Ode to the rear wiper.

Boost_Crazy said:

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.

My Disco's rear wiper has an intermitten function that is totally automated.  No, it does not have a short, it goes to intermittent when the main wipers are turned to intermittent.  It even keeps time with them.  It actually took me years to find out it has this feature as I rarely used the wiper for more than a wipe or two before turning it off.  I accidently left it on while turning and it was doing it's thing.

My first rear wiper experience was the SVX. Definitely nice on long road trips, but otherwise I generally kept the car clean enough that I didn't really use it. That car had defrost traces under where the wipers sat, and that feature should really be more common.

The Caprice wagon and my Tahoe didn't/don't have one, and those windows instantly became impossible to see through in the rain. It's definitely been nice to have on the new Suburban.

Mad_Machine reminds me that my 2020 Odyssey turns the rear wiper on by itself if you put the vehicle in reverse while the front wipers are turned on.  Helpful, I guess, but a little unnerving if you're not expecting it.