Ode to the rear wiper.

Oh rear window wiper, you simple, humble thing.
I hardly noticed you when loading up what to bring. 

But you were there, waiting to wipe away the mess and the muck, 
whenever I shifted to reverse and had to back up. 

When the salt would stick and the rain would pour, 
you'd wipe them away and just ask for more.

Tailgaters. Cyclists. Police in their cars. 
I saw them all clearly through little defrost bars.

But now you are gone, my window is bare. 
Huyndai left off what should be right there.  

The window is sloped, there's plenty of room.
But I can't see behind me when I try to go zoom. 

Its hard losing a friend when they go away, 
May your new owner never, ever stray. 

And to the designers who made this poo of a horse, 
Remember the 911? The nice one from Porsche. 

The only sedan that I can think of that offered a rear wiper in the US was the Mitsu Evo.  

I've often wondered why not offered more widely.  

It's optional on the Porsches and ends up being a pretty rare option because nobody orders it. My cayman doesn't see a ton of rain driving but I've never felt like it was necessary. The fiesta window is almost vertical and has the spoiler to further block airflow over it so it needs the wiper. But I've never driven a car with a flatter rear window that felt like it needed a wiper.

Also, now I'm angry at you for making me look at the abomination that is the 992 rear end.

I've never driven a car that wasn't better for, or wouldn't have been better for, having a rear wiper.

One of the first things to go from the TII in the name of weight savings and aerodynamics.  I'm pretty sure it was good for a tenth in the quarter.

I actually removed the rear wiper from my CRX in order to fit louvers. It was not standard on the car. Now I feel I need to do an A-B test to see how well it works on a car with such a significantly sloped rear window.

If I do a report, it will be in prose instead of verse, alas.

hatchbacks have to have one. 

My car has a rear wiper.  I think both times I have needed to use it in the year I've I owned it I have had to spend a lot of time fiddling with the control stalk to get it to turn on.  What I really miss is gas stations with filled/functional window wipe buckets/squeegee things.  They all seem to be dried out, busted, etc.

That said I used to life on a dirt road and that dust would cake your back window pretty quickly.

I do understand why an engineer would quash,

because rear wipers are removed, forcefully by the car wash.

I think the MPV had one, and I know the CX-9 has one.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I used both of them in the 17 years I've dailied those two vehicles.  And I bet two of those times were in response to "Daddy, make the rear wiper go!"

The rear wiper is like an appendix.  It serves absolutely no useful function.

bobzilla said:

hatchbacks have to have one. 

No they do not.

I'm just stoked that after six years I finally found a source for the Mini's tiny rear wiper. I'd still been using the original.

I'm with Bob here. The upcoming Kia EV6 apparently has no rear wiper (I'd be delighted to be proven wrong) and I have to say that's a deal-breaker no matter how great the GT version is. There are times, at least in Canada, when a r. w. is as necessary as the ones in the front.

The first r. w. I ever saw in action was on a 911 in the rain on the Don Valley Parkway, and I thought it was the coolest damn thing I had ever seen. That said, when I use mine I'm not trying to be cool; I'm trying to see.

dps214 said:

bobzilla said:

hatchbacks have to have one. 

No they do not.

If you want to see behind you in rain and snow storms? Yeah you do. But if you never use youre mirrors I guess it doesn't matter.

Real Integra Type Rs don't have rear wipers. 

The XJ has one. It gets used fairly regularly because the grime thrown up behind the vehicle sticks to the rear window. I even went to the trouble of fixing the rear washer. 

bobzilla said:

dps214 said:

bobzilla said:

hatchbacks have to have one. 

No they do not.

If you want to see behind you in rain and snow storms? Yeah you do. But if you never use youre mirrors I guess it doesn't matter.

Again, no, at least not universally. There's way more variables involved.

1988RedT2 said:

I think the MPV had one, and I know the CX-9 has one.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I used both of them in the 17 years I've dailied those two vehicles.  And I bet two of those times were in response to "Daddy, make the rear wiper go!"

The rear wiper is like an appendix.  It serves absolutely no useful function.

Actually, there is a theory that appendix does serve a purpose.  The Flora that flourishes in your intestines can be wiped out either through invasive bacteria, or in the modern age, by medicine.  The appendix is a "reservoir" of flora that can repopulate your intestines if that happens.

https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/picture-of-the-appendix#:~:text=Normally%2C%20the%20appendix%20sits%20in,remnant%20from%20our%20evolutionary%20past.

I just ordered new wipers for my disco when I discovered that the rear wiper blade had perished.  Many of the cars I have had over the years had rear wipers, and used them all.

In reply to dps214 :

Then explain. Please enlighten us. I've yet to drive a modern hatchback that a rear wiper in inclement weather was not a benefit to rear visibility 

I was pleased to find out that my new Kar not only has a rear wiper, but it has a spray mode, full time on, and intermittent button.

I do love a good rear wipe

mad_machine said:

Actually, there is a theory that appendix does serve a purpose.....

LOL.  When I posted that, I was pretty sure that someone was going to speak up for appendixes (appendices?) everywhere.  It was literally just the first useful analogy that popped into my head.

I can go for years without switching on my rear wiper.  I do try to keep my car pretty clean, and I've been known to clean the glass in between washes.

Most modern sedans are hatch backs with a flawed opening design. Same profile as many hatch backs with the long sloped glass and short deck. But instead of the glass opening as it should, only the tiny deck portion opens. And rather than nice struts concealed and out of the way, many have trunk hinge mechanisms that waste trunk space, crush trunk objects, or both. It's not even form over function because it looks the same as a hatchback! 

I'd love to have rear wipers on everything. I never understood the thinking of why only people who drive certain kinds of cars would want to see out the back. I don't think I've seen one that does intermittent correctly though. One of my cars- my Eclipse GSX maybe?- had a speed sensitive intermittent setting, but it was backwards of what happened in the real world. It went faster as you drove faster, but in reality, rain pooled up faster when stopped or going slow and it was hardly needed at speed.

bobzilla said:

In reply to dps214 :

Then explain. Please enlighten us. I've yet to drive a modern hatchback that a rear wiper in inclement weather was not a benefit to rear visibility 

I think you're only picturing the suv shaped hatchbacks, which you're absolutely right about. But you can make sedan and coupe shaped hatchbacks too, and those are shaped such that the rear window isn't a huge low pressure zone and therefore doesn't accumulate all the rain/snow/dirt on it.

Peabody said:

I was pleased to find out that my new Kar not only has a rear wiper, but it has a spray mode, full time on, and intermittent button.

I do love a good rear wipe

If it has a spray its like a rear bidet

Peugeot 405 had one.

I use mine constantly. The hatch on my 2 is always dirty and I live on a dirt road. I like to know what's following me. Like that Ford Explorer the other morning that looked too suspiciously like a patrol car. And it was.