Wipers Gone Wild!
(Continued)

Some shops have replaced their winter blade offering with the beam/flat/aero blades. There are advantages over the winter blade design, namely much better wrap around curved glass and greatly improved aerodynamics. Depending on the beam/flat/aero blade, the driver could experience some slight snow and ice build-up on the blade, but beam/flat/aero blades are a great improvement over conventional blades in winter conditions.

Plastic Rear Wipers

In the past, rear wipers generally used the same conventional frame blade found on the front glass. This is no longer the case. Since 2005, it is common to see a rear wiper blade and arm made of reinforced plastic. These blades cannot be replaced with conventional frame blades or beam/flat/aero blades, and that means more part numbers! In order to provide 95 percent-plus rear plastic wiper coverage, you will need to stock more than 20 additional part numbers. Most front wipers are replaced every year to two years, but rear wipers are not changed for three to four years. Therefore, installers are just noticing demand for this product. However, since there are more than 17 million rear plastic wipers on the road today, shops will need to stock at least the most popular blade sizes, or send their customers to dealers or competition.

Uni-blade

Unknown to many installers is the new “uni-blade” design found on the newer Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus/Scion, and some GM models. How popular is this blade? Right now there are 7.3 million uni-blades on the road, and in 2009 the number grew by 35.7 percent over 2008. The popularity of this design keeps steadily increasing. Upon initial inspection, it may look like a beam/flat/aero blade, but it is a steel frame blade covered by a plastic shroud featuring joints that swivel. The low profile plastic shroud is molded with an integrated spoiler to greatly reduce wind lift effects. Currently no aftermarket wiper manufacturer is offering a dedicated uni-blade wiper line; they are only found at OEM parts and service. Uni-blades only connect to the small hook arm, so other blade styles may fit these arms. There have been some fit problems replacing with conventional frame blades, due to some unique hook arm designs. We found more success replacing uni-blades with the beam/flat/aero blade connector systems.

This summarizes the current state of the wiper replacement industry, its expansion, its options, but most importantly its challenges to service centers where wipers are an important component of their product line-up. About four years ago we wrote an article warning that within the next five to 10 years each shop would need to stock 40 to 50 wiper part numbers to service over 90 percent of their customers. The wiper expansion happened even quicker than we had predicted!

TIM CRAIG, a 34-year veteran of the automotive aftermarket, is a special chemical consultant to Mighty and a partner in R/T Marketing. He can be reached at: timcraig@comcast.net

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