Tuesday, May 05, 2009

$60 wipers, REALLY?

No wonder the Big 3 are in trouble. GM feels the need to build a car that requires $30 to replace EACH wiper blade. My wife's car is one year old and the rubber on the wipers are coming apart and do about a half way job so I went on a quest to replace them. First stop, O'Reilly Auto Parts. I bought 2 recommended Bosch wipers and walked about to put them on. I struggled in front of the store so I figured I'd take them home to do the job in private. No luck getting them on. Took em back and even the guy couldn't get them on. Next stop, AutoZone(It's always going to be AutoSHACK to me). They didn't have them.

The next day I drove to the Pontiac dealer and he said $60 plus tax, but he didn't have them in stock. WOW! All it needs is the refill that easily slides in the arm. BUT NO, they don't make it and you have to buy the whole thing. It should be a $10 or less fix and it's not. That night I drove to NAPA and bought 2 wiper blades and paid $45 with tax. They fit and work so now it can rain and my wife will be able to see.

That is ridiculous that replacing wipers on a yearly basis is going to cost me $45. Almost more expensive than buying tires for the car. A thief would slide the rubber out of new ones and and replace them with the olds ones before returning them for a refund. It would take a month or 2 before they realized they'd been had.

Imagine if I wanted some high performance triple blade wipers.

4 comments:

kvkid said...

Do you think they are trying to raise prices on things already now that Pontiac shut down?

JDHTEACH said...

I had this exact sticker shock over wipers a few years ago. Luckily you can just change the wiper part and it cut my cost way down. This is something that has transpired in the last 10 years. I remember in college needing new wipers and being in and out for under 10 bucks!

Why did they go bad after ONE YEAR?

The MAN Fan Club said...

kvkid,

Not sure. The Napa parts for $45 seemed high. Scam that there isn't a refill.

The MAN Fan Club said...

JDTeach,

My truck replacements were less than $20. Cheap GM parts.