After nearly 7 years the wipers finally gave out and needed to be replaced. The car is always garaged and I live in California, so the wipers lasted longer then they would in most places. Anyway, I was happy with the OEM blades because they always worked great and lasted so long, so I decide to just replace the inserts (plus less wasteful and saves me money).
Anyway, I go to my dealer to buy some OEM blade rubber inserts yesterday. The parts guy says they've never carried just the rubber inserts in stock and will have to order them. This seems odd to me, but whatever, they'll be in today. Just went down and picked them up, and the parts guy cannot let it go that I actually ordered them. He's like "in 2 years we've never sold just the rubber". I'm like "Ok, well you have now" and "it's the only part that actually needs to be replaced." So, he's looking at me like I'm some sort of alien for ordering the inserts instead of getting all new blades, and I'm starting to wonder if I've just made a bit mistake and for some reason this won't be as simple a job to do as I had thought (it's my first time just replacing inserts).
Well, I had nothing to fear, it took 5 minutes and all three wiper rubbers are replaced. Super easy and they're working great. I guess trying to not be wasteful is really is an oddball thing to try and do these days!