Sometimes they need them:
On some of the larger, more squared back vehicles,(SUV’s-ghod forbid) a highly angled blade was offered as a means to wash air down across the rear or tailgate window for defogging, and supposedley reduced noxious transport of emissions to the interior.
Hibbins is quite correct. I have a “Sports Edition” Nissan Maxima ( purchased because I prefer the stiffer suspension compared to the other models ) - It sports an ugly spoiler to distinguish it as the “sporty” model compared to the others :rolleyes: . Ridiculous hunk of plastic/metal, really.
But there is one thing I like about it. The brake light in it, when illuminated, lets me see the faces of the people sitting behind me at a light at night 
. I’m VERY easily amused 
.
- Tamerlane
You just hit the nail on the head.
Remember folks, car sales are driven to a very significant extent by styling. That’s why 30somethings will buy a Pontiac Grand Prix over a Buick Century, even thought hey are the same car under the skin.
Spoilers fit in the same category as:
Body colored bumpers (much easier to damage than black rubber)
Wheel covers (these serve no functional purpose
Chrome grilles
smooth doors with no rubber molding (less protection from dents)
pin stripes
and of course: Tail fins and little chrome missile hood ornaments fromt he mid 1950’s.
These are all items which serve no functional purpose, but make the car look more stylish. Personally, I think Pontiac often goes overboard with styling, becoming almost garish, but that’s a whole different rant.
Essentially, it’s a styling cue that says “I am sporty”. Personally I like them. They raise the overall profile of the back of the car to give it a “wedge cutting through the wind appearance” Whether it actually improves performace is questionable. People who buy Mustangs, Firebirds, Supras, and other heavy, flabby production cars aren’t all THAT interested in pure performace anyway. Just try to take their stereo and A/C equipment to reduce overall weight.
Personally, I hate sports cars, because of how they drive. They are uncomfortable, cramped, and not much fun for a 6’+ person such as myself. I prefer a good econobox that will get me 30+ MPG, while still providing necesary comfort and at least adequate acceleration not to be flattened when trying to merge onto the interstate each morning. A spoiler is just a fun, “gee-whiz” add on like power windows, leather interior, alloy wheels, and power seats.
I sometimes see people attach little fins or sails to their windshield wipers. Maybe 6 or 8 flat little squares at an angle to the direction of travel. I would imagine that these little sails offer resistance to the wipers when the car is moving at high speeds, what are they for?
Attrayant, those windshield wiper wings are supposedly to push the wipers down onto the windshield at higher speeds when they otherwise have a tendency to lift of the windshield.
Questions I can’t answer:
- Do they work?
- Are they needed?
- Does Opal need them?
Questions I can answer:
- Do they look tacky? Yes.
- How about the bright pink ones? Yes, especially those.
- Yes, they do.
- On most newer cars, probably not. In a past life I owned a 1978 Celica whose wipers would skip across the glass when I was driving at highway speeds, until I added a set of ugly windshield wiper wings. My dearly departed mid-80s Audi 5000 had a single factory-installed wiper “spoiler”.
Presumably adding a stronger spring to the wiper arm would have a similar effect, although it would probably reduce the life of the wiper blades.
This may be opening a can of worms that I’m pretty unqualified to deal with, but…
Isn’t there a distinction to be made between spoilers and wings?
I was under the impression that wings were just that: airfoils that provide downforce on their own. Generally, these need to be out in the freestream, or at least close to it, to do any good. F1 and Indy cars have huge wings at the rear.
Spoilers, OTOH, are not so much airfoils as just, well, “spoilers.” They kill smooth airflow and can reduce base suction (low pressure zone at the back of the vehicle => drag) and reduce the lift that the body itself generates. In that latter sense, they’re increasing downforce, but only indirectly - they actually reduce the natural “upforce”. I believe that the huge lips on the deck lids of NASCAR vehicles qualify as (functional) spoilers.
I don’t really know what I’m talking about, so hopefully somebody will jump in and correct my errors.
I don’t know… they pre-2000 Bonnevilles certainly WEREN’T sporty looking (but kind of fun to drive). The spoiler MAKES the rear end though. If you have to drive behind a pre-2000 Bonneville, it’s like looking at a butt - no pleasant.
Now the 2000+ Bonnevilles, those ARE sporty. I’m not sure if you can get them without the spoiler or not – I have one.
Deja vu, even if I never did get quite the specific answer I was looking for. 
So had my current Peugeot 306. Fine wipers, but when they wore out, I decided to replace them myself with generic type wipers instead of the more expensive Peugeot-kind. They didn’t have the spoiler thing, of course. They wipe fine, but at speeds over 140 km/h, they do skip and “float” more easily than the old ones. I’m getting the factory ones again next time.
Of course the effects are negligible, and stop calling me Shirley.
Balthisar said:
Maybe not sporty looking to you ;), but IIRC Pontiac was trying to distinguish them as a “sporty touring car” for the middle aged set. Kind of an “American BMW” I think they were going for.
As for the effects of wings versus spoilers, a good place to see a direct comparison is in NHRA drag racing. Top Fuel dragsters run a wing (airfoil) for down force, while Funny cars run a huge spoiler with side plates. Both seem to work equally as well, as both can run very similar numbers. The rails are usually faster, but this is probably more a function of their longer wheelbase than down force.
Ack! I was 25 when I bought my first one! It was “cheap luxury” for me. My current one’s for “sporty luxury” since I’m no longer afraid of “sporty” (really, my only choice back then was a FireBride I mean Bird). I’m only 29 - it should be targeted to my age group.
I always just thought they made my car look cute. You mean there’s a reason for them?
Whodathunk…
My carpooler suggested today that the real purpose of a spoiler is as an indicator of penis size…he figgers it’s an inverse relationship.
They make the car faster, of course.
This sounds like a focus group that might come up for an idea of a baseball cap with a little plastic spoiler on top. Hey, if they put it on their car then what’s to advertise the fact when they are not in their car. You can put spoilers on others things too. I write pretty fast, my pen could use one.