There are plenty of cheap wiper blades out there - but are they really good value? Or is that going to result in a world of squeaking and smearing, that’ll leave you wishing you’d gone for the expensive wipers?
To find out, we’ve tested the most popular brands of wiper blade for how easy they are to fit to our E46 BMW 3 Series test car, and for how well the wipers work at higher speeds, because nobody wants your wipers whistling on the motorway.
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Winning product and best buy:
Bosch Aerotwin
Buy from: Amazon
Available individually? No
Bosch is a default brand for plenty of motorists looking for car parts, and wipers are no exception. Thankfully, the Aerotwin blades live up to the brand’s reputation for quality.
They lock onto the wiper arms really easily - it took moments to lock them onto our 3 Series, and the plastics are durable enough to withstand a bit of fumbling if you do struggle to fix them to the wiper arms.
The blades offer even pressure across the windscreen all the way to their tips, they wipe cleanly and are really effective at high speeds.
They’re nothing special to look at, but if you just want straightforward windscreen wipers that are good quality, don’t squeak or smear, are a doddle to fit and come in a huge variety to suit many cars old- and new, the Bosch blades deserve to remain the ‘go-to’ option. Surprisingly, they’re some of the cheapest blades in this test, too, so they get the nod for best budget buy as well the overall win.
5 stars
Runner up:
Halfords flat blade
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