So took SWMBO's Jazz for a service and they rang me mid-morning to say the wipers were "on the split" and would I like them replaced? No, I haemoglobin-well would not at their prices.
So I went down to Halfords to see my friend Pat.
Now, to explain, "on the split" means the mechanic gives the edge of the blade a gentle tug and when it is a couple of years old it splits, so when you pick up the car you have to replace the wretched things.
Pat tells me that these days Halfords find it difficult to match up wiper blades for many modern cars as the manufacturers specify odd fitments that mean that only the dealers stock them. She was unable to find a match for me, so I took away their replacement blade kits and with a bit of jiggery-pokery they worked fine at about one third of Honda's cost to replace.
So, low cost to run cars are not so cheap to run as they would have us believe.
Can I put in a good word for Pat here, can talk with me for hours about cars, much more interesting than most of the blokes I know.
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Well
36k miles from new, 23 months, two winters, and all of my wiper blades are starting to go on the split.
I reckon 2 years is it for blades. I always get the whole blade assembly replaced, every time I change a rubber refill they aalways squeek and scrath and judder.
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Fair comment, but should I really be expected to pay £25+VAT for 3 wiper blades?
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Ridiculous price. I can never understand why Bosch, Valeo, Champion blades are half the price in France that they are here. And if you buy the supermarkets own brand (which as far as I can see are identical to Valeo) they are even cheaper. I always stock up for family's cars when on a "booze cruise"
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The problem is that manufacturers are starting to install 'unique fitment' blades - i.e. you have to buy them from a dealer because the arm adapter is unique to that car. Some of these can be really dear (£25+ for a single blade) - there is little advantage to the customer, its just a way of extracting more money.
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>> Ridiculous price. I can never understand why Bosch, Valeo, Champion blades
>> are half the price in France that they are here. And
>> if you buy the supermarkets own brand (which as far as
>> I can see are identical to Valeo) they are even cheaper.
>> I always stock up for family's cars when on a "booze
>> cruise"
>>
Is everything car related half the UK price in France. I read elsewhere that Brits have their cars serviced in France as it's much cheaper than the UK. With much higher social costs than here, I really don't understand how that can be?
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£25+VAT is a bit of a rip, especially when there is nothing to them really.
I bought 2 16" wiper blades from nettos just over a year ago, for 99p each (yes, less than £1). Took them out of their box, and guess what, they are Valeo blades in a different box. Fair enough, they weren't the best, and they are just about done, but at 99p, I can't complain.
I might treat myself to some Bosch ones from Costco, but what the point when I can have Wilkinson blades for about 1.50 each, which do the same job.
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"I can have Wilkinson blades for about 1.50 each, which do the same job."
Yes true, but they really scratch my face and leave blood spots.
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NB Even if you've got a manufacturer-specific wiper blades you can usually replace the rubbers with the ones from cheap wipers.
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Wiper blades for the Landcruiser were £4 inc VAT from Toyota, so not too bad - admittedly they were by far, the cheapest items on my invoice!
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My VW Bora uses two completely different types of windscreen wiper blades (the driver's side has a spoiler). A set from Partco (a motor factor!) is just under £20, Halfords £12 and from gsf.co.uk £8.
There is no logic to such pricing. I would normally use refills but it has proved very difficult to fit them compared to those of other cars I've owned over the years.
However, I certainly wouldn't use the cheapo ones, especially those "Magic" five-bladed examples. A complete waste of money as so many have found to their cost.
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What's for you won't pass you by
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I can beat that slightly:
IS200 #1, had it for 3 years from new, 40,000 miles, on original wipers when sold and wiping acceptably.
IS200 #2, had it for 3 years 1 months from new, 41,000 miles, still on original wipers. Still wiping acceptably.
No doubt the wipers on current one will split tomorrow now I've tempted fate!
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>> I can beat that slightly
Last year the rear window wiper split on my Escort.
How long had it been there? 16 years.
--------------
Mike Farrow
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Pleased to report that the Halfords blade kits work well and without undue noise.
Does the idea of unique fit wipers for individual models of cars not increase costs when building the cars in the first place?
Please help me out of this modern age, I want to go back to owning a Triumph Herald?
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Same at the Vauxhall dealer, they are good quality spoiler ones 20"+ long for about £3.75+VAT, you go to these high street shops and they have nasty ones with an assortment of ill-fitting adaptors, and they cost several times more.
Dealers can be cheaper on some items, especially if you ask the parts desk for special or trade prices.
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"Is everything car related half the UK price in France"
Obviously not if Toyota and Vauxhall are only charging £4 a set for wipers - sounds like a good deal to me!! Some things are cheaper - main Citroen dealer in Rennes (and yes it is an absolutely huge new concrete and glass building) charges £35 per hour for labour which compares favourably with the Ford dealer mentioned on another thread at £69 per hour. They also seem to go in for doing services "sans rendezvous" - just turn up rather than booking car in for the full day.
Bargains are to be had in the supermarkets - saw some Elf fully synth oil (5 litres plus 2 litres free) for £15 recently, Holts concentrated washer liquid £4 for 5 litres etc but I guess you can find similar here if you look around. It's just that in France these seem to be normal prices rather than "special offers"
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Just tried my local Ford Dealership for new blades for my C-Max.
They wanted over £60 for a pair! (They are Bosch Aerotwins 26"/19", but even so...)
Checked out Halfords and they don't yet stock them for the C-Max, but do for VWs and Audis at around £20-£30 depending on sizes - which sounded very modest by comparison. What amazed me was the price they listed for fitting these! £2.50 (or was it £2.99) and all you do is lift the arm and turn the blade 90 degrees and pull it off the pin, reverse for fitting. I doubt it would take much more than 1 minute to do two, so that works out at a labour rate of over £100 per hour!
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Just a small point. If you fit new wiper blades yourself, don't leave the arm upright without making sure that the strong spring mechanism doesn't send it crashing back onto the windscreen (even a nudge with your elbow can cause it). A sheet of cardboard on the screen will stop any potential damage if the worse happens.
As some people have found out to their cost a windscreen arm hitting the screen with force has meant a replacement being required...:-(
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What's for you won't pass you by
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My MIL has just got a new shaped Focus. The wiper blades on that look VERY expensive, and certainly couldn't be replaced with Bosch type ones.
On the other hand, and with no scientific basis, they look like they'd be really effective too.
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IIRC the blades on the new focus are Bosch aero-twin's as mentioned above.
Yes they are expensive at the moment as the smaller companies can't make their cheaper versions yet.
Only Bosch, Champion, and Valeo are making them AFAIK. But beware the different companies have different fitting mechanisms, so where a car is fitted with Bosch OEM you can't fit a Valeo. This also holds the price up.
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Reminds me of the HJ article, years back, where the customer, of a Renault IIRC, dealer offered to fit new blades.
As well as top retail price, for the blades, £$£$£$£ for the technicians .25 of an hour to fit!!
I know they can sometimes be fiddly, but...
& as credit to Vauxhall, 3 blades for the Omega, on Trade Club discount, was around £13 & fitted straight on, first time.
VB
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We recently bought a used Toyota. The front wipers were not good. Rusty, tatty looking blades (probably six years old) and they juddered over the screen. I was amazed to see from the service invoices that the rubbers only were replaced by the main dealer back in August for about £11+VAT. Why bother? First thing I did was get a set of Bosch blades (one with spoiler) for £17 a set. Lovely - silent and effective.
I've bought Bosch blades for various cars for about the last six years, previous to that I used to buy Champion. Bosch used to be pricier but now they do the twin sets in a variety of sizes. They seem to last 2-3 years. I once bought Halfords own brand for a single wiper Merc 190E (because they had no Bosch in stock). The blade design was not substantial enough for the Merc wiper motor - causing it to judder on the screen. The Halfords blade was even more expensive than the Bosch! I got a refund from Halfords.
I'm sure it's been mentioned on here before but replacement rubbers seem to be a waste of time - just replace the whole blade.
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>> The Halfords blade was even more expensive than the Bosch!
>> I got a refund from Halfords.
I've had this before, and they were complete rubbish too.
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"I'm sure it's been mentioned on here before but replacement rubbers seem to be a waste of time - just replace the whole blade."
It has, but its worth saying again. The rubber may be the part that cleans the screen, but its the blade assembly that keeps it all in contact. The assembly suffers just as much wear as the rubber. So if its smeary, noisy, juddery, change the whole blade assembly.
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I needed to replace a rear wiper on a Xantia one time, so I bought it from a Citroen dealer. As it looked a bit of a pig to get on and off I just asked "are they easy to fit" and the nice man came outside and broke it. He went back in, came out with another, fitted it and sent a happy customer on his way. Now if I'd gone home and broken it...
John
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"What excellent service from Autobulbs Direct! (www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk)
They did not even list the wiper blades I needed yesterday but when I phoned them they said they would see what they could do. They called back within a few hours to say that they would be stocking the item from tomorrow and had put it on their website so that I could place an order.
(And at £29.99, with free shipping they are less than half the price Ford wanted to charge me).
I would certainly recommend this company for good customer service.
Cheers, Peter. "
The above was sent by me to HJ, who has put the link on the Directory.
Yes, the Bosch Aerotwins seem to be the only blades that can be fitted to the C-Max and new style Focus. If they do the job well enough, I'm sure they will be worth the cost. My worry is that other manufacturers will immitate them but not provide the durability and quiet operation that Bosch promise. We will no doubt find out in a year or two!
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I've bought Halfords own brand wipers since goodness knows when, and not had any problems. However Bosch seem to come highly recommended in the Backroom, so the question is ...... where can I guarantee to be able to get some for my 03/03 Focus? I don't want to have to trail around several places before I can find some.
--
L'escargot.
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A certain major automotive glazing company sells Bosch wipers at very good prices.
Yes I am an employee.
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>> A certain major automotive glazing company sells Bosch wipers at very
>> good prices.
Auto Screen Systems*
Autoglass*
Autoglaze*
Crak Atak*
Glas.Weld Systems*
M J Windscreens*
National Windscreens*
RAC Auto Windscreens*
Screen Savers Windscreens*
Vehicle Glass*
Windscreen Repair Services*
*Delete as appropriate!
--
L'escargot.
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>> *Delete as appropriate!
Alternately do a forum search of his profile.
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>> >> *Delete as appropriate!
>>
>> Alternately do a forum search of his profile.
>>
This user has requested their profile be hidden.
--
L'escargot.
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>> >> Alternately do a forum search of his profile.
>> >>
>> This user has requested their profile be hidden.
Perhaps I should have worded that differently.
Alternately do a forum search of past posts.
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I'm back. Sorry I didn't reaslise I had switched the profile thingy off.
Mr Snail, second on the list, which you should of course put at the top (company head on).
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Mr Snail,
Ford OE wipers for a Mk 1 Focus such as yours (and mine) were only £17.50 inc fitting last year. Dont suppose they will have gone up too much since then.
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Oops forgot to say that was at my local Ford main dealer (Stockport)
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These Bosch aero wipers - are these the ones I've seen on Passats? If so are they any good?, particularly at speed with crosswinds? Would be interested to hear owner's views
In response to a previous post, I believe Euro Car Parts do a good price on Bosch wipers - as well as Bosch batteries (compared to Halfords). If there's one near you
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>> Ford OE wipers for a Mk 1 Focus such as yours
>> (and mine) were only £17.50 inc fitting last year.
Thanks AlastairW, I'll ring my local dealer.
--
L'escargot.
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>> "What excellent service from Autobulbs Direct! (www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk)
>> (And at £29.99 with free shipping they are less than half the price Ford wanted
>> to charge me).
>> I would certainly recommend this company for good customer service.
>> Cheers Peter. "
{lots of trimming and tidying up to remove excess quoting - DD}
Peter - Did the blades from Autobulbsdirect work & the £29.99, was that for a pair? I need to replace the blades on my 04 C-Max, but £60 by the Ford Dealership is daylight robbery! (£30 is still ridiculous, but nevertheless!) Tried Halfords and they don't do them. So would be interested to know if the ones you ordered did the job.
Thanks,
Debbie
Last edited by: Dynamic Dave on Mon 29 Oct 07 at 18:50
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I brought a set from Halfords for my Focus C Max last week. They are Halfords own brand only.
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>> Peter - Did the blades from Autobulbsdirect work
peterh:-
Date registered: Mon 17 Oct 2005
Last visited forum: Wed 19 Oct 2005 (not been seen here since)
Hopefully someone else can help?
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They are now £39 from autobulbsdirect.
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Funnily enough, I was standing in a branch of Halfords on Monday, looking at the prices of Bosch wiper blades while my Honda Accord was in for a service when my mobile rang. It was the dealer, pointing out that my car needed... yes, you've guessed it.
Unless I made a miscalculation in haste, the price he charged me for three new Honda (Valeo, I presume) blades wasn't much different from the cost of new Bosch ones.
Bosch are better, as I've proved in the past, but I caved-in and let this one go for the sake of sheer convenience.
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<< a branch of Halfords.......
>> ..... looking at the prices of Bosch wiper blades
I think that's answered my question!
--
L'escargot.
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Pairs of Bosch blades seem to be going for around the £10 mark on e-bay at the minute....
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That's where I just bought a pair from. They don't have the spoiler but for about a tenner posted you can't argue.
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I have found that when your expensive Aerotwin wipers need replacing you can refill them with ordinary wiper blade refills. You need to feel each end of the rubber and slide it back and forth, it will be crimped at one end which stops that end sliding. Prise off the end cap at the crimped end, and use a flatbladed screwdriver to prise up the crimp and then slide out the wiper rubber, cut the new one to length and replace in reverse order!
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£1.49 from Wilko's - Usually I get Bosch from the Local car spares place but Wilo's was the only place open on Sunday here.
There fine 3 weeks on, I'm happy enough
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Just bought two packs (4 blades) from Lidl @ £2.99 = £5.98. Fitted them to the 306 and have one left over. Quality looks good but no indication of brand. Made in EU.
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Lidl and Aldi wiper blades all perform just as well as Champion blades. I find the supermarket blades better than Bosch products which seem to be very noisy and smear the screen on our Pandas and the Jazz.
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I always get my blades from wiperblades.co.uk. They sell Bosch, Champion and Trupart (which seem fine). The prices are reasonable and service is good.
Catcher
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