[Csanburn]

So I was cleaning my windshield and lifted the wiper arm and noticed it makes contact with the hood. This could make for some nasty paint damage if you aren’t careful. Might want to invest in some sort of edge guard.

 

[dxdxto]

There's a special procedure for lifting wiper arm in which you ~ turn the car off and immediately pull the mist. It is then supposed to move into a "service position". I had to look it up a few days ago and thought it to be dumb.

 

[HondaEh]

So I was cleaning my windshield and lifted the wiper arm and ....

Read the user manual, read the user manual, read the user manual. It is not difficult

 

[dxdxto]

Read the user manual, read the user manual, read the user manual. It is not difficult

Some things should be obvious. One should not have to need user manual to figure out how lift wiper arms, or to find how to pop the hood.

 

[.272]

First car ever that I had to put in a "service position" to lift the wiper arms.

 

[HondaEh]

Some things should be obvious. One should not have to need user manual to figure out how lift wiper arms, or to find how to pop the hood.

OK. How it is supposed to be obvious to lift wiper arm if arm is so low you cannot lift it to wash windshield or change wiper blade??? Do you expect to see special button 'lift wiper arm'? Do you have better solution then currently implemented?
Even for popping the hood - not everybody is car enthusiast or owned/used car before to be familiar with opening it. Some would expect pulling the hood release handle will do the trick and magically hood will go up. What is obvious to you or me could be black box for somebody else.

 

[Csanburn]

There's a special procedure for lifting wiper arm in which you ~ turn the car off and immediately pull the mist. It is then supposed to move into a "service position". I had to look it up a few days ago and thought it to be dumb.

Exactly, we get allot of snow and ice where I live and it’s common practice to put your wipers up while parked overnight. This just makes it more of a hassle.

 

[St00k]

Some things should be obvious. One should not have to need user manual to figure out how lift wiper arms, or to find how to pop the hood.

Agreed.

Apparently Kia does something like this.

I was talking to a friend of mine at corporate and he said dealers don't even know and as a result they damage customer cars trying to get the wiper blades up all the time.

 

[dxdxto]

I imagine the idea behind it was to hide them below the hood line to improve the looks and maybe shave .001 off drag coefficient, but think soon enough the dealers will learn to specifically explain this part to the customers.

 

[MacawMania]

I imagine the idea behind it was to hide them below the hood line to improve the looks and maybe shave .001 off drag coefficient, but think soon enough the dealers will learn to specifically explain this part to the customers.

I'd also be worried about the carwash personnel, since it's not clear that they would be educated in the process.