This one has been bothering me for years: why don’t all cars have rear window wipers?
Typically station wagons, hatchbacks and all sorts of minivans and SUVs have one; but ordinary four-door cars almost never do. Yet the need is identical: why, then, discriminate against these?
If you have a good answer, post it in the comments!
you can’t reach the rear window from the backseat of an SUV, but can from the backseat of a sedan.
I think it has to do with the angle of the glass. Some windows naturally collect more crud (mostly dust) than others. Look around and see whether wipers are not more prevalent on windows which are more nearly vertical than those which lack wipers.
Interesting idea, Tom. I’ll look to see whether that relationship exists, though my impression is that the division is exact – four doors no wiper, 5 doors yes. Of course four door cars also have a more slanting glass.
Nathan,
In Israel – that’s the law. Even when the geometry of the car is (virtually) unchanged, if the rear window is part of a hatch – it has to have a wiper (see Mazda6 for example). It makes no sense.
On cars with vertical rear windows, and without a separate trunk (like minivans, or Renault Clio), a rear wiper is really beneficial, becuase all the crud thrown into the air by your own car ends up on your rear window – probably has to do with turbulence behind your car.
I’m with Nathan. It makes no sense that non-hatchbacks lack a rear wiper. We recently sold our Civic hatchback that had fairly vertical rear glass and a wiper. Had it been a sedan, the wiper would have been missing.
I think the reason hatchbacks get wipers is because there’s room for it. In sedans there is less room for wiper arms. But that’s just a guess.
the air flow over the sedan cars it’s different from the hatchbacks
in an hatch, the car’s shape ends BEFORE the rear glass, and so the air falls (for aerodynamics purposes the air must fall right at the end of the car) over the window
in a sedan, the car ends AFTER the rear window, so the big fall is after the tail, just where the plate is located
sorry for my bad english, i’m from Italy
It could have something to do with the size of the vehicle. On smaller vehicles the side mirrors allow you to see a greater percentage of what’s behind you, while larger vehicles rely more heavily on their back window.
A modern station wagon and a modern coup or 4-door are about the same width, so my point above is moot; perhaps the idea was incorporated back in yore when the width difference between the two was greater? I dunno.