MMafeeA8

for my 97 A8. I was wondering if the only way to go is through the dealer or can I just get some aftermarket bosch wiper blades. According to my knowledge the oem wiperblades for the A8 are made by Bosch, however dealer charges about $35 for the driver side and $65 for the passenger and I have no idea why so expensive.

Bosch has the following for the A8:

22" midcroedge excel part# B40922 with U2 adapter
22" Microedge part#40722A

I found these information on the bosch website from the following link.

http://www.boschusa.com/AutoParts/PartFinder

Will these fit like OEM blades or do I have to spend $100 from the dealer for the set.

Any help is appreciated.

thanks.

PaulW

You can get the rubber inserts alone from the dealer for about $7 each

MMafeeA8

somehow they both broke and are not working properly.

Dommi3

Below is something I posted in 2001 and prices are forever changing. You still may find the information valuable.
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For one inch, save yourself nearly $100

Posted by Dommi3 on 2001-12-13 23:38:31

Today I stumbled upon an interesting discovery I'd like to share with all of you.

I just thought I'd check up on something since I was in the parts department of a dealer that represented both Audi and Volkswagen. My friend who also has an A8 noticed that he didn't have the stock Audi wiper blades on his car and took a liking to mine because of the little added differences.

I thought I'd do some checking up for him while I went to pick up some wiper refills for my car.

Before even walking into the dealership I did my homework. My wife leases a 2001 Turbo Beetle. I own an Audi A8. She and I have nearly identical sets of wiper blades on booth of our vehicles. Both of our cars have different blades on the drivers side versus the passenger side. Both of these cars do not have symmetrical blades. I took them off of one car and put them on the other to do a test. They fit perfectly and to my very sharp eye, they look identical, even having similar contour on the passenger side blade, and the straight blade with the aerodynamic plastic attachment to the blade on the drivers side. The Beetle blade is approximately 1 inch shorter which means, the Beetle would most definitely work fine on the A8 with the 1 inch difference being nearly undetectable. The A8 blade may not work on the Beetle being that it is 1 inch larger, however that is not the point.

Anyway, I asked the sales person to please pull the records for the VW first. She gave me two different part numbers, one for drivers side and one for the passenger side just as I expected since both blades our different. The drivers side pricing out at $16.44 and the passenger side pricing out at 13.06. She claimed that did not include the rubber inserts so that would be an additional 9.94. That's a total of $39.44 for the VW. By the way, all of the prices I am quoting are Retail not Wholesale.

I asked her to look up the same parts for the 97 Audi A8. Check this out!
Drivers side was $67.77 and the passenger side was $54.81 The rubber refills were 13.86 totaling a whopping $136.44. Nearly $100.00 difference for two nearly identical items.

I brought this discovery to the attention of the woman that waited on me and to one of the other parts department employees and he claimed that even identical parts between Audi and VW will always have different part numbers and that his only explanation for possible differences in price. His response to me was to; "consider myself lucky."

It reminded me of another instance but this was all within Audi family. I was the owner an Audi V8 Quattro before my A8 and I needed a sun visor. I was quoted a price of $136.00 for the V8. I then asked the man if he would let me take the visor of an Audi 5000 out to my car just for an experiment. He obliged, and once again, I noticed this part matched perfectly not only in color but also in fit. The main difference was that the Audi 5000 visor was only $57 instead of $136 for the V8 Quattro. These were both Identical parts with major differences in price.

What the hell is going on here????

I'd be very interested to hear any comments that any of you out there may have. I'm especially interested if anyone has any similar situations or stories.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of their fine line of automobiles. I'm on my second one right now, and loving every minute of it, however I must say, I think this aspect of their business practice is complete bull****!

Please hit me with some feedback!

Dommi3/Tiburon California
1997 A8 Silver/Gray
17" Audi Wheels
Every Possible Option.

Prior Audi/1990 V8 Quattro

MMafeeA8

bosch wiper blades. they cost $25 for both sides and are the original oem replacement for the a8. i just did them yesterday and they are the exact same thing as the oem wiper blades.

borden

JUST an FYI> Right side can take 24inch blade and it works perfectly.
I also have Volvo s80 and that also has right side 22inch and left side 24 inch.
if you go to www.volvoparts.com you can get teh set for about 24$ shipped (18$+shipping)

THey have very nice blades that are shaped and do a very nice job claning.
Also the left blade has a snow/air scoop.<ul><li><a href="http://www.volvoparts.com">http://www.volvoparts.com</a</li></ul>