The PPG/GM/Mercedes Connection

Questions have come up recently about a program that glass manufacturer PPG has with General Motors.

While glassBYTEs™ has not received a response to its query from the Pittsburgh, Pa., based company about this, we have spoken with a number of industry sources who speculate that PPG and the car maker are involved in a program in which PPG supplies some dealers with GM OEM glass for some vehicles for replacement.

The way it works, GM sells back the glass to PPG at costs and gives a handling fee for it then to deliver the glass to dealers.

This, it is explained, keeps the vehicle manufacturer from having to store and stock the glass and having to ship it from its distribution warehouses.

The program is described as a small market in terms of auto replacement glass distribution because dealers generally only get involved in warranty situations for glass replacement and it is easier for the dealer just to hand the job over to the auto glass replacement shop and have it get the glass.

PPG does supply OEM glass for Mercedes C-, E- and S-Class vehicles in the North America region and is an authorized supplier of auto glass with the Mercedes insignia. While there has been some comment from shops that they are getting a lot of breakage with the Mercedes OE replacement glass, glassBYTEs has not been able to confirm any such incidence widespread.

Mercedes-Benz does offer PPG's Solextra blue-tinted windshield as a designer label accessory in some Mercedes-Benz models.

Here is a list of the Mercedes models for which PPG supplies OEM glass in the North American region.