The LEC has rain-sensing wipers, as you might expect. They have two sensitivity settings, of which the lower is usually quite adequate. I occasionally need to nudge it up to keep it active in light rain. I hardly ever need to twist the knob past the higher auto setting to get continuous wiping.
Driving home this evening, however, in what, if you'll pardon the contradiction, I'll call heavy drizzle - the sort you don't feel falling on you but which leaves you thoroughly wet in a surprisingly short time - I had to break the habit. I turned the knob to the higher sensitivity but still the screen became obscured with tiny drops of water before I got another wipe. Continuous wiping was too much - made the blades judder - so I had to keep tapping the end of the stalk for a single wipe. It's probably the first time a simple variable delay like the Volvo's would have been more useful.
Having little other experience of auto-wipe systems (a long wet test drive in a 2002 Passat being about it) I wonder if anyone else has found that not all raindrops are created equal. And who knows enough about the technicalities to explain why fine rain is enough to block my view, but not to obscure the sensor?
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