Sunroof haters, unite!

It may be irrational, but I loathe sunroofs. It's a dealbreaker for me. I generally dislike luxury features as a whole, but nearly everything can be stripped out of, say, a 3-series, except the sunroof.

In my current car, I yanked out the nasty 20-year-old metal and glass monstrosity and plugged it with aluminum and rivets. Apparently, I'd have to swap out my plug for a steel unit to keep it IT legal. That's not my only issue with the car, but as I casually look for replacement, a solid roof is a requirement.

It seems like any car sold in the US with sporting pretenses has to have a sunroof, at least in the trim levels that are most desirable. Every Civic Si, 3-series, SE-R, Prelude, etc comes with a sunroof as standard equipment.

So, fellow sunroof haters, what are the best options? The Integra Type R and the RX-8 are the only cars I can dig up that are affordable, fun to drive, quick enough in stock form, and can be had without a giant hole in the roof. I'm sure I'm missing something though.

well.. as an air-con hater... I prefer sunroofs...

I love sunroofs! As long as it isn't going to be a competitive autocross/track car, they are awesome. Assuming I still have enough headroom.

I LOVE SUNROOFS!!! I WON'T BUY A VEHICLE WITHOUT ONE (well, except for my truck), IT'S A DEAL BREAKER FOR ME!!!

rip out the sunroof get the sheetmetal braze it in. make a few lil braces and make a new headliner. no sunroof and after paint and headliner no one knows the better. (personally love my sunroof. )

I dunno...I like the sunroof on the Aurora. helps considering the A/C is long gone

I'm not going to rip it out, but I would have preferred not having a sunroof in my car. I never use it anyway, and cutting a hole in the roof and then expecting it to be watertight never seemed like a good idea.

Go away all you sunroof lovers! You're the dominant majority and shouldn't meddle with my support group :)

Providing it isn't a going to be a track car I kinda like it.

My Miata has a sunroof.

Wait no thats just a rip.

Joey

I never cared much about sunroofs until the g/f bought a MINI... then I developed an unnatural loathing of them... mainly because the MINI sun-roof is such and annoying, crappy design... no factory way to effectively block the sun - so you bake inside... noisy as hell when open - seriously, our MINI 'vert with the top down is quieter on the hwy... the 'effing thing rattles like there's a bag of bolts over your head...

Fortunately, MINI's can be had WITHOUT a sunroof. And you get more head-room to boot.

In my VW MkIV, the sunroof will decide to open and close on its own, without anyone touching the controls...

In my E30, when I close the door, the air pressure makes the back edge of the sun-roof pop up...WTF's up with that?

My hatred of sunroofs has become something of a joke among our MINI friends (who all love them, of course).

Sunroofs suck, end of story.

Can you get an S model without the sunroof? Or just a base model?

Count me among the haters. my '88 RX7 would have been a pefectly nice car with 3 more inches of headroom - and I'm only 5'-10".

Cutting a hole in a perfectly good roof is just silly.

I'm with ya, sunroofs suck.

Loses structural integrity, adds weight, takes away head(helmet) room, another mechanical/electrical device to fail, and puts the heat/light source blaring down on your head and eyes.

If it's a good enough deal it won't kill it, but a solid roof is always prefered.

Meh...........

All the anti-sunroof whiners shouldn't have bought their cars in the first place or quit beotching about their bad judgement. And, if you're beotching about someone else's preferences, get over yourselves and STFU.

Oh, I have a 25yr-old Prelude with original seals and motor; everything still works with no problems - no failures or leaks (knock on wood). When/if those probelms occur, I'm not going to beotch about it.

Cooper S can be had with no sunroof, but good luck finding one that way w/o ordering it. Them'r rare. Also, the ms3 did not come with a sunroof, the mazdaspeed protege does not have a sunroof.....

Can't remove a sunroof? Gut it out and weld or rivet some metal over the hole....

steronz wrote: Go away all you sunroof lovers! You're the dominant majority and shouldn't meddle with my support group :)

Yea go hang out with all those automatic transmission / DSG fanboys

Ian F wrote: I never cared much about sunroofs until the g/f bought a MINI... then I developed an unnatural loathing of them... mainly because the MINI sun-roof is such and annoying, crappy design... no factory way to effectively block the sun - so you bake inside... noisy as hell when open - seriously, our MINI 'vert with the top down is quieter on the hwy... the 'effing thing rattles like there's a bag of bolts over your head...

Almost ALL sunroofs are like this, those that think otherwise are kidding themselves.

Also, the problem is that once a huge hole is cut in the roof, attaching a panel there doesn't bring back the structural integrity. It's like T-tops, they really do just plain suck for the enthusiast.

I don't think I've ever owned a car with a sunroof, and it is an honest deal breaker for me above everything else.

If you're looking at ITRs, i'm pretty sure the 2000-2005 celica gts could be had with no sunroof as well.

I hate them as well. Go figure, the ONE car i have that i wanted a sunroof on (the Jeep), doesn't have one.

EVERY other car i have has one. Celica. Mx6. MX3. Escort.

steronz wrote: Can you get an S model without the sunroof? Or just a base model?

You can order a MINI pretty much any way you want one. While there are a number of packages, the individual options can also be ordered a la cart. This applies to the Cooper, Cooper S and John Cooper Works cars.

On the MINI, the sunroof comes with the Premium package, so when I'm browsing MINIs for sale, that's usually the first thing I look for (to avoid).

Non-sunroof MINIs are out there, but I would agree they are the minority. The local dealer in Princeton almost never has any in stock.

Amusingly, when my g/f had her '03 MCS serviced at a dealer in NNJ some years ago, she was given a really rare car for a loaner: a zero-option MCS. Base non-metallic CR paint w/ white roof. No packages. No options. The sticker just had the base $ + delivery. Rare car. I wanted it.

I think those here that are ranting about structural integrity are overstating the effect. It's actually pretty small. Now, adding the weight way up there does make a significant difference. And to to Ian HiTempGuy, no, they are not all like that. I've had at least 20 vehicles with them, and the only one I had a problem with had an aftermarket sunroof. The T-tops in my '78 Z-28 were junk.

Count me as a hater. My E36 has one, but I never use it. I'm always afraid that the one time I open it, it's going to get stuck. Same goes for the power windows. At least for a 2 door car, I can deal with the manual windows/locks. With that being said, manual windows/locks in our Ram Quad Cab are a huge pain in the butt.

I didn't really care about the one in my Integra. I didn't open it very often, but it never bothered me. Thre was a solid shade that blocked the sun when closed.

The one in the VW goes largely unnoticed until it decides to do its ghostly opening trick. It also has a solid shade that blocks all light. It's loud when open, but that noise is more from the roof rails than the sun roof.

The one in the E36 was nice. The car was quite pleasant to be in when the sunroof was open. Barely any noise at all.

All three of the sunroofs above open into the car. The MINI's sun-roof opens out of the car and sits on top when open resulting in ungodly amounts of wind-noise.