Afternoon all,
I’m considering a mk 3.5 as a daily driver and am torn between a soft top and a coupe. The car will be used every day and I cover around 18k miles a year. The car will be parked on the driveway over night but in a good area. According to Mazda the retractable hardtop adds around 83kgs to the weight of a sport tech (1248kg vs 1165kg) which is a fair bit.
Which option do you think is best?
I think this is one of those questions with no definitive answer. There are pros and cos for both. In the end it’s what suits you.
Depending what your ultimate plans are, the coupe (PRHT) can’t be fitted, very easily, with an additional rollbar (the factory roll hoops give some roll protection).
Oh, and a facelifted model might be arriving between now and September; not major changes (new front nose), but it might mean that existing models, if buying new, could be heavily discounted.
Hi, I chose the coupe version primarily for the added security and less chance of vandalism. I also found it quiter to drive than the soft tops. The coupe roof is some sort of plastic and does not have much insulation, my one being black gets very hot in moderate sunshine and this is transmitted into the car. You can feel the heat coming through when you put your hand on the underside. Maybe in the winter it will be absolutely freezing with icicles hanging off it but I have not experienced a winter yet.
The operation of the folding hard top is quick and simple. Mine is a new car so I have not experienced any problems yet with roof seals going or the motors breaking. The car came with an emergency kit designed to get the roof secured if it broke half way up so maybe there have been problems experienced somewhere in the past.
As for the weight difference, I thought I read somewhere that the actual difference was only 35kg.
I think I also read somewhere that the coupe version cannot be fitted with the boot mounted luggage rack. A couple of items you can investigate further if they will be important to you.
Good luck with your decision.
Gavin
I’d take the coupe any day. The extra weight is also at the back which presumably helps even out the weight distribution.
It’d be the soft top for me…less weight…better handling.
Although I originally started out intending to get a soft-top (thought they looked better than the RC with the hood up, but also cheaper to buy), having now purchased an RC I think I made the right decision (as a daily driver).
For a weekend car I’d lean towards a soft-top (cheaper, lighter, more in keeping with the ethos of the marque), but for daily driver I’d go for the RC if your budget will stretch to it because of better security and better insulation from the elements through the winter.
There are some heavily discounted new cars at the moment (VAT free and / or pre-registered). I paid £500 more for the RC than the (roughly) equivalent SportTech soft-top, but if the price differential had been higher I’d have gone for the soft-top just because I was already beyond my original budget…
If I had the choice I would go for the folding hardtop. Whilst I accept that the long term reliability and possible repair costs for a faulty roof are unknowns, the security whilst parked and the comfort when it’s not viable to have the roof down outweigh the potential negatives. If you buy a soft top with the intention of keeping it long-term you can expect to have to replace the roof at some point.
I would advise against buying a soft top & a separate hard top - they are a pain to take on and off and take up a lot of room in the garage, shed etc. Apologies if that offends anyone, I’m only speaking from personal experience.
If I had the choice I would go for the folding hardtop. Whilst I accept that the long term reliability and possible repair costs for a faulty roof are unknowns, the security whilst parked and the comfort when it’s not viable to have the roof down outweigh the potential negatives. If you buy a soft top with the intention of keeping it long-term you can expect to have to replace the roof at some point.
I would advise against buying a soft top & a separate hard top - they are a pain to take on and off and take up a lot of room in the garage, shed etc. Apologies if that offends anyone, I’m only speaking from personal experience.
Thanks for the replies. with regards to the weight penalty of the retractable hard top Mazda quote 83kg (1248kg vs 1165kg). I recall when the first retractable hard top cars were sold in 2006 that Mazda quoted the weight penatly as only 37kg. What has changed or are the original or current figures wrong?
I’d have to agree with Blokko - If it was our only car we would have opted for the folding hard-top, soft-tops are definitely noisier with the roof up and as a daily driver that would become tiresome…The extra security and waterproofing of the hardtop would be worth considering if it’s not garaged or parked on the street .
The weight difference won’t really make that much difference in the real world would it?
I agree that the weight difference probably won’t a lot of difference in the real world but I’m keen to understand the exact weight difference. Just to clarify I’m looking to buy a secondhand car for about 12-13k, not a brand new car.
It has’nt been mentioned, but,I understand that you lose boot capacity with the folding hard top.
The folder roof does not intrude into the bootspace, as with a Focus CC or BMW 3 series for example. Whether the boot itself is smaller to start with, others would have to confirm - but from a casual look at a soft-top at Cars in the Park today it seems that the boot size is the same to me!
Now where did I read that the coupe boot is actually slightly larger due to the re-profiled boot lid?
All good reasons for going with the coupe quoted previously - for me though the venture in grey with the black soft top roof just looks the absolute business and stepping out of a MGTF as a daily driver the soft top MX5 was going to be quieter than the MG anyway! So just like I did with the barchetta I let the heart rule my head on that one (and I am not ashamed to admit it!)