I’m looking at getting a new(er) car. Living here at the beach I’d like a drop top. I’ve had targas and conventional cloth-top convertibles in the distant past, but never a modern convertible hard top.
I was unhappy with the cloth-top convertibles I had in the old days mostly for the high noise level in freeway cruise with the top closed. Also for the poor condition the plastic rear windows quickly degraded into. That plus it ruined the car’s lines compared to the true hardtop model. And they often leaked in heavy rain, which we excel at here in Miami.
I’m hoping a modern convertible hard-top solves all those cloth-top issues almost as well as a non-convertible does.
But I fear instead they’re still noisy on the freeway compared to today’s nearly silent non-convertible cars, are mechanically finicky, and eat 3/4ths of the trunk whether up or down. Not to mention being a darn expensive option to begin with.
IOW, I’m not wanting to give up much top-up utility to gain the top-down capability.
So …
Anyone have recent experience owning or fixing convertible hard tops? Any brand-specific nightmares or good experiences? Am I likely to be happy or disappointed?
To be sure I’m going to start shopping in earnest here soon and will be test driving various choices. But if I can rule this option in or out a priori that narrows the field whichever way I go.
I’ll alert my wife about this thread - she owns an MX-5 (Miata) hardtop convertible.
The hard top has been rock-solid mechanically, with no fixes at all needed. The car is about six years old, I think.
There are some squeaks from the roof I can hear when riding along, but road noise isn’t much more than a non-convertible sports car, best I can tell. It feels nicely stiff and well put together.
I’d be happier with a car that you can’t break into with a sharp knife, myself.
I have a Mercedes SLK 230 hard top convertible. Best of both worlds. Top up, it’s almost a quiet as a coupe. I say almost because my car is 14 years old, so It has a squeak or two here and there. Top down, I lose 1/2 my trunk space, but no big deal. This is not my only car, so I’m not counting on it to haul anything, except my butt to work and back. And it is a really clean look with the top folded away. No bulging fabric top or lumpy cover on the folded top.
I’ve had no issues with the top mechanism, although lots of people have had issues. It’s a pretty complicated hydraulic and electrical dance that goes on when the top goes up or down.
modern “soft top” convertibles often actually have one or more hard panels in the roof. I know the current Mustang convertible top has a rigid panel as the fore-most section of the roof.
but even aside from that, in most cases soft-top convertibles have more layers of insulation and sound deadening inside the fabric top, so while they may not be as quiet as the coupe/hardtop version they’re nowhere near as bad as a vehicle with a plain canvas roof (e.g. Jeep Wrangler.)
It looks pretty complicated mechanically. I’ve sworn off sunroofs because of problems I’ve had with them and the cost of fixing one that stopped working.
Due to the age of the car, the sunroof wasn’t worth fixing so I just left it closed, not realizing that it wasn’t completely closed. I didn’t realize it was leaking water into the roof until one day the ceiling liner came down in the back.
I will not buy another car with a sunroof, let alone a convertible.
I currently drive a 135i convertible. It’s the fifth convertible that I’ve owned, all of them soft tops. The technology has come a long way. The rear window is real glass, and the top is made of multiple layers of material, including a thick layer of insulation. I don’t notice it to be significantly louder than my wife’s old 335i hardtop for example. Ant it doesn’t leak or squeak ot anything like that.
I recognize that hardtop convertibles often preserve the lines of the car better, but most convertibles already weigh more than the standard car due to extra bracing, and I don’t want the addtional couple hundred ponds or more that the retractable hardtop weighs. But that’s just me.
Anyway, I get around the esthetics issue by putting the top up as rarely as possible.
While I am sure they have improved quite a bit since then, a friend had a Ford Skyliner and I used to work on it for him; a lot. And I mean a whole lot. Did I mention that I worked on it a lot?
Volvo C70 is wife’s car, 2011 model year. Essentially no changes to current /last/ year. Quiet with top up, minor shake on the crappy roads here on Oahu. Great seats. Perfectly good power for most situations. Handles well though not a sports car - relaxed. Need more, BMW 3 series are hard retractable tops for sportier driving but smaller back seat/trunk. Mileage around town is 20ish. I get upper 20s out cruising away from the city. Claims to need premium gas but I feed it regular with no problems or noticeable performance drop.
Seats four with actual room for legs though you may need to lower the top for old folks to get in/out of the back One item to note - Volvo’s are safety nannies. You cannot lower/raise the top at any speed. You have to be sitting there with foot on the brakes.
Top eats trunk space but there is still room for groceries [not Costco or Sam’s size boxes/wrappers] or soft luggage bags with the top down. No golf bag in trunk with top down - I put in on the back seat if I’m using it.
I test drove a bunch of models when shopping. BMWs had a premium price but less room. The two seater Mercedes and Mazda were tight (not a factor with the top down but claustrophobic for me - 6’2", 200 lbs. VW EOS were a bit smaller and the butt was too big. Lots of reported problems with top operation and leakage. Volvo’s were best across the board for features, room and price. I preferred the styling but YMMV. Let me repeat - great seats.
I doubt you’re looking at Jeep Wranglers, but your soft-top description fits them to a t. Yet I repeatedly buy them. The hard top Wrangler that can become topless is there, but you have to remove the top and leave it somewhere. It’s too heavy for one guy to do it alone, and you have to accept the risk of rain.
My wife had a new 2003 soft-top Wrangler for 3 years. Fun to drive in the right environment, top up or down, but not appropriate for my current circumstances.
My older convertibles were conventional cars, but still noisy. Seems like that problem’s been mostly solved at least on premium models.
I used to drive a Mercedes hard-top convertible. No difference in road noise with the top up, vs. a regular car. Most of the trunk space goes away with the top down. It was great also for having a convertible in the winter time, as with the top up, there was no difference than a regular car.
I’ve never been tempted for one of those, but I thought you’d want a garage and some sort of pulley system rigged to lift it up and store it hanging from the rafters.
Another off the wall suggestion. Chevy SSR. Two seat pickup, retractable hardtop, wood trim in pickup bed, corvette engine under the hood. What could go wrong?
I need a back seat and an enclosed trunk & don’t much care for the looks of the SSR. Although a car nut neighbor had a cherry ~2010 SSR he loved. It just got replaced with a loaded 2016 'Vette. Sweeeet ride!
I *want *a BMW 650. But that’s more than I’m going to spend, even for a well-aged one. So I’m still mumbling around with other lesser ideas. I need an adult-capable back seat for short trips around town, but any long drives will always be just 1 or 2 people. So a decent-sized sport coupe or sedan works best.
I’ve driven German cars of all brands for years, but am beginning to think the cost/benefit isn’t as outstanding as it once was. They’re becoming failure-prone overcomplicated shop queens versus the robust simplicity & performance they were once known for. Almost as if they’re designed for the lease market then start falling apart shortly after a lease turn-in car is sold on the secondary market.
The few Japanese cars I’ve tried are as interesting and satisfying to operate as a dishwasher. I *like *ultimate driving machines even if some of them actually come from Stuttgart. If anyone knows of a satisfying performance Asian sport coupe/sedan, clue me in.
So far I’m window shopping online. Next steps are actually renting or test driving these things.
Part of your problem is going to be that most convertibles (hard or soft top) tend to be two-seaters. Or, even if they have a rear seat, its the sort that’s only suitable for pets/packages/children/adult friends without legs.
My personal experience: I used to own a 2003 BMW Z4 with a soft-top (although it did have a glass rear window). It was fun, but noisy, even with the top up. Definitely not a long-distance cruiser; the furthest I drove it on the highway was from Indianapolis to Cincinnati, and when I arrived I felt pretty beat-up. One hour in it was like 3-4 hours in my wife’s Volvo.
I recently replaced the 2003 Z4 with a 2011 Z4. The car was redesigned between the two models; a little softer and with a folding hard top instead of the soft top. The newer car is much better on longer distances; we recently drove it from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh and back, and I didn’t feel nearly as punished when we arrived.
So yeah, I definitely like the hard top over the soft top, but I do realize that you’re paying a price in more weight and much more mechanical complexity. Also since the top folds into the trunk, putting items into and getting them out of the trunk if the top’s down becomes a bit tricky.
I don’t know what’s available now, but when I had Wranglers in '98 and '01, none of the top lifters on the market would work with the new roof design. I bought one in the hopes that I could get it to work, and ended up dropping the hardtop. Luckily, the Jeep was still under it, so it only suffered a small ding to the fiberglass. I would hope that by now someone has come up with a lift system that works.
I have a 2015 Infiniti Q60S convertible that I bought new three months ago. (You can find the same car in prior model years marketed as a G37.) It replaced my Toyota Solara soft-top convertible.
It’s quieter. On the highway it’s no noisier than any other car.
When the top is up it looks like the non-convertible model. I like that although some people might like the “Look I have a convertible, it’s just too cold to put the top down” look.
When the top is down the top is fully stowed and it’s a sharp look. The whole process is one touch of a button. On my Solara, when the top is down the stowage compartment is fully exposed so it doesn’t look great and collects dust and pollen. The Solara comes with a vinyl boot if you want to pop it on for a cleaner look, but it’s a fully manual on-and-off process.
The mechanism is complicated and I do wonder what the reliability will be after a few years. And if you try to put the top down but forgot that your suitcase is the trunk, you will be in for an expensive repair. (There’s more to it than that but I netted it out.)
When retracted the top takes up nearly *all *the trunk space, so that’s a drawback for many people. I can get a laptop and a jacket in there and that’s about it. The Lexus IS 350 C was my second choice and I think the leftover space is about the size of a bag of golf clubs. And even with the top up, there’s not much trunk space. I don’t know how that compares to the non-convertible version; it might just be a consequence of the overall design philosophy. It’s high performance, not high-utility.
One item to note - Volvo’s are safety nannies. You cannot lower/raise the top at any speed. You have to be sitting there with foot on the brakes.
but claustrophobic for me - 6’2", 200 lbs. VW EOS were a bit smaller and the butt was too big. Lots of reported problems with top operation and leakage. Volvo’s were best across the board for features, room and price. I preferred the styling but YMMV. Let me repeat - great seats.