OT: Dad ... the windshield is broken on my car!, Not at all what I thought! Options

[Eddie914]

My son came to me saying the windshield is broken on his '93 Audi 90S. He parks it on the street in front of our home. It has not been driven for three days.

I go out and look. WOW! Badly cracked but no apparent impact?? I try to lift the wipers that were mid stroke and they are stuck to the windshield??

The drivers door will not unlock. When we get the passenger door open, the reason for the cracked windshield is pretty obvious ... DASH FIRE!

It looks like the fire started in the gauge cluster. The dashboard, gauge cluster, and headliner are melted and were dripping. The rest of the interior is amazing intact ... although with a lot of smoke damage.

Totaled? Probably ... with about 300,000 miles. Too bad. We installed a 100k engine, new clutch, and new shocks just last summer. We only had liability insurance ... full coverage was a bit expensive for a $500 car for a nineteen year old.

Odd that a fire would start in a car that is parked with everything turned off?

Well, it's only money. At least it didn't start on fire while he was driving.

Cheers,

Eddie