Miata Mailing List: May 1993, Message #128
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   From: (none)
Subject: re: replacing soft tops, warranties, etc.
   Date: (none)

> From: miq@wv.MENTORG.COM (Miq Millman)
> Subject: Re: RE>Re: extended warranty
> 
> One thing to consider:  The soft top seems to have a life expectancy of
> somewhere around 5 years.  My car is nearing its 4th birthday real soon now
> and the rear window is completely yellow, even though I keep a pillow case in
> the car and cover the window with it whe the top is down and I have a hard
> top for the winter. [...]
> The cost to replace the window is ~$400 the cost to
> replace the entire top is ~$2800.  These costs would have been covered
> by a warrantee, if I still had one, but that went away about 11 months ago.
> So If you spend $685 on an extended warrantee adn get them to replace your
> top after 5 1/2 years or so, it might be worth it.

i think the soft top itself ought to be good for more than 5 years,
although the rear window might require replacement around that point.
my soft top is in great shape after 3 years except for the 2 wear spots
on the inside of the roof that i mentioned in a previous posting, where
the rear window surround rubs against it.  i think a patch ought to keep
things under control for a long time to come, assuming nothing else goes
wrong.  

BTW, where'd you get the $2800 cost?  i've heard numbers like $1200
(admittedly, still a lot of money), although i don't know if that was
just parts or included labor too.  i'm not sure if this is a
do-it-yourself job or not, but it might be possible to save a lot
in labor costs if it were...

as for replacement under the basic vehicle warranty, that's meant to
cover _defects_, not standard wear-and-tear.  "everyone knows" that
all convertible tops eventually need repair or replacement, that's
just an added expense and fact-of-life of owning a convertible.
actually, i'd be kind of surprised if an extended warranty covered
replacement of the soft top, considering all the loopholes they tend
to build into warranties...