Don Q wrote:
> Is there a consensus about the hard top?
>
No consensus from what I can read in the other posts.


> On the one hand one can cite better weather protection in winter and
> better defense against vandalism and theft if one has to park
> outdoors/overnight.
>
As for weather protection my experience is that it must be pretty
extreme else the soft top does fine.

As for vandalism someone could take a knife to it but breaking in that
way is more work than one should think (there is a youtube surveillance
video somewhere).

About two weeks after I bought my MX-5 someone keyed the whole right
side and also burned the top with a cigaret. The cigaret left a small
mark but did not melt through so the top is pretty tough.




> On the other hand there is the issue of storage during the summer
> months, and the additional purchase cost.
>
Oh, yes. My 1999 MX-5, which I bought some December 29th some 3.4 years
ago, came with a hard top. I had it on the first winter but since then
it's been taking up space in the cellar (I bought a special bag for it
that hangs on the wall).


> How many of you have the hard top, how many have regrets?
>
I do.

While it is nice and the car looks great with it I see no need for it. I
live in Denmark so the winter can be very wet and some years also pretty
cold but even in the middle of winter I can find days where the top goes
down. As long as you are gentle and it is not covered in ice putting the
top down can be done at any temperature and driving in the cold top down
is great with a little warm clothes plus the heater in the car is powerful.

It is partly by chance I discovered that the soft top works well in the
winter. My car is parked outside so as my second winter came up I missed
the chance of mounting the hard top while the car was completely dry and
I did not want to drive all winter with a folded soft top so I stuck
with the soft top.

To sum it up. The soft top works well in the winter so there is really
no need for the hard top.

Greetings
Bruno

PS. I saw the Elise/SLK/MX-5 thread. I think the MX-5 is the right
choice but you should also check out the Honda S2000.