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January 22, 2007 12:03 AM
Broken: Opel Astra TwinTop convertible top
Rowan Manahan writes:
So there I was, ready to buy a spanking new Opel Astra convertible for my wife. She had the Hermès headscarf and the Jackie-O sunglasses all ready for a test drive.
The Opel salesman couldn’t have been better informed or more courteous. He went outside to demonstrate the roof dropping for us prior to our test drive, wittering on about the unique “folding hardtop” action.
Now, I live in Ireland, where it rains between 150 and 225 days per year and, sure enough, it had rained the night before. So when the salesman hit the button on the remote to drop the roof, it pitched up and then gracefully folded itself back into the boot/trunk of the car – but not before dumping about 3 pints of water on the front seats … I have never before seen a car salesman with NOTHING to say. Not a syllable. I just can’t wait to hear some marketing person from Opel describe this as a “Feature” …
I cannot believe that a car company would let something like this happen. It looks like a nice car and everything, but this is a MAJOR oversight.
That's really weird that such a thing would happen, especially with a hard-top. I can picture water pooling on a soft-top (this happens with my mom's VW Cabrio, and no, it doesn't dump it inside), but where did this 3 pints of water come from, especially since it had rained the night BEFORE?
Opel got OWNED!
You should have bought a VW Eos instead.
As for the water...how did that happen? I don't think it has a convex roof, so the most should have been raining down.
Was the car totaled, and yes this is a good feature, it's the no-cost "cold shower" option for those days you feel muggy and tired.
Burnnnnned
Opel... haven't heard that name in America in a LONG time. Concave roofing? Nah, fabric can bend, leaving a puddle there.
st33med, hardtop roofs don't bend.
Burnnnnned
I'm not really sure how this could have happened. I'm guessing some of the water had formed beads that didn't flow off the roof.
I think i see where the water comes from. Check out the following two images:
http://www.caradisiac.com/media/images/le_mag/mag270/opel-astra-tt-3b.jpg
http://www.autotudos.hu/fotokcikkek/kep_05_04_opel_astra_twintop_3_nagy.jpg
As you can see, the front two sections pitch way forward, conveniently depositing any water droplets from the roof into the front seat.
This is what happens when designers make (poor) engineering decisions instead of engineers.
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Wow. just wow.
Posted by: Cameron at January 22, 2007 09:25 AM