What is this?

[DaBee]

Just curious... the black tabs at the outside edges of the front windshield, near the roof. What is their purpose?

 

[white98sh]

My guess is they are there to prevent the window glass from being sucked out of position at high speed. Brings to mind this episode of Top Gear.

 

[Computron]

Boy I feel old when answering this question... but back in the 80s and 90s, Honda vehicles all had this "tab" on or near their A pillars to keep rain water away from the side windows at speed. When driving in the rain, water naturally accumulates and beads up on that tab and then flies off the tab instead of creating a streak of water on the side windows.

 

[white98sh]

Wow that's such a cool tidbit! So how did they fix that issue in later cars?

 

[Computron]

Wow that's such a cool tidbit! So how did they fix that issue in later cars?

I'm not exactly 100% sure what they do with newer cars these days, but my guess is that they handle it with better aerodynamics directly built-in to the shape of the car. I don't see these tabs anymore and yet I don't really recall seeing water streaking over the side windows.