Rear Window Defrogger and wiper information

Rear Window Defrogger and wiper information

Rear window defogger and wiper information is published yearly in the Ward’s Automotive Yearbook ¹ . Ward’s Yearbook lists the percentage of factory-installed equipment on passenger vehicles by manufacturer and model. Each yearbook contains a list of factory-installed equipment for the previous years’ production of vehicles. For example, Ward’s Automotive Yearbook 2002 contains a list of factory-installed equipment for vehicles produced in calendar year 2001. Ward’s groups the information about factory-installed equipment into four different vehicle groups: Domestic Cars, Imported Cars, Domestic Light Trucks, and Imported Light Trucks. Light trucks include all pickup trucks, vans, and Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). Table 1 shows the availability of rear window defogger and rear window wiper information contained in Ward’s Automotive Yearbooks by the four vehicle groups.

Table 1

Availability of Rear Window Defoggers and Wipers by Vehicle Group

Vehicle Group	Rear Defoggers	Rear Wipers
Domestic Cars	1973-later	1983-later
Imported Cars	1975-1998	1983-later
Domestic Light Trucks	1987-later	1987-later
Imported Light Trucks	1976-later	1983-later

¹This book is published by Ward’s Communications, Inc.

Domestic cars include all cars produced in the U.S., Canada and Mexico for the U.S. market. They include some models sold by foreign-based manufacturers but assembled in North America. For example, the Honda Accord and Civic have been assembled in the U.S. since 1987 and are listed with domestic cars since 1987. Similarly, the domestic light trucks (pickups, vans and SUVs) include all light trucks produced in North America for the U.S. market, even some models sold by foreign-based manufacturers. For example, the Toyota Tundra, Nissan Quest, and the Honda Odyssey are a few of the models sold by foreign-based manufacturers included in the domestic light truck list.

Imported cars and imported light trucks include all vehicles imported for U.S. sales. Consequently, this can include some models by domestic-based manufacturers assembled abroad. For example, the Geo Storm, Ford Aspire, and Cadillac Catera are included in the imported car list.

Ward’s classifies factory-installed equipment by calendar year of production. This is not exactly the same as model year, since some new model year vehicles are usually produced and introduced in the fall of the previous year. For example, vehicles produced in calendar year 2001 will include mostly 2001 model year vehicles and a small portion of 2002 model year vehicles. In this report, the calendar year production numbers are being used to represent the model year numbers (i.e., calendar year 2001 numbers are being used to represent model year 2001 model year numbers). This adds a little error to the analysis, but it is the only information available on rear window defoggers.

Ward’s Automotive Yearbook reports the combined percentage of rear window defoggers that blow air on the rear window and that electrically heat the rear window for 1976 model year domestic cars. For 1977-1981 model year domestic cars, Ward’s separately reports the percentage of rear window defoggers that blow air on the rear window and that electrically heat the rear window. It appears that rear window defoggers that blew air on the rear window were discontinued after 1981. The only 1981 model year domestic car with rear window defoggers that blew air was the Chevrolet Caprice. Only 1.6 percent of Chevrolet Caprice had rear window defoggers that blew air, but 44.3 percent of them had rear window defoggers that electrically heated the rear window. Since the percentage reported was a combination of both types of rear window defogger in 1976, the percentage used in the analysis for model year 1977-1981 will be the combination of both types. For 1982 model year domestic cars, Wards also reports the percentage of factory installed rear window washers.

Today, almost all new cars and imported light trucks sold in the U.S. have rear window defoggers, but only about half of the domestic light trucks have rear window defoggers. Table 2 shows the percentage of factory-installed rear window defoggers by model year and vehicle group.

Table 2

Percentage Factory-Installed Rear Defogger By Model Year And Vehicle Group

Model Year	Domestic Cars	Imported Cars	Domestic Light Trucks	Imported Light Trucks
1973	16.4%	.	.	.
1974	21.5%	.	.	.
1975	25.7%	72.1%	.	.
1976	29.9%	67.4%	.	0.6%
1977	35.0%	82.4%	.	0.6%
1978	39.1%	88.0%	.	0.0%
1979	47.5%	87.6%	.	0.0%
1980	50.5%	86.1%	.	0.1%
1981	50.9%	97.6%	.	0.0%
1982	55.9%	99.5%	.	0.0%
1983	59.0%	97.2%	.	6.1%
1984	63.1%	97.5%	.	11.9%
1985	74.0%	95.2%	.	11.6%
1986	71.7%	91.8%	.	13.4%
1987	73.6%	89.9%	17.3%	18.6%
1988	81.7%	87.2%	19.2%	19.2%
1989	83.3%	90.4%	17.0%	29.1%
1990	81.2%	91.2%	25.6%	31.9%
1991	88.6%	87.8%	31.5%	47.8%
1992	90.8%	96.0%	32.5%	44.9%
1993	91.9%	92.0%	37.3%	56.5%
1994	93.3%	93.1%	35.5%	65.0%
1995	94.1%	94.4%	40.2%	71.2%
1996	94.3%	95.7%	47.2%	88.4%
1997	94.7%	96.2%	40.6%	93.7%
1998	95.4%	99.9%	50.8%	98.4%
1999	95.2%	.	48.8%	100.0%
2000	96.9%	.	50.0%	99.6%
2001	94.2%	.	54.0%	99.7%

The percentage of new vehicles sold in the U.S. with factory-installed rear window defoggers has steadily increased since Ward’s started reporting rear window defoggers. For domestic cars, the rate has gone from 16 percent for model year 1973 cars to 94 percent of model 2001 cars. For imported cars, the rates have steadily increased like those of domestic cars, but are generally higher than those of domestic cars until recently, when almost all new cars sold in the United States are equipped with rear window defoggers. The rates for light trucks have some of the same general trends as cars. The rates have steadily increased like the car rates and the rates for imported light trucks are higher than those of domestic light trucks. The main difference between the car and light truck rates is that the domestic light truck rates do not catch up to the imported light truck rates in recent model years. Almost all imported light trucks have rear window defoggers, but only 54 percent of domestic light trucks have rear window defoggers.

Table 3 shows the percentage of factory-installed rear window defoggers by model year for six make-models of cars with high sales volumes.

In general, the percentage of factory-installed rear window defoggers on models by domestic-based manufacturers have steadily increased by model year, but the percentage on models by foreign-based manufacturers was high in the late 1970’s and has remained high. Most of the time the percentage of rear window defoggers increases slightly from one year to the next for each make-model.

The percentage has never increased from 0 to 100 percent in consecutive model years for any make-model, but in several make-models the percentage has had a big positive jump in consecutive model years. The Ford Tempo, Ford Crown Victoria, and Honda Civic shown in Table 3 have had large jumps in the percentage of rear defoggers in consecutive model years.

Table 3

Percentage Of Factory-Installed Rear Window Defoggers By Model Year For Six High-Sales Make-Models

Model Year	Chevrolet Cavalier	Ford Tempo	Ford Crown Victoria	Honda Civic	Toyota Corolla Domestic	Toyota Corolla Imported
1975	.	.	.	11.7%	.	95.0%
1976	.	.	.	12.9%	.	85.5%
1977	.	.	.	20.0%	.	85.0%
1978	.	.	.	91.0%	.	84.5%
1979	.	.	37.6%	87.1%	.	67.4%
1980	.	.	39.1%	70.6%	.	100%
1981	.	.	61.2%	79.6%	.	100%
1982	90.4%	.	64.5%	100%	.	100%
1983	51.1%	63.3%	75.3%	90.0%	.	100%
1984	49.8%	50.6%	63.3%	95.0%	.	100%
1985	47.9%	53.4%	80.1%	89%	.	100%
1986	55.2%	60.4%	80.9%	84.0%	.	100%
1987	62.0%	64.2%	86.7%	100%*	.	0%
1988	66.5%	68.6%	89.3%	100%*	.	100%
1989	61.1%	94.9%	87.5%	100%*	100%	100%
1990	61.0%	97.1%	89.4%	100%*	94.0%	100%
1991	70.1%	92.3%	94.0%	100%*	100%	100%
1992	66.8%	90.3%	95.3%	100%*	100%	100%
1993	73.1%	88.5%	97.1%	100%*	100%	100%
1994	75.2%	100%	97.7%	100%*	62.0%	62.3%
1995	77.4%	.	100%	100%*	68.0%	62.5%
1996	75.5%	.	100%	100%*	74.0%	78.0%
1997	80.1%	.	100%	100%*	75.0%	98.0%
1998	78.9%	.	100%	100%*	74.7%	.
1999	85.3%	.	100%	100%*	79.0%	.
2000	91.8%	.	100%	100%*	87.0%	.
2001	100%	.	100%	100%*	46.8%	.

* Percentage for both domestic and imported Civics

Table 4 shows the biggest positive jumps for several high-sales make-models, ordered by amount of gain. The Honda Civic had one of the largest positive jumps by any make-model. The percentage for rear window defoggers jumped 71 percentage points in the Civic from 20.0 percent in 1977 to 91.0 percent in 1978. About 30 make-models had an increase of 20 percentage points or more in one year. In the Tempo, the percentage of rear window defoggers jumped from 68.6 percent in 1988 to 94.9 percent in 1989. In the Grand Marquis, it jumped from 58.0 percent in 1980 to 83.6 percent in 1981. In the Crown Victoria, it jumped from 39.1 percent in 1980 to 61.2 percent in 1981. About 100 make-models had an increase of 10 percentage points or more in consecutive years. Many of the high-sales foreign makemodels had rear window defoggers as standard equipment when these models were first introduced. The Honda Accord, Nissan Sentra, and Toyota Camry were introduced with rear window defoggers as standard equipment.

Table 4

Biggest Positive Jumps For Several High-Sales Make-Models

Make-Model	Model year	Percentage	Model Year	Percentage	Gain
Honda Civic	1977	20.0%	1978	91.0%	71.0%
Ford Tempo	1988	68.6%	1989	94.9%	26.3%
Mercury Grand Marquis	1980	58.0%	1981	83.6%	25.6%
Ford Crown Victoria	1980	39.1%	1981	61.2%	22.1%
Ford Escort	1985	42.2%	1986	60.0%	17.8%
Chevy Celebrity	1986	64.5%	1987	79.5%	15.0%
Chevy Chevette	1977	14.0%	1978	28.4%	14.4%
Pontiac Grand Am	1993	78.0%	1994	89.3%	11.3%
Chevy Cavalier	1990	61.0%	1991	70.1%	9.1%
Ford Taurus	1990	91.5%	1991	100%	8.5%
Olds Ciera	1990	74.5%	1991	82.8%	8.3%
Toyota Corolla	1999	79.0%	2000	87.0%	8.0%
Chevy Caprice	1985	63.5%	1986	70.5%	7.0%

Table 5 shows the percentage of factory-installed rear window defoggers by model year for eight popular make-models of light trucks. In general, the percentage of minivans and sport utility vehicles with rear window defoggers is much larger than pickup trucks. Recall in Table 2 that the rates for imported light trucks were generally higher than those of domestic trucks, but domestic light trucks did not catch up to the imports (Table 2). In other words, the difference in percentage of domestic and imported light trucks with rear defoggers in recent model years is larger than earlier model years. The difference appears to be caused by:

Almost all recent model years of minivans and SUVs both domestic and imported have rear window defoggers,
Very few recent model years of pickup trucks and full-sized vans have rear window defoggers, and
A shift to assemble all pickup trucks in North America, even pickup trucks by foreign-based manufacturers.

This causes the overall percentage of rear window defoggers for imported light trucks to be much larger than that of domestic light trucks. In model year 2001, all imported light trucks had rear window defoggers but only half of the domestic light trucks had them.

Table 5

Percentage Of Factory-Installed Rear Window Defoggers By Model Year For Eight Popular Light Truck Make-Models

	Pickup Trucks			Minivans		Sport Utility Vehicles
Model Year	Chevrolet C/K 1500 Silverado	Ford F150 Sierra	Toyota Pickup - Tacoma	Dodge Caravan	Chevrolet Lumina - Venture	Ford Explorer	Chevrolet Blazer “S”	Toyota 4Runner
1987	3.4%	0%	0%	67.4%	.	.	61.5%	66.8%
1988	2.6%	0%	0%	75.9%	.	.	55.9%	82.4%
1989	1.5%	0%	0%	79.5%	.	.	0%	100%
1990	1.3%	0%	0%	86.1%	.	.	51.4%	0%
1991	1.4%	0%	0%	93.1%	72.5%	83.7%	78.5%	97.0%
1992	0.8%	0%	0%*	89.1%	78.9%	96.7%	86.4%	96.0%
1993	1.0%	0%	0%*	86.9%	74.5%	98.3%	93.9%	96.9%
1994	1.6%	0%	0%*	87.3%	92.2%	99.0%	96.8%	99.0%
1995	2.5%	0%	0%*	85.8%	94.0%	99.3%	100%	99.0%
1996	2.5%	0%	0%	92.5%	92.6%	99.3%	100%	97.0%
1997	2.7%	0%	0%	92.1%	97.6%	99.4%	100%	98.0%
1998	2.9%	0%	0%	93.8%	97.8%	92.8%	97.1%	100%
1999	3.0%	0%	0%	89.0%	100%	100%	98.0%	100%
2000	12.6%	0%	0%	92.1%	100%	100%	96.7%	100%
2001	18.4%	13.6%	0%	93.4%	100%	100%	97.2%	100%

* Percentage for both domestic and imported

Table 6 shows the percentage of factory-installed rear window wipers by model year and vehicle group. The percentages of factory-installed rear window wipers for domestic cars are fairly consistent for the last 20 model years. The percentages for imported cars are also fairly consistent but only for the last 10 model years. The rates for imported cars are also slightly larger than those of domestic cars, but neither of the rates for domestic or imported cars is very large.

By contrast, the percentage of new domestic and imported light trucks with factory-installed rear window wipers has greatly increased since Ward’s started reporting rear window wipers and are much larger than those for cars. Also note that the percentages of light trucks with rear window wipers are very similar to the percentages of light trucks with rear window defoggers. In general, almost all light trucks with rear window defoggers also have rear window wipers. For model year 2001 light trucks, almost all minivans and SUVs had rear window wipers, but no pickup trucks or full-sized vans had rear window wipers.

Table 6

Percentage Factory-Installed Rear Wipers By Model Year And Vehicle Group

Model Year	Domestic Cars	Imported Cars	Domestic Light Trucks	Imported Light Trucks
1982	3.2%		.	.
1983	2.6%	33.3%	.	2.6%
1984	3.0%	31.4%	.	8.8%
1985	3.5%	25.2%	.	13.2%
1986	4.6%	27.8%	.	10.9%
1987	5.0%	34.8%	10.6%	8.8%
1988	4.2%	23.0%	16.3%	11.7%
1989	2.8%	17.2%	18.2%	26.5%
1990	4.8%	15.2%	24.4%	21.2%
1991	3.6%	14.1%	27.3%	40.6%
1992	3.8%	11.6%	32.1%	44.9%
1993	5.7%	13.3%	38.4%	55.2%
1994	4.4%	11.1%	35.3%	63.5%
1995	5.1%	9.7%	38.6%	70.2%
1996	2.8%	11.6%	44.6%	86.7%
1997	4.3%	10.3%	37.8%	91.9%
1998	2.8%	10.1%	49.4%	94.9%
1999	2.8%	11.6%	46.4%	94.7%
2000	5.4%	10.9%	47.6%	97.0%
2001	4.4%	13.1%	51.5%	98.0%

Rear window defoggers were already standard equipment on most make-models of minivans and SUVs when these models were introduced, so the sample of vehicles without rear window defoggers is too small for meaningful results. Conversely, defoggers are so rare on pickup trucks and full-sized vans that the sample of pickup trucks and full-sized vans with rear defoggers is also too small for meaningful results. Similarly, except for those make-models that were always equipped with them, rear-window wipers are so rare that the samples of vehicles with the wipers will be too small for meaningful results. Therefore, the analysis estimates the effectiveness of rear-window defoggers for cars only, where there are numerous make-models that experienced a substantial or at least moderate year-to-year increase in the proportion equipped with defoggers.

A rear-window defogger file was created with the necessary information needed from the Ward’s Automotive Yearbooks. The file contains the percentage of rear-window defoggers for cars by make, model, and model year for model years 1973-2001.