Electric soft-top.....?

Anonymous · March 4, 2010, 15:55

Just been having an 'argument' with a female colleague, regarding soft-tops of all things - prompted by the lovely weather we're having.

She has a Mini Cooper convertible, with electric soft-top. I have an MR2 with hardtop and non-electric soft-top, obviously.

Anyway she finds it funny how I have to remove my hardtop and manually work my soft-top and says she could 'never do that' - do what? lift in an upwards movement or reach behind you?

She had a good laugh even though her roof hasn't worked for over a year because the electrics are f*cked and BMW have quoted £550 to get it sorted!

I just can't get it through to her that I'd rather the 'trouble' of manually working my soft-top, rather than lining the pockets of Mr Mini for the pleasure of pressing a button....Plus, the obvious advantages of a hardtop....

ANYWAY, this just got me thinking, has anyone converted their MR2 to that of an electrical one? Can it even be done?

Don't worry, I'm not now thinking of doing it, just curious and can't see the obvious advantages myself.

Anonymous · March 4, 2010, 16:12

Anything is possible, but I doubt it's really worth the ballache to actually do it.

If you've got a 'good' top that you can throw back and latch and one that comes up easily then it's great (my old '2 was like that), but if you get a stiff one then you'll always be hankering after an electric one at times. FWIW I've done all three types now (throwback, electric and get out and clip in manually) and I vastly prefer the electric one I've currently got. Makes life a lot easier even if at times it is slower.

uktotty · March 4, 2010, 16:19

Mine is a stiff one and I find it hard to get it up, Dans was always more easy to manipulate.

mrzwei · March 4, 2010, 16:28

Just think of the added weight of that electric motor s:D

s:D
If you think the 2 is bad then I had a Mk1 Sprite where you had to put the frame in place first and than struggle with the soft top and vice versa. Had a couple of Saab convertables and you just press the button, that was good. My daughter had a Mini convertable, have you sat in the back? (You don't have to answer that).

s:lol: :lol: s:lol: Just read Russ, and it's before the 9pm watershed.

cclarke99 · March 4, 2010, 16:33

Someone's got a £15K+ Convertible car and can't use it because they don't want to spend £550 to fix it; but they find your fully working manual roof MR2 funny - are all your colleagues as irrational as that? How can you have a meaningful argument with someone that daft? It certainly reinforces my prejudices re the BMW Mini.

JudoKilli · March 4, 2010, 16:38

In cold weather mines a bit stiff, so takes a bit of manipulating to get down, but when it's warm I can flick it down in less than a second, and bring it back up just by reaching behind me and pulling, and no need to pull over to do it!

In all fairness I would rather have an electronic roof, but only if it was very quick to go down, and could be put up and down in moving traffic. From what I remember, the mini roof takes a while to go up and down, and sticks out the back when it is down which looks silly!

alancdavis · March 4, 2010, 16:44

Quote from: "uktotty"Mine is a stiff one and I find it hard to get it up, Dans was always more easy to manipulate.

How rude of you Russ s:oops: :oops: s:oops: s:oops: :oops: s:oops: s:oops: :oops: s:oops: s:oops: :oops: s:oops: s:oops: :oops: s:oops: s:oops: :oops: s:oops: s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

mrzwei · March 4, 2010, 17:54

Apparantly, there is a Japanese designer working on the oral erection of the hardtop (ie you speak to it and it comes up)

VVT-i · March 4, 2010, 18:00

Quote from: "Dan M"... if you get a stiff one then you'll always be hankering after an electric one at times. ....

Signatures are getting all to frequent around here.. who's grabbing this one? s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

blahpony · March 4, 2010, 18:02

I was sitting at a red light once when it started to pour rain out of nowhere. Just as I reached back for the top, the light turned green. I was able to get the top up and fully latched before getting to the other side of the intersection.

The person beside me in a much more expensive convertible had to put on their blinkers and hold up traffic. Apparently his electric top doesn't operate if the car is in motion.

I had a couple seconds of rain and no stoppage of traffic with my "lowly" manual top. He sat for quite a few seconds in the rain and blocked traffic with his fancy electric top.

wbarrwebster · March 4, 2010, 18:07

Quote from: "uktotty"Mine is a stiff one and I find it hard to get it up,

Russ,....I heard someone say this about you before!!! lol s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

B

muffdan · March 4, 2010, 18:15

[MOD]Please keep this on topic guys, this isn't Chit-chat and rules is rules s:)

s:) [/MOD]

muffdan · March 4, 2010, 18:18

I've found you can raise the roof at 50mph quite easily with a strong arm. I think you could do it at faster speeds too, but I've not had the guts to try. And for those that haven't tried this, it doesn't act like a big parachute! I do have both windows down a crack when I put the roof up, perhaps this makes it possible.

dj2k21 · March 4, 2010, 18:25

Unify - I think I can comment on this one quite well as my ex girlfriend had a mini convertible..... what a load of garabage they are by the way!
I dont know what it is about woman, but she had the same stupid attitude towards the whole electric roof thing. we once had a contest, by the time her roof went all the way up, I was able to bring mine up, put it back down again, bring it back up and click it into place, andf each time I did it I had to sit back in the car and get back out to do it.

the motors way a ton which is why the mini is so slow. you cant see naff all out the back because of the daft roll hoops, the roofs always brake, infact, they are so bad, mini actually offer a roof warrenty along with a normal car one. hers broke twice in a year.
you cant put a hard top on, so they are not as safe and finally they just fold up like some sort of deformed rug when they are down which makes it look like an afterthought. at the end of the day, the mini convertible has been adapted to fit a convertible roof, the mr2 was designed to have a soft top from the offset so the mr2 is better in so many ways, and I for one, would not fancy an electric roof as its just something else to go wrong, and very frequently in these cars too.

so tell your work mate to shut her mouth lol she obviously knows nothing about cars at all..... FACT!

mrzwei · March 4, 2010, 19:04

So do you like it or not?

loadswine · March 4, 2010, 19:07

Mini convertible, one of those special convertibles that looks better with the roof UP! Nuff said.
Soft top on the 2 is quick and easy to use, works for me. s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Chris_h · March 4, 2010, 22:19

I always loved the 2s simple top and always wondered why small 2 seaters bothered with electrics. Now i have the S2k, am rather enjoing the electric hood - its simple, cant imagine the motors weigh much and i am lazy!

plus it has manual override, so no worries if it goes wrong..

Still miss the 2..

Anonymous · March 5, 2010, 11:24

Quote from: "dj2k21"Unify - I think I can comment on this one quite well as my ex girlfriend had a mini convertible..... what a load of garabage they are by the way!
I dont know what it is about woman, but she had the same stupid attitude towards the whole electric roof thing. we once had a contest, by the time her roof went all the way up, I was able to bring mine up, put it back down again, bring it back up and click it into place, andf each time I did it I had to sit back in the car and get back out to do it.

the motors way a ton which is why the mini is so slow. you cant see naff all out the back because of the daft roll hoops, the roofs always brake, infact, they are so bad, mini actually offer a roof warrenty along with a normal car one. hers broke twice in a year.
you cant put a hard top on, so they are not as safe and finally they just fold up like some sort of deformed rug when they are down which makes it look like an afterthought. at the end of the day, the mini convertible has been adapted to fit a convertible roof, the mr2 was designed to have a soft top from the offset so the mr2 is better in so many ways, and I for one, would not fancy an electric roof as its just something else to go wrong, and very frequently in these cars too.

so tell your work mate to shut her mouth lol she obviously knows nothing about cars at all..... FACT!

Thanks for all the replies. Thought it was just me. To make matters worse, a girl with a hardtop covertable Tigra jumped in on the argument - obviously not on my side!
I couldn't agree more with the way the Mini looks roof down. I think i may have to put the two cars to the test as you've said dj.

cclarke99 · March 5, 2010, 12:37

How often is said Tigra convertible driven with the roof down? Most cars like that (Peugeot CC, VW Eos, etc) never put the roof down, presumably they expect it to jam in the open position.

Talking about the EOS, when they were new someone at our customers took one as a hire car upgrade. Like all hire car lots, the cars were jammed in pretty tight and as he opened the roof the boot lid or some other part of the gubbins caught on the car behind, denting it and jamming the EOS roof in the part open position. Not sure what "upgrade" he finished up with.

inert2k3 · March 5, 2010, 12:41

Just took off my hardtop today, popped home for lunch, sun was shining, threw my soft-top back in about 2 seconds and I was away!

Love the manual soft top s8)

s8)

Mohammed s:D

s:D

lemans · March 6, 2010, 12:54

Hi all

Surely the whole point of the MR2 Roadster was light weight to give maximum power to weight ratio. As has already been mentioned the motors etc weigh a ton on powered tops. I have no problem taking 30 secs or so to put my top up or down. The whole electric roof "syndrome" is purely pose value for most of the BMW/Merc etc brigade. They don't understand us and we don't understand them. It would be a boring old world if we all liked the same things!

Just before I bought my 2 some good friends had just sold their Z3. They really could not understand why I bought the 2 when I could have had their 3!

Hey ho!

Ilogik · March 6, 2010, 13:01

Quote from: "uktotty"Mine is a stiff one and I find it hard to get it up, Dans was always more easy to manipulate.

Taken out of context I just pissed myself laughing s:lol: :lol: s:lol: s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

uktotty · March 6, 2010, 16:16

Aww bless, it was only a week later but well done for getting it s;)

s;)

mrzwei · March 6, 2010, 16:52

What's he laughing about?

Anonymous · March 6, 2010, 16:53

I don't usually lift and lock mine in one action I always lift and lower a couple of times to let it seat better, it never has to be summer before it comes down s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Having said that, a couple of weeks ago I didn't bother with my usual technique and began to get a bit of wind noise that wasn't there before, it bugged me till I found the problem

The hood didn't settle behind the seal.

How it should look.

So if you get a noise that shouldn't be there, check that it has seated behind the seal s:wink: :wink: s:wink: