I had a terribly slow drive in to work this morning due to the snow coming down. My usual 20-30 minute drive turned into over 1½ hours.
Anyway, unless I had the heat cranked and directed at the windshield, the snow was building up on the wiper blades and then icing up. This didn't help to keep the visibility. I've been meaning to get winter wiper blades since last winter, and today I decided would be a good day to finally get around to that.
After sitting down at my desk, I did a quick Google on "winter wiper blades 2008 ford escape" to get an idea of what's available. I had plans to walk over to the nearby
Canadian Tire at lunch and pick some up.
Much to my dismay, I found message threads that seemed to indicate that such a thing does not exist, for the 2008
Ford Escape.
What the hell? No winter wiper blades for an SUV sold in Canada?
I continued to read more threads from people who said they even contacted
Ford, and were told that they don't exist. In fact, aftermarket wiper blades in general are difficult to find.
One thread did indicate that there was a Trico brand winter blade available. I checked out their web site and found that Canadian Tire sells that brand,
but not the particular "winter blade" required for my truck.
So, I hopped onto
Twitter and post a quick rant:
"How is it possible that winter wiper blades don't exist for a 2008 Ford Escape, or any vehicle for that matter, sold in Canada? Hello? Snow?"
A few minutes later, I get a reply on Twitter:
@twister65 Let me see if I can get an answer for you.
I was puzzled. Who was this guy?
I clicked his name. "Head of social media at Ford..."
Interesting. Whoodathunkit. Ford is actually involved in social media and monitoring it? I sent him a quick thanks. We'll see what he can find out -- but I'm not holding my breath.
I walked over to Canadian Tire at lunch to see if they had anything. I looked up
Ford Escape 2008 in their little wiper blade catalog. Out of the eight or so brands that they carry, there was
ONE for a 2008 Ford Escape. One.
Armor All EDGE Silicone Wiper Blades. $25 per blade. Ouch. Although they weren't specifically "winter" wiper blades, they did indicate that they were good for snow and sleet, etc.
What other choice did I have? None. One of the workers there asked me if I was in a hurry for them. He said that they were going to go on sale next week or the week after. He couldn't tell me how much they were going to sell for though. I thanked him, but said I couldn't wait.
So back to work I walked, in this crappy weather, and down into the underground parking to put them on. It was easy enough. They included 3 different adapters.
I hopped into the truck and turned on the wipers, then sprayed the windshield with windshield wash.
Streaks. Two large, unwiped, streaks. Right in the center of the driver and passenger side windshield. WTF?
I took them off and double-checked to make sure I had them installed correctly. Yep, they were. Turned on the wipers again. They cleaned the unwiped part off. Sprayed the windshield again. Streaks... again.
I'm hoping that there's some kind of settling while they press against my windshield up until I leave to go home. I kept the old wipers just in case. I really don't want to have to pull over on my way home to switch them back.
At $25 per blade, you can bet that they'll be going back if they don't work.