My 57 Mondeo has one but that was an extra - don't see many cars with them any more.
Whatever happened to them? Until recently weren't they pretty much standard?
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Every new car buyer seems to want aircon instead, i'd sooner have the good old sliding sunroof instead (not a tilt only cheapy), don't go wrong with expensive results 5+ years down the line.
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I have specified sunroofs in my last four cars all of which had aircon. They are used for completely different purposes and especially for adding more light into the interior in the case of the sunroof. The latter is very useful when parked up and you can open it on a sunny day and get some sunshine and also you get increased interior ventilation with the rear of the sunroof cracked open.
To my mind, I wouldn't have a car without this option (which it usually is). My last Golf and my current MK6 have sunroofs which may have added to delivery/manufacturing delays last year when I had to wait 5 months for mine.
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The only reason my 2003 Focus hasn't got a sunroof is that I bought it secondhand. I really miss the additional airflow through the car that you get with a tilted sunroof. I would always specify a sunroof on a new car.
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Sunroofs chop headroom a bit, which is a problem for some.
Rear tilt ventilation works well in that it is ventilation, not a draught.
Reminds me of opening quarterlights which were great in that respect, but a bit weak on security.
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My 02 Mondeo Ghia X came with one as standard as did our 98 Clio, both of course also have aircon though I love the light coming through the roof even if it is sub zero outside, the FocuST would be better for a sunroof.
The global opening / closing on the Mondeo also operates the sunroof hence it is great for cooling the car 5 mins before you get in it on a hot day.
Last edited by: Cheddar on Sat 12 Jun 10 at 11:09
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Always used to specify a sunroof when the company was paying but £500 but somehow could not justify spending that amount of my own money! Do miss it at times. Great for letting out the hot air when the car has been standing in the sun and nice when you are pottering down the lanes on a summer evening. Also came in handy when transporting lengths of timber that otherwise would not fit in the car.
Have to say that given a choice of a sun roof or climate control climate control is the clear winner.
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...Great for letting out the hot air when the car has been standing in the sun...
I've resisted prattling on in this thread about a convertible...until now.
There really is no quicker or better way of cooling down a baked car than lifting the lid.
You can feel the hot fuggy air rise up and out as soon as the roof goes back.
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T roof was good on the Camaro albeit not terribly quick to fit and remove, turbulence liveable at high speed too.
Must have looked quite funny with a pair of Golden Retriever's floppy ears flapping about on top as the wind at high speed would drag her ears over the roof line.
Why do dogs love to stick their heads out, i swear she was laughing.
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>>
>> Have to say that given a choice of a sun roof or climate control climate
>> control is the clear winner.
>>
Hmm, I reckon sunroof + aircon would be preferable to climate control.
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Well I suppose its a personal thing but had aircon plus sunroof in the last car but prefer climate. Found with aircon was alway too warm or too cold and forever switching on and off.
Now leave climate on 20C all the time
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>> Found with aircon was alway too warm or too cold and forever switching on and off.
Why not manually adjust the temperature setting and leave the AC on - that's what climate control automatically does.
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"Why not manually adjust the temperature setting and leave the AC on - that's what climate control automatically does"
Does it?
My understanding is that climate control the system automatically adjusts the speed and amount of cold air introduced into the cabin. This is different to air-conditioning, which has its speed and amount of cold air controlled by the driver.
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>> My understanding is that climate control the system automatically adjusts the speed and amount of cold air introduced into the cabin. This is different to air-conditioning, which has its speed and amount of cold air controlled by the driver.
I thought that's what I said. CC is more of an automatic system, whereas AC is more of a manual system, but you can simulate CC by manually altering the AC yourself.
Sorry if this is teaching granny to suck eggs, but you can use the heater in conjunction with AC - which makes for a handy demister among other things. Some people wrongly assume AC is only meant for warm days of the year and to cool down the cabin.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 12 Jun 10 at 23:53
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"you can simulate CC by manually altering the AC yourself."
Exactly - and in hot weather you end up switching it on and off or altering the fan speed in an attempt to maintain a constant temperature which is what I said originally. To maintain a level temperature in the cabin with a minimum of fuss you meed climate control .
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>> "you can simulate CC by manually altering the AC yourself."
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>> Exactly - and in hot weather you end up switching it on and off>>
Rubbish, when I have had cars with aircon I leave it on all the time (all year round) and adjust the temperature with the "hot/cold" control.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 13 Jun 10 at 09:16
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So what do you do on a hot day when the temperature is set on cold and the aircon has turned your car into a fridge?
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You can blend the cold air from the air-con with the hot air from the heater to achieve the desired temperature.
This was a revelation to another driver who was a passenger with me once. He'd keep switching the air-con on and off!
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>> You can blend the cold air from the air-con with the hot air from the
>> heater to achieve the desired temperature.
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>> This was a revelation to another driver who was a passenger with me once. He'd
>> keep switching the air-con on and off!
>>
Precisely. This is what you do in my Mk6 Golf that has, what they describe as 'Climatic' Aircon. I put the aircon on and then bleed in some warm/hot air using the temperature dial to give the requisite amount of pleasant dehumidified air.
Yes, all this would be done, perhaps better, with full climate control but I'd rather keep things as simple as possible.
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>> So what do you do on a hot day when the temperature is set on
>> cold and the aircon has turned your car into a fridge?
>>
Turn the temperature knob back towards warm a bit. Which is all my current car with climate control does automatically.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 13 Jun 10 at 12:28
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>> >> So what do you do on a hot day when the temperature is set on cold and the aircon has turned your car into a fridge?
>> >>
>> Turn the temperature knob back towards warm a bit. Which is all my current car
>> with climate control does automatically.
Exactly the point I was trying to get across.
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>> Hmm, I reckon sunroof + aircon would be preferable to climate control.
Me too.
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My Panda is the first car I have ever had without a sunroof, but because there is so much glass it dosn't affect light. However on a hot sunny day its gets baking in there, a sunroof would be nice.
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I chose against specing one this time. The one available for the Octavia is soooo small.
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I've had my Mondeo for over six years. I opened and shut the sunroof while playing with the controls on day one, and it has remained firmly shut ever since.
Sunroofs - a leak waiting to happen.
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>> I've had my Mondeo for over six years. I opened and shut the sunroof while
>> playing with the controls on day one, and it has remained firmly shut ever since.
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>> Sunroofs - a leak waiting to happen.
>>
In my less well-informed and naive days I too used to think that sunroofs, such as the sophisticated slide/tilt ones fitted nowadays, would leak. But of course they don't, due to their construction and glass overlap into the cars roof opening made for them. Granted, if the drain tubes were to become blocked then that might be a different matter.
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Spot on Oldgit. Many years ago when I looked after lots of Citroen BXs folks would often arrive in despair with a dripping sunroof expecting the repair to exceed the car's value.
Always found the rear drains blocked. They could be easily acessed in seconds from a standing position and a bit of old speedo inner cable together with some warm water poured into the sunroof tray would see the problem sorted.
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roof holes should cover it.
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>> roof holes should cover it.
>>
Well, surely the modern accepted plural of roof is roofs?
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>> Why is it not sunrooves?
>>
Because there ain't no such word as rooves.
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Bit bored today are we, GutterSnipes? Any road, rooves, although correct, never looks right. Let's keep the f in roofs...
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ok, ok, I know rooves ain't correct ... truth is, I awoke in mischievous mode
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the only sunroofs i like are the webasto type that fold back
if i ever see a car with one of these i fall for them then struggle to sell them because people are frightened it will get vandalised,real shame as its like open air motoring but with none of the hassles
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>>the only sunroofs i like are the webasto type that fold back
The first one of those I had was on a '70s Vitesse. If you went above 70 with it open it ended up covering the back window.
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...the webasto type that fold back...
I had a knackered one in my first car, an old Triumph Herald.
After managing to shut it and get a reasonably watertight seal, I didn't dare open it again.
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I don't think sunroofs are as popular anymore because
- aircon is almost universally specified now, and probably cheaper to fit than it used to be
- sunroofs, the electric tilt and slide ones at least, were quite complicated and prone to problems. There were a fair number of cars where if you read a used car review, it would say, 'sunroof prone to problems', 'mechanism jams', 'sunroof drain tubes prone to blocking or coming adrift (well known on Audis) necessitating interior trim removal to reconnect'.
Maybe aircon is cheaper and easier to fit at the assembly line than a tilt/slide electric sunroof.
Or is it down to demand - more people prefer aircon to sunroofs, although I'm not sure that manufacturers actually listen to peoples needs, it's just forced on them, like starter buttons, automatic wipers and headlights.
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As I have said earlier, I specify both Aircon and a Sunroof although the former is practically standard on all cars nowadays.
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cars these days are all built to a very simple design so that they crumple in specific ways etc
sunroofs always upset this (anyone remember the avenger where it was specifically recommended sunroofs were not fitted by the manufacturer themselves) so seeing as a large part of the strength in modern cars is the bonded windscreen to give rigidity to the shell its probably easier not to fit roofs and to just fit poor quality air conditioning systems
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The last car I had with a sunroof was my company Vectra CDX in 1996, it was useful because the climate control / aircon failed at least 4 times in the 3 years I was saddled with this automotive lemon....
I've never had a sunroof since - neither do I want one, I find manual aircon (including the Climatic version in SWMBO's Golf VI) to be inferior to climate control in terms of driver comfort although it is infinitely better than a sunroof.
I suspect those who champion sunroofs over aircon don't have to spend hours travelling in a suit and tie on hot days ? I'd contend that aircon becomes desirable when ambient temperatures rise above 16DegC and that cars become uncomfortable when the ambient temperature exceeds about 22DegC. The fuel economy argument is possibly spurious too as an open sunroof can greatly increase drag.
However, I can accept that others may prefer sunroofs - they're just not for me, I am further puzzled by the attraction of fixed glass roofs (Civic, S-Max) which appear (to me) to merely turn the vehicle into a greenhouse and make the aircon's job harder ?
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>>I am further puzzled by the attraction of fixed glass roofs (Civic, S-Max) which appear (to me) to merely turn the vehicle into a greenhouse and make the aircon's job harder ?
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I like a sun roof on my car.
My sunroof has a sunshield that just slides forward and I use that to block the sun when it is parked.
I like the extra light it allows into the car.
I must admit to hardly using it open as I usually drive with all windows firmly shut to keep the noise level down.
I only open it in order to carry long lengths of heavier DIY stuff.
If I am on a DIY run for long light stuff then it travels on special brackets that clip on the passenger side window ( they are a bit like gutter brackets ).
I will certainly be looking for my next car to have a sun roof and SWMBO would insist.
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>> If I am on a DIY run for long light stuff then it travels on
>> special brackets that clip on the passenger side window ( they are a bit like
>> gutter brackets ).
Henry - Mostly good reasons for a sunroof although they don't convince me, it is a personal choice after all.
However for load carrying I have roof rails (and bars) and a tow bar (which deploys electrically and is usually hidden) and as a factory option was as expensive as a sunroof. I use the roof bars or my trailer to carry large loads and I would contend that this is safer and more in-line with design purpose than sticking long items out of the window / sunroof ? In fact I'd be concerned that using a sunroof / window as a load hatch contravenes construction and use regulations although I doubt many (if any) people are pulled over for this ?
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...and a tow bar (which deploys electrically and is usually hidden)...
Very flash, I've no desire to tow anything, but I want one of those. :)
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Oh yes, you have to have an electrically operated tow bar. This is the nearest real life incarnation of the 007 bodicea wheels.
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>> Oh yes, you have to have an electrically operated tow bar. This is the nearest
>> real life incarnation of the 007 bodicea wheels.
>>
Zero - I like your thinking.
Unfortunately the button is in the boot rather than on the dashboard making a 'dynamic deployment' tricky, I have been tempted on several occasions to deploy the towbar when some inconsiderate motorist parks too closely behind me as the idea of a tow-ball shaped dent in their pride and joy greatly amuses me. alas I have not (thus far) had the courage to do this....
As for the sophistication and expense of this device, it's the only factory fit option from BMW and comes with revised rear suspension, ESP and cooling system so probably constitutes reasonable value. I'm not sure whether I utilise it much more than I did my sunroof when I last had one (to drift precariously back on topic).
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Sunroofs - -
