What's your opinion about retractable hardtop convertibles?

[gwarnecke]

At this point I would probably only consider a convertible with a retractable hardtop. I wish more manufacturers would go with them. Quieter, more secure, and unlike a soft top, they won't fade/rip/wrinkle/dry out. They may require a bit more maintenance and the occasional repair, but they won't ever require complete replacement like every single soft top eventually will.

[earthisle]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Less safe than a soft top? Don't they all now have pop up roll bars and beefed up windshield frames?

I know rollover safety was a big problem in the 1970s but I thought they had resolved that with beefed up windshield frames and pop up roll bars or stationary roll bars. I know that some convertibles with a roll cage are actually safer than a regular unibody car.

Convertibles are not tested. The government and the IIHS have decided that convertible buyers don't care about rollovers and accept the risk. But in reality it seems that convertible buyers take for granted that they're equally safe due to the high tech devices. They have these systems that are better than nothing, but far less safe than a hardtop.

A normal car's roof can support 4 to 5 times the weight of the vehicle and will protect from impacts from all different angles. A popup hoop can't even compare. If these vehicles were actually safe in rollovers, car makers would voluntarily get them tested, but they choose not to.

[Tiffer E38]

Originally Posted by earthisle

Convertibles are not tested. The government and the IIHS have decided that convertible buyers don't care about rollovers and accept the risk. But in reality it seems that convertible buyers take for granted that they're equally safe due to the high tech devices. .

Convertibles don't have more fatalities

Contrary to what you might expect, driver death rates in convertibles aren't higher than in hardtop cars.


"We wanted to test convertibles because sales are increasing," Lund says. "We also wanted to evaluate a group of vehicles that automakers wouldn't expect us to test to see if crashworthiness improvements in mainstream cars also are being built into convertibles. For the most part we found that this is happening."

So in the real world, the cars aren't turning out to be less safe, partly due to advances in safety and partly due to the fact that convertibles are driven differently: more for pleasure and taken care of than normal cars. Although, the deaths that do occur are much more skewed to drunk younger males than in normal cars....


But you're right, they don't apply the same testing to convertibles. from 2005:

No traditional convertible can meet either the current or proposed standard. Federal law says that NHTSA cannot regulate a vehicle type out of existence, says NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson. That means it cannot apply the standard to convertibles.

A growing range of vehicles -- convertibles with a retractable hardtop -- will be treated as convertibles by NHTSA. That means they would be exempt from the proposed roof-crush standard. The reason is that the A- and B-pillars are not permanently connected

Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/car-news...#ixzz55JTNP2vH

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by earthisle

...
But in reality it seems that convertible buyers take for granted that they're equally safe due to the high tech devices. They have these systems that are better than nothing, but far less safe than a hardtop.
...

My old S2000 built in '99 has small roll bars behind the seats and a reinforced windshield surround. I've seen them rolled or even driven off a cliff and land upside down without passenger injuries... they don't crush down.