Denso "Designer" hybrid wiper blades
Got a Christmas gift for my turbo Protege today
These hybrid wiper blades are typical of many late model cars. Civics and Corollas now have them, but the 3s are still missing out!
They are high quality OEM quality blades, using the same exact design, materials, and construction as what you find in cars that comes with these types of blades. They're more aerodynamic, lower profile, and the aero design creates a spoiler effect, which adds downforce to the blades thus improving wipes at highway speeds. Because of the enclosed design, they also greatly reduce ice and snow build up.
They come very well packaged in the box. An inner cardboard wraps over the blades, and then 2 inserts keeps the blade from bouncing around inside the box.
You can also see that there are no holes on the side where the clip is, unlike the cheaper Rain-X Fusions. It really is a much better, cleaner design!
Interestingly, these blades were made by NWB, which is the largest wiper blade manufacturer in Japan. All 11 auto makers in Japan use their blades for the most part. NWB made the wiper blades for the Genpus too, but not the Genwons (they are Bosch). It seems that Denso only licensed the product from NWB to sell these overseas since NWB has very little overseas presence as opposed to Denso. From what I could tell by Googling, Denso doesn't sell aftermarket wiper blades anywhere but North America and Europe. NWB sells these blades themselves in Japan.
The stock NWB versus the Denso (NWB) "Designer" blade
As you can see, the Denso blade is much more arched than the stock blade, which means there's lots more spring tension force from the blade. That's better for contoured glass. The box also says the rubber is graphite coated for better durability. According to NWB, it'll also help against streaking and skipping on Rain-X (silicone water repelling) coated glass and reduce the tendency of wearing the coating off!
http://www.nwb.co.jp/products/pdf/graphite.pdf
And that's how it looks on the car
I haven't tried these yet. The Protege is in winter hibernation. The 3 still has the stock Bosch Excel+ on there while I try to hunt down a Bosch AeroTwin retrofit kit to try to make it more "matched". The EDM Genwons comes stock with Bosch AeroTwins, but their mounting tabs are Euro style pin type, meaning it won't fit on the J hook style arms.My mother's 07 Corolla has the NWB hybrid blades on it. I managed to get a set destined for the dumpster off a 09 Forester that was in for warranty work. All I did was replace the rubbers with ones off the 2nd gen 6 and it was good to go. They wipe much better than the stock conventional NWBs on her car.
When these Denso blades wear out, I'll just go down to Honda and order me some refills meant for the CR-Z and Accord passenger side blades
76632-TA0-A02 19" (475mm) refill insert
76622-SZT-A01 21" (525mm) refill insert
Or I can swim across the ocean to Japan and buy refills that NWB sellsThey made it easy for Japanese owners by printing the refill number on the mounting clips (DW48 and DW53 you see in the pics)!
There's also a 24" version of this Denso blade, under part number 160-3124. All you need to do is get a refill meant for the Mazda6 driver's side, using part number GS3L-67-333.
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Originally Posted by TheMAN
