adityaw

Calling all soft top convertible owners, I am curious as to whether you are worried parking the car or not, for fear of the top being slashed etc. I have accepted the fact that coupes look better, etc etc. But if I am following my heart then convertibles are too much fun to miss out on.

The common arguments are:
-"if a thief wants to break in, they will" Sure, they will, but cutting the top is FAR more silent than breaking the window
-"leave nothing of value inside the car" well, my concern is not so much people stealing my belonging - it is idiots who simply want to harm the car/roof and not steal anything.
-"adds weight etc etc etc" well not everyone cares about sportiness first and foremost. Not everyone. Many just want to relax and cruise along...in which handling and performance is not THAT important.....many like me value comfort and luxury over performance etc.

My only concern is parking it somewhere and having it slashed. Is this problem that common? To my knowledge, no? I park my car in a garage so its fine but im more concerned about when I am going out shopping/parking in places etc.
Please dont say 'dont lock the car'. I dont understand why I should sacrifice my WHOLE CAR for the roof....Yes I am concerned about the soft top, but leaving my car unlocked is just unthinkable.

I ask also because we are seeing far less hard top convertibles. SLC going away, SL new gen most likely to be soft top. We have only what, MX5 RF(which is not even a real, FULL convertible), ferrari portofino, mclaren 720s spider. That is pretty much it. Next gen 4 series is 100% soft top too. I seriously do not understand. Literally every review I have read on,, say, MX5, they all agree the RF is far better looking than the soft top.

So, soft top convertible owners, answer this simple and direct question – are you worried, or used to be worried and not anymore, about whether your top will be slashed by someone? or am I just overthinking this, I should just enjoy it. If it happens, it happens, but wont let this stop me from buying a convertible?

adityaw

Sorry cannot edit.

Another thing I want to ask: If the roof is cut, will the car alarm go off? I assume yes, just like trying to open a locked door again and again?

sfS5

I guess the real answer lies with where you live/park your car. I've owned 5 convertibles over the past 15 years as just an extra car for weekends and trips with the wife. Four have been soft tops; Crossfire, Corvette, 560SL and S5. For one I generally leave the top down with the glove box locked day or night. I don't leave anything of obvious value in the car but there have always been extra sunglasses, hats and such in the cars. Not once in those 15+ years has anyone ever stolen a single thing from the cars. Also never had a roof slashed when the tops were up. Again, mostly a function of where you live but I would say this should be of minimal concern.

2ducs

Overthinking, Enjoy. I'm on my third vert. Two rags and one folding hardtop (G37) and will never have another folding hardtop.
I've only known of one person whose top was slashed and that was from a personal issue.
I'll leave my top down at stores, etc. but as stated don't invite mischief by leaving valuables in view. I worry more about bird poo than people getting in the car or slashed tops.

missmem

This is only my second soft top (previous was Mitsubishi Spyder), and that is never a worry for me. I live in a big city with lots of crime, have left the car on the street, and no problem. Now, anyone's car can get broken into, but I don't think a convertible makes that easier. Someone would have to have a big, sharp instrument, get through 3 layers, and make the hole big enough to get to the door handle to open it, which I don't think is as easy as you think.

I love my convertible. Nothing beats driving around with the top down after a long day at work

WasSD18S5CAB

The S5 is my 9th convertible since in the last 20 years, six of which have been softtop, and I'd echo what some of the previous posters have been getting at.

I agree that the soft-top risk is overstated. As missmem alludes to, you'd have to go from the top-down to get to a front-door locking mechanism and it's far easier to smash and grab a window which is exactly what happened to me with a Porsche soft-top where something was stolen out of the car.

The "urban legend" of soft-top convertibles being broken-into a lot has been around for many years but became more prominent with the E30 and E36 BMW 3-series convertible (from 1982-200) and the BMW Z3. As iconic convertibles, they were super popular, super prevalent, owned by upwardly mobile people; in-short, targets for thieves. Sadly, they all had a PVC/plastic rear-window that was super-easy to cut and climb-through (also had happen to me where something was stolen from the car), but even with those cars, it wasn't because people were trying to cut-through a modern multi-layer convertible roof.