Sunroofs

[Drawweight]

My wife still reminisces about the sunroof in her old Fiesta.

I have to admit there was something about having it open on a nice summers day but of course air conditioning has made it obsolete.

Or has it? Does any manufacturer still offer it as an option?

[brillomaster]

i like having a sunroof on my bmw. i never open it because as you say, air con keeps the car cool without the buffeting, but it is nice to have glass above you, lets a lot more light into the cabin.

[RicksAlfas]

I love an opening sunroof. Loads of them still available. Had them on my last three cars and my wife has one on hers too. (Four different manufacturers).

[Stuart70]

Panoramic roof on XC90. Part of it opens as a sunroof, I seem to remember.
It is pissing down, so not about to try it just now .

[Al Gorithum]

I only choose cars that have a panoramic roof.

[s m]

I like a sunroof

Always try and pick a car with one - factory is best imo

[Deerfoot]

Another sunroof fan here, pretty much always crack it open whenever I can.

[Alex_225]

I do love a runroof. We had them as a kid but they were always ones that lifted up and nothing more.

I got my first car, (a '93 Clio) which had a wind back sunroof and I thought it was great, there was also no aircon. But I have a sunroof on my CL and it's nice on a bright cool day to have it open.

[blue_haddock]

Best sunroof on a car was a Renault Avantime i had for a couple of weeks as a demonstrator which had a huge panoramic sunroof.

One button opened the sunroof and dropped all the windows for an almost cabriolet like experience

[8bit]

My C63 coupe (W204) has the part-opening panoramic roof - I love it, don't often have it open though but then I live in Scotland...

Wife's Polestar 2 has the full pano roof but it doesn't open. Does make the cabin feel bright and spacious on nice days though.

[Sheepshanks]

Drawweight said:

Does any manufacturer still offer it as an option?

Almost everything from VW Group and related brands can be ordered with a sunroof or it's standard on some trims.

The opening ones tend to either rattle or leak, or both. Extremely expensive to fix out of warranty and often does £K's of damage if they leak onto control modules and wiring connectors.

Was quite surpised to see the Skoda Kamiq has a pretty well full glass fixed roof. We used to have Honda Jazzes with the same and never had any issues with leaks as they don't open. Kids love them and they really lift the interior.

[TurboHatchback]

I have a pathological hatred of sunroofs, every single one I have owned has leaked to some degree and made the car damp inside, and most of them have broken (always in the open position). On top of that they rob headroom, add weight in the worst possible place, creak when the shell flexes and are just generally hateful.

Now I refuse to buy any car with one, however good the rest of a car may be, if it has a sunroof it's a no from me.

[dbdb]

I find opening the rear windows by a few centimetres removes any buffeting when I open mine.

I like sunroofs - but I don't like the sunroof in my car. It's an old Jaguar and there simply isn't the headroom for one which means I must set the seat far too low in order to fit in it. Jaguar called it a 'sunshine roof' when they made mine.

[ChevronB19]

My first car (a 1979 Fiesta 1.1 ‘millionth’ edition, 10 years old at the time) had an opening sunroof, but you could also take the entire sunroof out and pop it in a ‘special bag’ that came with the car.

Which was nice.

They were thought of as ‘luxury’(ish) items at the time.

[Legacywr]

An old 1600E with a Webasto, lovely.

[mikey_b]

I have a glass roof in my Sportage, it's split in the middle and the front part lifts up and slides back in the manner of a traditional sunroof. There's also a sliding cloth blind which completely covers it up should that be necessary.

It's lovely on a spring or autumn day when it's not hot enough to really need the aircon, but you want a bit of fresh air and light in cabin. It also makes a bit less noise and 'in your face' air blast than having the windows down.

I wouldn't say it's a must-have item, but if given a choice of two otherwise identical cars I'd certainly pick the one with the sunroof.

[RicksAlfas]

mikey_b said:

There's also a sliding cloth blind which completely covers it up should that be necessary.

I find closing my blind at night makes the car warmer when I get in it the next morning.

[Hoofy]

Love a sunroof. Shame you can't retrofit them. I tried to find a company to do it but all the ones I found offered the same options from a company that no longer makes them.

[CRA1G]

I always tick the Sunroof option when ordering New, my last two BMW M2's had them and my new BMW M240IXDRIVE has one so I was a little disappointed when ordering the New M2 as it's not an option with it been a Carbon roof...

[Watcher of the skies]

Full panoramic roof on my Evoque. It makes it lovely bright airy place to be.
It has a powered blind, but I very rarely use that.

I previously had 2 Rover 200 Tomcat coupes with the T bar roof. Once again they made the car a lovely place to be, you could remove them too. Never had any leaks or problems, but they did creak sometimes.