The wife and I are looking to get a new car, principally for her … although I will have to drive it. And last night, she saw a vw beetle convertible which was a good price, nice colour and leather inside. Ticked all the boxes. Apprently, it winked at her and said "buy me, buy me" … oh dear 😐

But the big thing bothering me is how waterproof / leakproof the soft top is? We live in the west of scotland and quite frankly, it chucks it down on a regular basis.

So does anyone have one and how good is it?

Or does anyone a soft top in general, and how good are they?

Personally, I want a mini cooper … 🙂

I presume we are talking new beetle here? Ive got one, well my wife does at least. It's 4 years old now, never had a problem with it leaking at all. It is a pretty solid soft top, 3 layers I think, insulated.

The windows drop 1cm or so when you open the door and then seal up onto the roof when you close them which gives a very good seal, if that makes sense.

I tend to make sure I look after the soft top though, clean and re-proof it every couple of months just to be safe.

Getting bikes in it or on the back of it though, that is a whole other problem.

I also know a couple of people with soft top minis, both of which leak, but that may well be bad luck.

Hood is unlikely to leak, but thats the least of your problems. How often is that hood going to be down in the west of Scotland!? The beetle is a very silly car, not very practical and not great to drive. Only reason to buy one is if you really like the looks, which if you do I guess is fair enough, just not my cup of tea. I'd be slightly embarrased to be seen in one of those so you may also need reasonably thick skin.

My wife has one, its 6 years old now and the roof has never leaked despite showing a few rub marks now. It seems very robust and is well insulated – I was amazed at how little noise there is inside considering the roof.

Its also quite nice to drive (ie pootle around in – we've got the 1.6 petrol) but can be pretty breezy in the back seats for the kids with the roof down.

If you are buying one, its not for practicality although we get a weeks shopping for 4 in the boot (just) – it is however great for sunny days even in mid winter if you wrap up. You cant beat driving topless!

Oh and ours is dark blue so i dont mind driving it too much, but i do remove the flower first on principal!

Don't worry about it – you are clearly gay either way.

Personally, I want a mini cooper

EDIT: Waits for someone to point out the gay hairdresser car I have 😆

Men are not allowed to drive new Beetles.

It's THE LAW!

Men are not allowed to drive new Beetles.

Ohh you are. You have to have 5 minutes behind the wheel (which is about 2 miles from the dashboard) on a test drive so you can point out every single last thing that is wrong with it in order to put your wife off choosing to get one as her next car 😉

The new Beetle is the worst selling mainstream car VW have ever produced. Why? Because it's just a bad car – packaging, comfort, cost, driveability etc. Avoid at all costs

In the west of Scotland you should ideally keep a softop undercover or you will get it covered in mildew very quickly

I laughed when I saw the boot of Beetle convertable. It was like opening a toilet lid but with less space underneath. The hardtop isn't much better…

We've had 3 MX5s (all old Mk1s) and the only one with a leaky roof was the one which the previous owner hadn't looked after in the slightest.

Modern car, roof should be fine. The fact its one of the silliest cars on the road (and I saw a Proton Savvy on the way to work this morning!) should really really put you off spending x thousands of pounds on one! If the missus wants quirky, get a Mini / Fiat 500 / Alfa Mito etc

turbo version is good, though not common and donlt think they did it in the drop top, though they still look gash..

get a proper soft top like an mx-5 – great cars, got one and the roof is fine and leak proof depsite the cat clawing it, though also have a hardtop for it

CaptainMainwaring – Unless they sell identical numbers then one of VW's cars is always going to the worst seller. I wouldn't suggest that necessarily makes it a bad car.

I dont have one (although missus has a mini so equally gay) but know a few people with them and without exception they all love them.

Richie