I have, today, needed reviving with smelling salts (well, nearly!).
Our newly acquired 51 plate Alhambra came with rather worn front wipers so I decided that a new set was needed.
Off to the local motor factor I went and presenting the service book, asked for replacement blades to suit the model & chassis number.
Rather surprised to find the cost was so high - around 40 euros with a bit of discount.
Got home to find they were wrong - a "traditional" fit to the wiper arm with a clip thingy, whereas the fitting on the car's wiper arm was on a simple post which was secured by rotating the blade to bear against a retainer.
Trotted back, returned the wrong ones and took one of the blades in as a pattern.
No problem - in stock.
Then the parts chap keyed in the product code and did a double take. Keyed in again and whistled.
The list price of these is, inc IVA (VAT), @ 18% is NINETY EUROS!
Come on - 90€ is around 78 quid at todays rates.
78 quid for a set of wiper blades - are they extracting the the urine?
The nice man was so shocked he gave me a 30% trade discount, so in the end I paid around 65 euros, but that, even for a Bosch labelled product - probably made in China for about a fiver - is seriously OTT.
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SEAT Alhambra - Wiper Blades new
SEAT Alhambra - Wiper Blades new