Okay, consider this nightmare scenario which hopefully will never occur for anyone (and hasn’t already, either):
You go for a supermarket shop, or similar. You leave your MX-5 with its top down, but of course the car itself locked. You return 30 minutes or so later with your cornflakes and beans to find that the space previously occupied by your car is now empty; some scum has stolen it.
Q: Where would you stand with insurance on this one? The car’s locked of course, but the top was down. Is it ‘your fault’ that some scum stole it, or are you covered as top down is a feature of the car, it was locked, and you can’t be held responsible for someone else’s criminal behaviour?
The thread isn’t meant as a vehicle (no pun) for asking how users leave their cars in such situations, but just what would occur, insurance wise, if the (again, hopefully for everyone never will occur) car is stolen.
Also consider some low life has flicked a burning cigarette end in your car.
Yes, that’s another scenario.
P.S Liking how you came up with that one, with your username 
Mine is insured but contents,audio etc are not if roof down !
The windows open on my tin top car but I don’t leave them open when I go shopping. Unless you park it where it can be seen on a camera it would be very difficult for the insurance company to prove that the top was down…unless you told them of course.
There is probably a clause in there to say that you must take reasonable care of your car and not unreasonably expose it to the risk of theft, damage etc.
It states clearly in my insurance schedule that the the insurance is invalidated if the car is left with the top down. I always put the roof up (it takes but 13 seconds) and I also use a Milenco steering lock.
To be fair I am a bit paranoid about security.
With fear of the chocolate ND hood, with wear marks or whatever is the latest thing with them, I almost fear making multiple up/downs of the hood (once you’ve already lowered it to go out) more lol
You know when you only skim read before you actually read something, and just having seen the mention of flicked cigarettes…
I honestly thought at first glance @NDer had a fear of chocolate melting on his hood. 
My insurance policy also states that its not covered if I’ve left it parked with the roof down…
I assume different insurance companies will have different policy wording - so always best to read the wording on your own policy to see exactly where you stand…
I always close the roof on my 5 if I leave it anywhere other than my drive. I’m too afraid of cigarette ends being tossed into it or some yoof gobbing or even something else into it.
I close the roof on both the NB and the ND as it’s quick and stops the inside getting covered in dust, I use to leave the Spitfire roof down but that was because it took a couple of days to put up and down again, with the Alpine, that was a GT so never had a folding roof just a removable hard top.
It’s one I’ve never thought about but I often think it’ll never be secure left unattended top down. Rather like my neighbour once, he reported to the police that his car had stuff taken from it, they asked how did they gain entry, his reply it wasn’t locked.
I take no chance, unless I can actually see the car from wherever we have stopped at or visited the roof goes up.
Well it sure is a pity if they’re not insured if left top down when popping into some shop. You don’t see Sonny Crockett putting the top up on his car when he leaves it for a short while, and with my looks and charisma, the casual- and even not so casual- observer, I expect , probably thinks that I am a modern day version of him.
My first car, a 1938 Morgan 4/4 lacked weather equipment apart from a tonneau cover. The doors could not be locked. One of the first things I did was to fit a primitive immobiliser. Positiion on insurance would have been interesting should the worst have happened, which fortunately it didn’t…
With a PRHT and a SmartTop module, putting the roof up/down is a single push of a button, even while moving, so there’s no incentive for me to ever leave the top down when parked.
As well as the risks mentioned above of theft of the vehicle, theft from the vehicle, and vandalism (I believe in some areas that the remains of a McDonald’s milkshake is a favourite thing to chuck into open top cars), there’s also the possibility of a sudden rain shower or - don’t ask me how I know - the local bird population mistaking your pride and joy for a toilet.
Hi.
I think the majority of insurers exclude cover if the vehicle is left unattended with the roof down.
Regards,
Dan.
In addition to all the insurance complications and risking “something” being thrown in the car while your away and the roof is down, there is also the chance of a down poor.
I use to have an SLK and on a beautiful sunny day I went to visit my Mum and Dad. The car was parked on their drive way with the roof down and we all went out for a walk… 15 minutes later the sky turned black and down came the rain.
I was far enough away that despite running back at pace the inside of the car got soaked.
When we go out now in the MX5 and we are tempted to leave the roof down, one of us will say “remember that time we left the roof down in the Mercedes”…
‘the local bird population mistaking your pride and joy for a toilet.’
You can leave a small microfibre over the gear knob/ infotainment knob in the ND. Don’t blow away. And I’d much prefer to be getting bird poo off the seats than off the mohair hood.
As an aside, but connected, ‘they’ were all out tonight. The ND must look the buisness/flash, as i reckon that in the near 3 years that I’ve had the motor, I reckon that I’ve had (I kid you not) 100 (easily) shouts of verbal abuse by other jealous drivers and/or jealous pedestrians. But like the old saying with buses- you wait for one for ages and a number come along at once, I find with the abuse, I can go a few months or so, then they all seem to come at once lol
Anyway, getting into my car in a Tesco car park this evening (I park as far away from anyone as I can), I’m greeted by a bunch of boy racer types- late teens/early 20s ‘lads’ further other the car park and one raises a traffic cone and uses it as a loudspeaker, saying I’m a ‘convertible posing cXXt’ and a ‘tXXt.’. What a charmer.
Next, 5 mins of so later, at a roundabout, two lads in an Audi come to my side and the passenger calls me a ‘motherf**ker’ lol. Again, pure IQ brilliance.
Finally, on a duel carriage way, a SEAT cuts in front of me, slows and the driver proceeds to use the screenwash umpteen times to try and ‘shower’ me.
The joys of owning a good looking car huh? lol
If you laugh at them, it really annoys them…