Wny don't saloon cars have rear wind scren wiper?

Question

This bugs me - when it rains it gets all fogged up, but estates and hatchbacks all get them! I don't accept the boot prevents it!

Answer 1

It is marketing led.Manufacturers carry out surveys and ask customers what they think are the most important items they would look for when buying a car. Most people put air con, heated seats, electric windows,all the normal stuff before rear wipers so the manufacturers only fit what they have to. Being penny pinching as these manufacturers are, they save themselves millions by not fitting rear wipers and they brain wash people into believing that a saloon car doesn't need a rear wiper owing to the position of the window. I believe that it would greatly improve saloon cars if it they had rear wipers and in fact some Nissan models ( Skyline, 200SX,) ( Subaru Impreza saloon for the Japanese market) have them.In fact it may well be it is impossible to sell any car in Japan without a rear wiper because Japan is a rainy, humid country. In my opinion car manufacturers are very good at fitting extras as a marketing exercise that cost very little while ignoring items that are more essential, for instance if you have not got a rear wiper you can't put it on but automatic front wipers and lights are becoming popular things for manufacturers to fit but why do you need these when you have the switches at your fingertips to decide when you want to put them on or not ?

Answer 2

For most cars its the aerodynamics of the chassis. Most saloons have a swallow sloping window. When your moving along, the wind moves over the car, the swallower the rear screen, the more contact it has with the air flow over the top of it. This puts pressure on the wiper, so if your turned it on the wiper it would lift slightly off the window and contact with it would be at a minimum, defeating the purpose of the wiper in the first place.

With hatchbacks, the rear window is almost vertical, the windows is therefore sheltered from the air travelling over the top of the car so its more feasible to have a wiper

Answer 3

Saloons (or sedans here in the States) dont have rear wiper because the angle of the rear window is designed for rain to quickly be removed by the downdraft as the car travels down the road. Due to the more harshly angled rear windows on estates and hatchbacks (Station wagons and SUV's) a rear wiper is necessary to see out our rear view window.
Here in the US BTW, 99% of all cars have rear window defoggers for the fog problem.

Answer 4

My theory is that because of the way air moves over the motorcar, ones with vertical or near vertical rears (estates -- what we call station wagons in the USA) get more rain and stuff deposited there, so they need a wiper more than a saloon car (sedan in the USA) does.

Answer 5

Its all about air flow. Estates draw dirt to the back as they go through air. Try driving with the back open and smell the exhaust fumes

Answer 6

whats a rear wind scren

Answer 7

it is because of the shape of the boot is it has a slight slant to it wipers work if not they are ineffective at removing water.

Answer 8

good question i have a Subaru imprexa and i can never see out the back window it drives me mad .

Answer 9

if i pisses you of that much get a hatchback