Why would a circuit breaker be used instead of a fuse in this case?

[tomlct]

This is on my 88 Dodge Aries station wagon. The circuit that protects the rear wiper & washer is protected with a circuit breaker. All of the other active slots in the single circuit panel of this car have ATO/ATC size fuses. The wiper & washer stopped working, so I probed and I see there is voltage at the pin on the wiper/washer switch, so this circuit breaker seems OK.
But I was wondering if someone would know why there would be a circuit breaker instead of a fuse on that 1 specific circuit.
I found a circuit breaker on eBay, and ordered it, so that I will have a spare if ever needed.
Could you use a fuse instead of a circuit breaker?

 

[CT8]

The circuit breaker will reset. "unless the circuit breaker fails."

 

[eljefino]

If it jams with ice and snow it'll trip the breaker, which will reset itself, possibly without you even knowing.

 

[dishdude]

It's been a while, but I think Chrysler used to use breakers on critical circuits like exterior lights and wipers instead of fuses so they would reset automatically.

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted by eljefino
If it jams with ice and snow it'll trip the breaker, which will reset itself, possibly without you even knowing.



That is what I was thinking .

 

[Hootbro]

Is it a thermal circuit breaker or a circuit breaker with a mechanical reset button? I know in a lot older domestic make power window circuits, they used thermal circuit breaker that would reset after a cool down period. It was used in case of heavy resistance like iced in window channels. I would thing a wiper system would have a thermal circuit breaker also for the same problem.