The thing which bugs me more is that many car manufacturers nowadays (not just Honda) are $aving a few bucks by using the so-called "fritts" on the windows as a cheap-a$$ sunblock, and eliminating the dark tint brow at the top. It means that if the sun angle is just right, you have to go for your sunglasses immediately when it drops below the windshield, instead of that tint diffusing things for a bit. (And as stated, it makes life hard for trim shops to get a decent look.) If the excuse is the tint blocks the increasing array of cameras with which cars are equipped, I call BS--my LDW camera is below the tint line on my windshield, and the additional cameras for CMBS and LKAS on the Accord Touring MMC look to be on the same plane; Honda just lowered the rearview mirror a little so everything would fit, and I noticed this when test-driving a Sport CVT, just after the 9th-Gens came out.
Honda started that with the Accords halfway through the 2013 M/Y, according to a Safelite manager I spoke to while having my first stone hit repaired a year or so ago, and thanks to the nice crack which developed after a stone hit last week, my windshield's now going to need replacement. Hopefully, Safelite or my dealer can source a Honda OEM piece with the tint, just as my car (February, 2013 build) was originally equipped! (I can't imagine how a tint shop could spray-dye something similar, especially with the fritts. That tint band is actually sprayed on the inside of one of the glass layers.) That was always a "step-up" from a Civic to Accord.
Curiously, Toyota, Mazda and HyundKia still specify that band in their higher-level cars, while the Acura TLX doesn't get it (but gets that clown-ish, "smiley" frameless rearview mirror from Gentex, at least in the higher trims), so kiss that tint goodbye in any Honda offering. :wavebye:
