I have owned 4 (out of 5!) cars with t-tops. I will now attempt to rank them.
I love this style of roof, I honestly think it offers open automobiling with the fewest amount of drawbacks. You can ask me to make another post if you really care about why, lets get to ranking - worst to best!
Worst
SW20 MR2
- The panels go standing up behind the two seats
- Getting them in there is fiddly and your passenger has to get out
- Getting the panels in the bags is even more fiddly
- If you don’t have bags, the metal buckle vibrates loudly against the glass
- Roof opening isn’t that big as the doors aren’t that big
- Cool how there’s no painted section, means you can swap panels between cars if necessary
- I don’t think there’s any tinting
- Sun shades and panel bags are thin and cheap but work well
- Pretty sure the AW11 let you put them in the frunk, all I want to do is store things in the frunk, Toyota why would you deny me
N13 Nissan EXA
- This will be short since the car never ran and I never had to live with it
- Shades aren’t glass which sucks
- Stored under the floor of the boot (I’ve been told this isn’t true and can find no evidence or photos to prove it, but I swear it is)
- Can take them off without passenger getting out
- Painted panels obv
- Removable boot lid is a cool touch
Best
Z32 Nissan 300ZX
- Open area bigger than the MR2
- Can strap the tops in the back without disturbing passenger
- T-top bags and shades are swanky leather
- Friendly tint blocks the sun’s harmful rays
- Only downside is that swapping panels between cars is a real pain due to body color section
Z31 Nissan 300ZX
- Pretty much the same as the Z32 except browner
- No painted part so panels can be swapped cars if you like
- Pretty sure the 300ZR or 200zR or something had a mirror finish on them, can’t find any pictures
Honorable mention to that DSM Eclipse thing that Doug reviewed which has a relatively pathetic sunroof with a manually fitted wind deflector which pretty much couldn’t be worse. I haven’t mentioned wind deflectors yet since all these cars have them and all of them pop up automatically because why wouldn’t they?
