Is the windshield factory-tinted?

Hi all,

I've had my VX a month, and already a ticket... As I'm approaching the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, I get waved down by a police officer standing next to the toll lane. He leans in and asks, "Why is your windshield tinted"? I told him I purchased the car out of state as-is, and as far as I knew, it was factory-standard. After he writes me up, he says he can tell the windshield is tinted because the registration sticker does not appear to be white. In New York, I believe you are only permitted to have the top 6" tinted on the windshield.

So my question is, did it come this way standard? If so, it was sold in New York this way too. Is it possible to get a statement from Isuzu to this effect? It's a very slight coloration, and has a black border around the edge, with a dot pattern in between. To me, it looks like some kind of UV filter, and I wouldn't call it "tinted", as the other windows are, but I suppose any discoloration is considered a tint.

If this was an aftermarket tint, I don't mind having it removed, but if it is standard, I'd rather not alter the stock appearance to satisfy one overzealous officer. Anyone else have this film, or encounter this problem?

Sounds like a bad case of "I'm the man" syndrome to me! I don't believe that a shop would tint your entire windshield, but if they did it would be easy to tell. Around the border where your dot pattern is, the tint would have to be cut back from that - or it would have bubbles there. If not you've probably got a factory tint - I don't think they can make a ticket stick for something from the factory! Who is your windshield made by (should be identification in one of the lower corners).

As a first hand referee.. Your cop buddy is full of it.. He can't just administer a ticket because he thinks your window is tinted.. He'd have to prove it, then issue the citation.. Go to court and have the ticket purged..

Just in case it isn't clear from the answers so far - the answer is no - the stock windshield has no tint at all, not even across the top, much less the rest of it.

Unfortunately, as a sworn official, the cops word will be golden...I don't think he will have to "prove" anything. Just like a speeding ticket, the cop will say "I paced him going XX MPH or the radar said XX" Sure, you could call his credentials into question, but in the end it's just his word saying "I saw this" and that is good enough. He can just show up, say "It was tinted" and the ball is in your court...guilty until proven innocent.

Best case scenario is you probably take a day off work, go to a tinting shop, have them look at it and write a ticket (or better yet a sworn affidavit) saying there is no tint on the front windshield, then take another day off work and go to court, plead not guilty and get a trial date set, then take another day off and go to trial (hope the cop actually shows up, or the judge may decide to continue the case to a later date). Hopefully the judge is sympathetic and rules in your favor.

So, you do all this running around, extra gas, time off work, etc and hopefully you will beat the ticket! It's great in principle, and it would be even better to see the cop on the way out and tell him "Thanks for nuthin' Di@%"

The flip side of the coin is that it is probably a sub $100 ticket? and most likely not a moving violation, so no points on the license, no insurance worries, etc. You'll have to weigh all your running around versus just doing as the man wants..."Pay up sucker!"

Definitely let us know how it goes, though!

PS - for the record, my 99 has a very slight green tint to the windshield and a slightly darker band about 3-4" down from the top. But the dealer said it was replaced when I bought my truck, so it is aftermarket.

Corey

Very true Corey but, as another patrol officer, I hate to see these kind of things, as it give all of us a bad rap.. As a non moving violation and being equipment related, (At least in Colorado) the cop's word is not enough and the final statement.. If the subject can bring in a letter(s) from verified businesses stating there is nothing wrong with the window, the judge would/will most likely throw the whole thing out. Using the excuse of "registration sticker does not appear to be white" is just piss poor probable cause for the stop and around here would only be considered a secondary charge as it would not hold up as a primary..
If the officers in his neck of the woods have time and energy to flag down that kind of a "offense", then heven help New Yorkers.. Don't even let a bug stike the window as you may be pulled over for obstructed vision..
(This opinon of course, is based on a one sided story and we all know there are at least two sides)

Seems to me that a "non-white" emissions sticker could very reasonably be caused by sunlight as well as front window tint. Also, my first (stock) windshield didn't have any tint on it at all, just the dots, like you say. The side windows were tinted, which is NOT standard, I guess. Or at least that's what they told me when I took it into the isuzu dealership when they wouldn't fix the peeling tint.

Incidentally, I'm on my 2nd window now (2 windshields in 4 years is actually pretty good for Colorado), and there's a 6 inch tinted stripe across the top. It sucks... Going down hills and such, it might as well be nighttime :)

Fight, Fight, Fight, 'cus You Are Right!

In NYC , the law is that the tint factor cannot be below 30...Plus in order to get a ticket the cop must place a meter on the window to determine the factor

I can only speak from my experience in MD, and I'm sure it works differently from state to state, but there a cop needs no "proof" whatsoever to write you what they call a "repair order", which is what you would get for improper tint on your vehicle. In fact, the cop can write you a ticket for whatever he wants, and then the burden is on you to have your vehicle reinspected to satisfy the conditions of the order. In some cases you need to go to an authorized inspection station and in others, such as with tint, you need to be inspected by the state police at the MVA headquarters. In fact, the cop can be completely ignorant of the law and write you a ticket just because he "thinks" you're wrong. In my case, I was written a ticket for improper tint on the back window of a pickup truck. The law puts no limitation on any tint behind the driver and passenger, so having limo black tint from the passenger windows back is 100% legal (or at least that's how it was 10 years ago when I got my ticket). So because one cop was mistaken , about how the law was written, it was my responsibility to prove my innocence by taking a half day off work to drive up to the MVA headquarters and get reinspected.

As far as factory tinting goes... Perhaps it was different from year to year? I know that my stock '99 windshield had some sort of tint or filtering from the day I bought it. It's not apparent when looked at with the naked eye, but whenever I wear sunglasses there is a distinct greenish-purple "checkerboard"-like pattern across the whole windshield.

Kyle,
Yeahhhhhh, trippy ain't it.....AHEM, getting back to the topic,& this is just speculation on my part.
I think it's probably the polarization of your sunglasses picking up the lamination pattern within the glass. I've noticed the same thing, but only when wearing polarized lenses.
For the "good stuff", try tilting your head back & forth. :luck:
Ldub

:cooly: Whoa... far out man! :cooly:

Not sure what you mean by lamination, but I don't see it on all windshields, only a select few.

I see it on a lot of windshields and other windows. I've always assumed it was a side-effect of it being tempered or whatever they do to make it break into a bunch of tiny, not-sharp, pieces. Since you can't see it without polarized lenses I don't think it has anything to do with tint.