Poorly cleaning windshield wipers a frequent complaint

Just how good are the windshield wipers on your car? Do they do the job they were designed to do? Winter takes a heavy toll on wiper blades and so does the searing sun of summer.

Surprisingly, more than 1 in 5 US motorists, knowing that the windshield wipers on their car are not functioning as they should, do nothing about it, according to a nationwide survey by Anco, a major windshield-wiper manufacturer.

Of the nearly 4,000 motorists who responded to the questionnaire, nearly 46 percent said they had endured times when the wipers were not cleaning the windshield satisfactorily.

Aware of the problem, 22 percent said they did nothing while 14 percent cleaned the wipers. Sixty-one percent, however, replaced them.

''Visibility is one of the real keys to driving safety,'' asserts Larry Koles of Anco. ''When you realize that 90 percent of all driving decisions made behind the wheel are based on vision, you see the importance of having a clean windshield.''

Of major importance to 20 percent of those in the survey was the ability to see clearly out of the windshield, including clear glass and properly operating wipers, washers, and defrosters.