I had a lift the other day in a chauffeur-driven 740i (pre-Bangle). Lovely car, beautifully driven.
But.... the windscreen wipers were the wrong way 'round (i.e. the unswept corner was on the driver's side). Since then I've noticed many 5 Series are the same
What's the story. If I was spending that much on a car, I'd expect UK-style wipers!
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Same on Clios and 206s. They are a right pain and would put me off buying. Zafiras, Sharans, smarts all use the system where the wipers sweep from the middle to the outer edge and on these the set up isn't altered for RHD. As a result the larger unswept area is on the right and not the left. For the smart all they would have to do is make wiper arms which mirror those for the LHD models, but they don't do it.
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Has to be cost cutting. But on a 7 series BMW would the purchaser notice an extra few quid for this?
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I've noticed on the clio that they use a fancy connection of levers to make the arm pivot move as the arm swipes, so as to vary the radius of the swipe as it travels up the screen and minimise the unswiped corner on the driver's side.
IMHO I think this is very ingeneous and lets companies cut costs by not manufacturing and stocking seperate wiper gearbox/motor components for both LHD and RHD.
I often wonder if it would not have been cheaper for them to do things the old fashioned way and just need those 2 types of gearbox/motor, instead of spending the time and money thinking up something new.
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The Renault and Peugeot ones are all very fancy, but it doesn't remove the problem of water from the left hand wiper being thrown over the drivers side of the windscreen at the end of every stroke. On a proper RHD set up this water goes to the passenger side.
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My brother had the same problem on his brand new Golf GTi years ago. I though all that was a thing of the past!
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I was just about to log on to post the same thing! I was following a 5 series and thinking that if the driver was tall, he would have a big blind spot and it would reduce visibility of signs.
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No problem.
Good BMW drivers never look outside anyway. The only thing to see is inferior cars - why bother?
The only window that needs to be clear is the rear one - to keep a look out for flashing blue lights.
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"a fancy connection of levers to make the arm pivot"
The 7 Series had this, but it still wasn't very good, expecially for a 6' driver.
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What about the Merc solution, centre mounted windscreenwiper with a cam system that extends the wiper reach into the corners of the screen.
Dont know if they still use this system but the only Mercs I regularly take a ride in (taxi upto the observatory on La Palma)
had this system
Ian L.
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Merc have dropped the single wiper now. I think the last model to have it was the previous E-Class.
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The Merc single wiper was quite effective but rather hypnotic. Another reason for the switch to two wipers are that the windscreens are more steeply raked hence longer
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PD....shame, I really liked the single wiper!
AJIT...rather hypnotic...I know, saved me getting very travel sick all the way up the mountain (100 hairpin bends at speed).
Ian L.
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My 1995 BMW has "right way round" wipers so its odd that other BMWs don't unless they are pre-1995 and the wipers were different then. Unless I am not understanding "right" or "wrong" way. Just for clarification, my wipers move clockwise from rest to the right (when sitting in car), is everyone saying that they have seen 7 and 5 series cars with the wipers going in the opposite direction?.
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I think that 1995 is an E34 so could be different.
Clockwise bit - yes you are spot on. The tip of the blades end up at the passengers side (and the middle of the screen)
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I have a 5 series and asked whether it was possible to change when I bought the car as it was something that bugged me.
To be honest the wiper on the driver's side isn't that bad. it gets pushed outwards before going up and therefore only misses a small area at the top of the windscreen.
During driving it is an area of the screen that I never look in and therefore it is not a problem but I agree 100% that they should be set for RHD!
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Doesn't the 3 series have them the right way round? Even thought they're cheaper, hmm...
Kev
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Have driven a 3-Series for the last 3 years. I'll check it out in the morning and let you know ;-)
Oz (as was)
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This topic has been stuck in my mind for about a month now!!!!
I compared my 5 series with the wrongly set wipers to my wifes car with correctly set ones and came to the decision that I prefered my wipers the wrong way round. Sure I get a little patch in the top corner that doesn't get cleared but this is smaller than usual due to the action of the wiper.
However with my wife's correctly set wipers I found them annoying as when they were fully extended I had 2 blades in my vision compared with the 1 on my 5.
As for clearing the water from the driver's view I could not see any advantage either way
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My A4 has them set for the UK. Have only had it for 2.5k miles but it bugs me in the wet. The wipers clear the screen OK but they throw a huge amount of water onto the drivers side window.
The aerodynamics seem to push the water up the window so I can still see the mirror but the rest of the window has a river running across it - so any over the shoulder looks on a motorway are pointless.
Anybody else have this problem ?
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In VW New Beetle, there's a substancial centre tunnel. The hand- brake in it has a neat cut-out so you can grab it ... but on the RH versions, the cut-out is on the left side .... :-((
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Surely you would want the cut out on the left as it would be your left hand you were putting round the handbrake? Or am I missing something here?
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Depends how tempting your passenger's legs are....
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