All of our Chrysler products starting with the 52 Plymouths had electric wipers, as did my 56 and 59 Studebaker. My 52 Plymouth Cambridge was the only car I owned without squirts.
My grandmothers 52 Plymouth Cranbrook had them.
Every car in our family had electric wipers, even my grandmothers 41 Studebaker Landcruiser Commander.
Correction: I had forgotten a stepfathers Model A and 41 Buick. The Buick had fuel pump Vacuum wipers. I remember the bare wiper motors on the Model A but don’t know if they had wires or vacuum lines going to them. The only thing I really remember about that Model A was that It was easier for me to push that car to a start with him in it than it was for me to crank it. Yes, the Model A did have an electric starter but it still had a hand crank too and the electric starter was shot, and I was free. When he got to work he parked on a hill.
By today’s standards my first car’s, a 1962 Chevy II Nova, list of “No” was quite extensive.
No power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, radio, seat belts, padded dash, windshield washers, power windows, power seats and it wasn’t seen as particularly “stripped down” for it’s time.
As people moved to the suburbs they discovered they needed a “2nd car for the wife” to get groceries, run the kids to school, run errands, etc…Smaller, cheaper, always with an automatic transmission and easier to handle than Dad’s “road barge” , this was the typical Suburban Mom car.
Of course there was the occasional Mom who did drive a MB, Volvo, Peugeot which were comparably sized, priced and typically came with more options (Squirters, padded dashboards seat belts) but these were seen as exotic and not exotic in a good way.
The can’t read the manual, can’t get parts, can’t find a mechanic, Mom’s started wearing a beret, smoking French cigarettes and playing bongo’s exotic.
@Triedaq My father’s 40 Plymouth had electric wipers, but certainly no washers. We had a squeegee on a stick to do that. The radio was under the dash, on the firewall, the starter was a sturdy spring loaded step-on that manually engaged the starter to the flywheel and cranked the engine. Until the mid 50’s it seems like feet did more controls and operations than hands - dimmer switch, starter, washer pump, clutch. You did pull the parking brake by hand, mostly. Now it’s all the other way.
We’re so used to cars doing all sorts of convenience things. Only certifiable car nuts know what sort of engine is in the thing.
In our family Mom had the “good car” and Dad had the crasher to go to work and back.
My grandfather had this in the mid-late '60s, with the 4-cylinder.
He kept the gas tank near empty.
Most Friday’s he’d put $1 of gas in and he’d drive from DC 41 miles to his little weekend house in the Virginia countryside, and 41 miles back.
When I was a kid, the elderly next door neighbors had two cars, which was unusual since “The Missus” didn’t drive. Their “everyday” car was a very clean '47 or '48 Plymouth, painted Battleship Gray. On Sundays, they would use their '41 or '42 Chrysler New Yorker, with immaculate and shiny jet black paint.
The Plymouth really looked like a slightly smaller version of the Chrysler, and–of course–it had a lot less power and was less luxurious, but I always thought that their two cars were not different enough to justify having both of them, in an era when having two cars for one driver was not common for middle-class folks.
@wentwest. My dad had the use of a 1940 Chrysler Royal for a year back in the 1950s. It had electric wipers and a push button starter.
What is interesting is that the lower trim line Dodges had vacuum wipers as opposed to electric wipers. My dad had the low trim line 1947 Dodge Deluxe. It had vacuum wipers. The upper trim line Dodge Custom had electric wipers. The 1947 Dodge was replaced by the low trim line Dodge Meadowbrook. It had vacuum wipers. The upper trim line Coronet had electric wipers. Apparently, electric wipers were considered a luxury.
I actually can’t remember back that far but my 68 Dodge Dart had the kind that you stepped on the balloon in the floor to squirt the washer fluid. I actually liked that better than the electric ones because it didn’t waste fluid. Somewhere in my memory is the image of a FoMoCo washer fluid bag under the hood, but can’t recall if it was the 61 Merc, 60 Falcon or what. Pretty well done with Fords after that. My 59 Pontiac had nothing except I kept a towel and Windex for cleaning the windshield. Yeah must have been an option in the 60’s and then became standard equipment like back up lights and AC and power steering during the wild 60’s and 70’s.
@bing. I agree with you on the foot operated windshield washer that didn’t depend on the electrical system or engine vacuum to operate. On my Toyota Sienna, I have to pull a stalk on the right side of the steering wheel to operate the windshield washer. That means taking my right hand off the steering wheel. I wouldn’t have to do that with a foot operated windshield washer.
I only have to use one finger to pull the stalk for the washers. Are you sure that you have to remove your entire hand from the wheel in order to activate the washers?
My 64 Econoline had the rubber bulb on the floor but at least it had electric wipers. My 62 Falcon still had vacuum wipers. When I was a kid my dad always carried a potato which he would cut in half and use it to clean the windshield in the rain.
@VOLVO_V70. I used a foot bulb or pedal on four different cars I owned: 1) 1955 Pontiac; 2) 1961 Corvair; 3) 1965 Rambler 4) 1968 AMC Javelin. The Pontiac and Corvair were kits I bought from J.C. Whitney. The Rambler and Javelin were factory or dealer installed.
The only advantage to the newer electrical pumps operated by a button on the dashboard or a stalk on the steering column is that the wipers are also activated.
For me, all I care about is having windshield washers and they work reliably. How the washers are activated, whether by foot bulb or steering column stalk makes no difference to me.
My 1949 Cadillac has windows washers activated by pushing a button in the center of the wiper knob on the dash. They haven’t worked in years. The wipers themselves are vacuum operated and work as long as you aren’t climbing a hill. In contrast, I recall a great aunt’s 1956 Dodge Royal that I drove a couple of times in the late 1970’s having no windshield washers.
@steve63. My 1954 Buick had the same arrangement. The washer pump ran off engine vacuum. The reservoir was a glass jar under the hood and the pump was built into the lid.
GM parts departments used to sell little glass bottles (1.5 pints??) of washer fluid concentrate, to which owners would add a specified amount of water.
@Robert_Gift. The vacuum operated washer system was really pretty simple. It used engine vacuum so that atmospheric pressure would force the fluid out of the reservoir to the nozzles which were at the base which supported the wiper arms. Remember, this was in the day before alternators, so manufscturers wanted to reduce the draw on the electrical system. I installed a foot operated windshield washer system on my 1955 Pontiac and on my 1961 Corvair. The nozzles were already there, so the installation was easy. @texases. I remember well those 5 oz bottles of windshield washer antifreeze additive to be mixed with water for the windshield washer. This was done in the winter. The premixed fluid was really great when it became common.
I can’t even buy summer fluid around here…even during the summer. And I don’t want to. I won’t go through a whole bottle during the summer, so then I’d have some left over during the winter - which I don’t want to add then.
