Ryan Felton of The Wall Street Journal has tallied nearly 500 reports filed by owners of U.S.-sold vehicles equipped with sunroofs that have spontaneously exploded or shattered so far this year. Felton notes there were 550 such incidents in all of 2025, up from 350 in 2021.

“According to drivers and testers, a common culprit is unnoticed road debris, as well as hot temperatures and defects,” Felton notes. “The failures are happening across all makes and models, with 17 automakers and over 200 models appearing in the data set.”

The trend coincides with the proliferation of large, panoramic-style sunroofs. In a blog post, attorneys with the Oakland, Calif., firm of Gibbs Murra note thousands of vehicles have been subject to recent sunroof-focused recalls in recent months, including the Audi Q5, Hyundai Veloster, Volvo S40 and several Honda models.

“Vehicle manufacturers, glass suppliers and engineers have proposed different theories as to why panoramic sunroofs are spontaneously shattering on some drivers,” they write. “As with the case of [the Audi Q5] recall, extreme temperatures may be to blame. Engineers interviewed by www.carcomplaints.com indicate imperfections in the glass itself, occurring either before or after manufacture, may cause the sunroofs to shatter. Additionally, as a car’s body bends and flexes, it may exert pressure on the sunroof, to the point of explosion.”

Read more at The Wall Street Journal