One thing that has surprised me about our new MINI convertible is 1) how few other convertibles there are on the road, even here in Southern California where the weather is perfect for them most of the year, and 2) that only one of the convertibles I have seen on the road other than mine had its top down.

I seem to remember a truism that car dealers love to display a convertible out front of the dealership to draw in potential customers, but that almost all those customers end up buying something other than a convertible.

So far, we've been driving top down almost all the time, and finding it no problem at all, even on the Interstate at the speed limit. We do have a garage, and don't leave it parked elsewhere for long. We also don't keep anything worth stealing in it.

Is there anything else we should be worrying about or protecting against?

P.S. Our dealer assured us they've never had a catalytic converter stolen from a MINI - too low to the ground for a thief to even get to it.

 

My 1st 2 cars were British drophead roadsters. I Drilled a couple of holes in the floorboard of the TR so I didn't have to run up the top, that was back in the '60s. Today, only 4 reasons I run it up now.
1. It's raining.
2. It's snowing.
3. My co-pilot is whining about being too hot or cold.
4. Some guys are throwing empty beer cans in the back seat and didn't invite me.
I'm hard core topless motoring. It goes up for cleaning, either hose or shop vac utility brush and periodic treatment with Raggtopp.

 

There is such a thing as too much sun, so even when the weather might be perfect, I don’t always drop the top. Not all of us are trying to develop lizard skin (or skin cancer) by the time we’re old So yeah, sometimes even in perfect weather you’ll catch my top up. And as for “perfect” top-down weather? That’s highly subjective.

 

I'm also one that's top down unless inclement weather. I frequently see drop tops up in good weather, and always wonder why the driver paid the extra expense for a convertible if they don't use it. I'm thinking that once the drop top mechanism breaks they just don't pay to repair it, can be quite expensive from what I've seen!
Even the wife has come to like the windblown "convertible hair" she gets!

 

Baffled. For kriminey's sake in January of '75 I was driving my brand new Triumph Spitfire around in Spokane Washington (with tonneau cover) top down. They had 10-12' of snow at the time.

Hey, it was sunny! ;-)

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Somehow that reminds me of the summer day my sister and I drove her MG-B top down to get ice cream. We had at least 3 kids in the back, and all was well until we turned up a steep ramp into the ice cream shop. We and the car reached the top, but our exhaust system didn't. We were very loud on the way home, and one of the kids had to hold the exhaust system like a pole.

That's actually a useful reminder, now that I again have a car with 5.5" ground clearance, rather than the 12" clearance of our Subaru Outback.

 

Back in January 2002 bought a new Porsche Boxster. Not for the top down thing but because I wanted to drive/experience a car with mid engine layout.

When the weather got nice I tried the top down. But I really didn't enjoy the top down experience. Not a fan of wind noise, direct sun. Didn't like leaving the car parked anywhere with the top down. (On the Boxster forum an owner reported he returned to his car after parking it with the top down and someone has dumped softdrink in the passenger's seat. I had a guy try to toss a lit cigarette into the side vent of the car while stopped at a light. The top down would have presented an even more enticing target to the butthead.) So I had to put the top up. I could imagine the wear and tear on the top mechanism.

Where I lived -- 30 miles east of KC MO -- there was only about 2 weeks of top down weather in the spring and fall. The rest of the time it was top up and A/C for heat in the winter and cooling in the summer.

Oh, leaving the top down just a few times the car caught at least one migrating spider -- they launch themselves via a web in the breeze -- and the spider that landed in the car had baby spiders and for a good while after tiny pale yellow spiders would appear out of the dash.

So I just left the top up. Loved the car though. Drove it for 16 years and put 317K miles on it.

What I would worry about is leaving the top down with the car parked just about anywhere outside of the garage. End up getting something dumped in the cabin.

Park in the wrong place and instead of bird mess on the top -- which is bad enough -- you get it on the interior.

There is the insect infestation risk.

Top up and top down wear and tear.

I'd rather risk I think wear and tear on the top mechanism and put the top up whenever I'm parking it. Might mention even though I seldom put the top down the top developed a leak so I think if you own your MINI for some years you can expect a top leak. I caught mine leaking and had it replaced before the water did any damage to the interior of the car.

 

I think a lot of folks fall in love with the IDEA of a convertible, get one, and then realize it's not what they expected. My wife had a 2013 R57 for 7 years. When I found it on a dealer lot, it was less than 3 years old, and had 21k miles. She fell in love with it, so we bought it. At first, she would only drive with the top down, provided the weather was decent. (We are also in SoCal, Riverside County) She even had the scarves to tie around her head (so her long hair wouldn't tangle) and those round classic sunglasses. LOL. The charm wore off after a bit, I suppose, and the top pretty much stayed up. We never had an issue with the top, and we did maintain it pretty well. I like to think that if it were mine, I would have driven it more with the top down. But it was a Justa auto, and my 2011 S 6-speed was just SO much quicker! LOL. As mentioned by others earlier, leaving it parked with the top down anywhere other than in the garage can be risky, cause interior deterioration, and subjects the interior to bird droppings and all manner of nature's nasty stuff, including some so-called humans. Convertibles are a blast to drive, but they also kinda thrust you out into the world, where it's not always pleasant.

 

As someone who has three convertibles out of five vehicles in the fleet and has owned one or more convertibles at any one time for nearly thirty years:
The top is down when:
- Temps are 60 to mid 90's, although mid 90's is pushing it...
- I'm doing a short trip in town or longer trip on back roads.
- Going on roads where speed limit is 50 and below when dog is in the car.
- There is enough luggage space to lower the top.

The top is up when:
- Temps are 95 and above.
- Going to sit in heavy traffic (that's the norm in SoCal, isn't it)
- Going on highway trip longer than 50 miles. It sounds fun but after about an hour at highway speeds I've had enough.
- Dog is in the car and going to hit highway speeds
- Too much liggage and not enough space for the top to fold in.
- Other half took the sun screen out of the car and I'm on a drive >30 minutes.

I have other cars that are not convertibles, so I will typically drive a different car if the conditions are not good to have the top down. Some people have to use their convertibles as their daily driver rather than a pleasure mobile.

 

My mom and I both have F57's, and we live in NY State. Of course we both have the heated seats and heated steering wheel.
I keep my top down as much as possible, even in 40 degree weather. With the wind deflector in place, and wearing a hat & gloves, I find this 100% comfortable.

I've TRIED to get her to do the same, because IMO it's much safer to drive this way. You can see around you better. - But she constantly puts it back up. Her reason? She thinks that top-down is more prone to someone stealing the car. No matter how much I explain it to her ......
----------------------------------------

Of course one thing that's true is that having the top down probably invites more mischief for idiot teenagers, (as in RokC's post above) and maybe more attention from amateur thieves, who might destroy your interior trying to pry thing out.

I usually leave it down in parking lots, etc, but I think I'll start following Roc's method, quote: "I'd rather risk I think wear and tear on the top mechanism and put the top up whenever I'm parking it. "
If I have to get the top repaired in 5 years, well that's just part of the expense of having a convertible. So be it.

The other factor for me is the ridiculous Mini design of having to hold the button for 16 - 20 seconds until the top finished doing it's thing. So annoying that I just don't want to bother. However this can evidently be changed to "one touch" with some coding.
(And why on Earth does it beep when fully opened, but not when fully closed? )