why do you only get a back wiper with hatch backs and not with a boot?

Question

i just dont understand it why cant they put a windscreen wiper on the back window of cars that have boots and are not hatchbacks. does anyone know why...confused female driver

Answer 1

I agree totally. After driving a hatch for a few years, I really miss not having a wiper on my saloon car's rear screen.
I have seen it on a couple of saloons, so it can be done & it is necessary. I guess they just don't think we'd pay for it.

Answer 2

There are a few reasons:

It is easier.
There is generally a blank space in the metalwork below the rear screen on a hatchback where a wiper spindle and motor could be attached. This is much easier (and cheaper) than mounting the spindle through a hole in the glass, which would be necessary in a booted saloon car. However, this is less of an issue now - glass manufacturers are getting better at putting holes in rear screens, and some manufacturers have have developed a method for fitting a wiper above the exposed metalwork, but below the glass, and making it look like it passes through the glass (e.g. Renault on the Clio II and Mégane II).

It is more necessary.
The airflow over the car's body at speed is dependent on the shape of the car. The shape of many hatchbacks and estates (wagons) causes a turbulent zone over the rear glass, so that spray from the road lands on the glass, hindering rear vision. Therefore a rear wiper is useful on wet roads, even if it is not actually raining. This is seldom an issue on a booted saloon.

Customers haven't bought them when offered.
When customers were offered rear wipers as options on hatchbacks and estates, so many took up the option that manufacturers quickly made them standard. When rear wipers have been offered on saloon cars (Mazda 323 in the mid-80s, Ford Orion and Fiat Tempra in the early 90s, Peugeot 306 Sedan in the mid-90s), so few customers bought the option that the manufacturers quietly stopped offering it.

Answer 3

Generally manufacturers don't fit rear wipers on saloon cars because they are deemed to be unnecesary. Most road film that deposits on a car's rear window is caused by the car itself when in motion. In a saloon car (with boot) the rear overhang coupled with a generally steeper rear screen (than a hatchback) minimises the amount of residue on the rear screen.

Unfortunately this doesn't help much when condensation or rain droplets have formed overnight, though normally the rear-screen heater element can remedy this.

Answer 4

Hi

Its plainly and simply because there's nowhere to fit it without modifications here and there.

With a hatchback the rear window lifts up with the boot lid, whereas with a saloon only the boot lid lifts, which would mean that the motor and linkages would all have to be fitted to the rear window so that when the boot was opened the wiper and all its gubbins stayed where it was.

Cheers

Geordie

Answer 5

in lots of situations you come across that the salon rear window is at a steeper attitude and how the airflow travels over the motorcar has a tendency to maintain it sparkling from water. some with particularly distinctive aerodynamics do have a tendency to get highway spray onto them wherein case the manufacturers will attempt to in severe high quality condition a wiper if the boot beginning off facilitates. Hatchbacks and materials autos seem to struggle via from a super style of spray hitting the rear tutor show screen so are in desperate choose of a wiper with the point to make confident what's at the back of.

Answer 6

Because on a hatchback the window is closer to the rear and therefore picks up more dirt, Motor manufacturers don't put them on saloons as it would cost them extra and they could not get the customer to pay extra for something they cannot see the benefit of.


I would like to know, why windscreen wiper rubbers are always black! It would be nicer to have coloured ones to match your car!

Answer 7

I drive a Ford Ka and have a rear wiper.