terms. 3. Owner-reported amounts (482 figures in 403 complaints) One written inclusion rule: a dollar figure is included when the owner states it as a price, charge, bill, quote or payment for work or parts on that vehicle's windshield (glass replacement, chip or crack repair, camera or calibration work tied to the windshield job, the insurance deductible paid, or a closely tied extra such as a tow or rental). Excluded (187 numbers): mileage and other numbers that are not prices, vehicle prices, rebates not tied to the glass job, repairs of other systems, repeats of the same figure, totals for several replacements, and figures that cannot be tied to the vehicle. Status comes from the owner's words: 200 quoted, 180 paid, 84 not stated, 10 offered, 8 billed. Each figure is in a group by the job the narrative ties it to. Many figures are rounded or bounded ("about", "over"). Figures are what owners wrote, not audited invoices. 4. Shop and insurer prices Dated pages from glass companies, AAA, insurers and state statutes were read on 4 November 2026 and are listed with their addresses in the article. Several large sites refused our request and were not retried (listed in the article). No price survey was made. Limits: the complaint file holds the cases where an owner wrote to NHTSA, in the owner's words, with no verification; owners whose damage was repaired cheaply are mostly not in it. 2,087 of the 3,607 relevant complaints are about Subaru, so every share and median from the file leans on Subaru owners; counts say how many owners wrote, not how many windshields crack. The document set holds what NHTSA's index lists and what could be read; a maker paper that is not in the index is not in it, and 226 index records were not downloaded. Nothing here is a failure rate or a price survey.