I needed a new wiper blade. It’s been on my “to-do” list for quite some time but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Seeings how we’ve had enough rain in the past two weeks, I thought perhaps that I today would be a good day to take care of that. The boy reminded me actually. Told me to head over there and they would put them on for me.
Now, I’m sure that I’ve bought wiper blades before in the past, but I don’t recall anything about them really. They are a smaller part, so I assumed that they wouldn’t be too terribly pricey and off I went to start my errand running by stopping by there.
I explained to Cesar that I needed a wiper blade. He asks me for the make and model of my car and I tell him. Thank goodness you don’t need to know anything about the engine or stuff like that to buy wiper blades because I would’ve been clueless.
He pulls up his little computer program and types in 04 Kia Sorento and then tilts the screen toward me to show me what he’s found. The best I have is going to be $19.98 for the passenger and $23.98 for the driver side.
Really? For a piece of plastic that just wipes the water off? And why don’t they come in pairs? That was WAY more than I was expecting to spend, so I politely tell him that I really just need a blade that will accomplish removing the water from my windshiled when it’s raining and that really? I only need it to be accomplished on the driver side because the passenger side is not an issue.
He scrolls down and finally I settle for the driver side blade that costs $11.98. The passenger side one, he tells me, is only 8.98. I pass. I don’t need to spend that $9 right now. There’s nothing wrong with the passenger side blade. It seemed like a frivilous purchase to me.
(The $9 I spent 30 minutes later at Tar-jay, however, was not. I can assure you.)
So, anywho, I pay for my blade and then ask him if a girl can put this on. Let’s be real. It’s raining and I don’t want to put it on, don’t know how to put it on, and despite the fact that the boy told me they would put it on for me, I didn’t want to assume that they would.
He told me that he would. Then he made sure that it worked before I left.
So when I see the boy, I tell him about this experience. And I ask him why the drivers side would be more than the passenger side. He tells me that it’s because it’s longer. Really? $3 for what? Two inches more of material?
Not buying it.
Then he tells me that he’s never replaced just one wiper before. So I asked if both wipers went at the same time for him, all the time. He just kinda shook his head and I went into how I didn’t need a blade for the other side, it was working fine, and I didn’t see the point in spending the money. I’m sure wiper blades are not like tires, which, I do know that you need to replace both of them, even if just one really needs to be replaced.
So that was the start of my day… a trip to Advanced Auto. And I’ll have you know?
The driver’s side window is so much clearer now and there’s still NOTHING wrong with the other side and I REALLY want to know why it’s more expensive to buy a driver’s side than a passenger side AND why there are varying levels of wiper blades. Had I spent the $22.98 on the best they had? How would it would it be different?
Until next time…
