why do most hatchbacks have a rear wiper but coupes and sedans don’t

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The angle of the glass on hatch backs varies from straight up and down to almost horizontal. They almost all have a rear wiper.

sedans and coupes can have similar glass angles, yet don’t have rear wipers.

why?

In: Engineering

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Jalopnik endeavored to answer this question like 5+ years ago and after talking to people in the automotive business they said it is because designers feel that a rear wiper on a coupe or sedan makes for a less sleek, less clean profile. But on hatchbacks and wagons, people expect a wiper and designers feel that they can sacrifice the clean look to meet that expectation. So based on that it seems like a purely aesthetic reason. (It should be noted that there have been some sedans that had a rear wiper either standard or as an option, but that is uncommon.)

For example, consider the Mazda 6 from the early 2000s: there is a sedan version as well as a hatchback version that looks almost identical to the sedan, with the angle of the rear window being pretty much the same. (Disregard the wagon version, which has an entirely different shape to the rear of the b-pillar.) The sedan has no rear wiper, while the hatchback does.

[Mazda 6 sedan image 1](https://images.app.goo.gl/Fc7ZEV9GG6brb8fe8) [image 2](https://images.app.goo.gl/x6YiwY2PLwBXSNwGA)

[Mazda 6 hatch](https://images.app.goo.gl/hHcpt3W6WyyXLoVQ7)

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