CHARLOTTE — Ryan, who asked not to use her last name, said she was driving her 2019 Infiniti QX50 on W.T. Harris Boulevard in north Charlotte when the panoramic sunroof shattered.
“I just heard a loud boom,” she said. “My daughter was in the car. I turned around and I said, ‘Did you hear that? Is everything OK?’”
“I didn’t know what was happening,” she said.
Ryan thought someone attacked her vehicle.
“I was so thankful that the sunroof guard was closed because, had it not been, the glass would have just started raining in on us,” she said. “But I want others to be aware because, had that vehicle shade been open, we could have been hurt in the process.”
Ryan said she called the manufacturer and took the SUV to the dealer, but neither would cover the damage. Fortunately, she says her insurance would.
Federal investigators investigated the issue for seven years counting over 4,000 complaints involving 13 car companies.
However, investigators closed the case in April 2024 without determining a cause and concluded it was not a safety concern.
They didn’t say why the glass breaks spontaneously.
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Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke starting looked into complaints in 2018 about shattering sunroofs.
He even went to West Virginia to speak with a woman who said she was driving through South Carolina when her sunroof exploded.
Stoogenke’s advice:
- If you see a chip or crack in the sunroof, have it checked out. It may be cosmetic or you may need a new sunroof.
- If you have a choice between tempered glass and laminated glass, go with laminated glass. It’s stronger and stays in one piece if shattered.
Stoogenke reached out to Infiniti for its side of the story, but the company hasn’t responded.
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