@iolo – my dream car.
But have to settle for an 03 Beetle Cab – went to Rutland and back yesterday and Mansfield and back today – hood down.
As TINAS posted – roof off unless snow and rain, day or night, it’s great. WGAS what others may think, I didn’t buy it for them. 😀
And old mate used to have a Dodge Challenger or Charger convertible. It looked and felt ‘right’ with the roof down -long and low like it had been designed that way – and all wrong with the roof up, like an umbrella on a motorbike.
Besides being one of the shitest looking* derivatives of the mini ,I have never ever seen it with the roof down in the couple of years she’s owned it.
*note-The picture flatters it ,they look so much worse with the roof up.
There you go, a spin round the block as I’ve not used mine for a few weeks and top down sweet as a nut. Temp gauge says 21.5C here in Shiney Town and it felt all the better for it.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/cE7vyb]Hair down[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr
The problem was it was only really suitable for people of less than 5ft6. With the roof on, I was basically guessing where the road was through ‘reading the runes of the roof lining’. It was a present for my wife tho and I found I loved the whole open top thing (more than she did ironically. Also fitting the roof during periods of ‘weather uncertainty’ was a bit fraught.
Now we have one of these. At 10 degrees, heater on, roof down and – the best bit – the poor citizens of Cheltenham get to listen to my rubbish 90s rock collection. Double win 🙂
[url=https://flic.kr/p/nyHYjM]Clean[/url] by Alex Leigh, on Flickr
Hardtop is great. When it rains, stick it up, just like being in a ‘normal car’. I’m a middle aged man and have long forgone any concept of ‘dignity’ so happy to drive around having fun.
Had an Eos for four years and 85K miles. Heated seats and warm air on the legs and it was roof down when sunny an cold. It has a huge sun roof too, so always felt bigger inside.
I used to like commuting home up the M40 in the dark with the roof down. too. It was, however, pretty miserable and cold in the back seats. Convertibles should really be two seaters.
Wife’s got an mx5 an had an MGF before that mx5 more refined but brilliant fun and hood down winter or summer heater on love it and when going to work in winter certainly gets you to work nice and fresh