Should I travel with or without my hardtop?

I'd use the hardtop. The chances of running into 80+ degree weather in that part of the country in November seems slim.

Ron

I live in the Southeast and have driven with the top down well into December (might have to turn heater on). In my opinion, if you had even 1 or 2 hours of perfect top-down Fall driving, it would be worth leaving the hardtop home!!

Scott D

btw.........Here is a nice link that tells you weather forcast along any section of US Interstate highway:

Thanks for all the replies. I guess now my question is what is the downside of taking such a trip with only the soft top? I haven't owned this car long but the soft top seems extremely quiet and I'm assuming they don't leak on a regular basis. Other than the fact that the matching hardtop looks better on the car than a black softtop (the car is red) is there a downside I should be aware of?

Thanks again, Don

"Scott D" hat in Betrag news:Blxfb.39347$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews5.bellsouth.net dies gedichtet:

It may be a good idea to buy a foldable hardtop stand which fits into the trunk. So you can use the hardtop for long range trips and store it away once you have arrived and want to cruise around topless for some days. When using the soft top a very low temperatures (below freeze), you should avoid folding or unfolding the top as the plastic rear window may break when bended at low temperatures.

Frank

That's a great tip, taking a folding stand along so you can use the soft top for local driving.

As for me, if there were the *slightest* possibility of having open-top motoring on any trip, I'd leave the hardtop behind. The softtop is nicely insulated, it retracts easily on impulse; and with heated seats and properly adjusted blower vents heating the passengers, it'd be fun, lots of fun, to have the top down if you get the urge. It's also easier to pack Fifi and her dog carrier (and toys and food and water and blanket and stuff) into the jumpset if the top can be opened before leaving, not to mention giving Fifi a chance to feel the wind in her hair should she get sprung out of her cage along the way.

I've taken my SL high into the Canadian Rockies, with three feet of snow on the edge of the road; I enjoy putting the top down in in cold, crisp weather. It's a genuinely wonderful experience to have the full view of the terrain, with a sense of the winter weather and crisp air on your face, all while your body keeps safe and warm in the deep SL cabin. You probably already know that there is a windscreen available to make it nearly windless in open-car driving; it's that black mesh frame that snaps behind the seats to minimize any unseemly damage to Fifi's owner's hairdo. Makes it very nice to have one.

If I had any extra room in my SL for a folding hardtop rack, that'd be a perfect solution (well a new SL Vario hardtop would be a more perfect solution). But we're the family you see traveling with three steamer trunks, two Pullman bags, three overnight bags, two cosmetic cases, several large hatboxes and a couple of carry-ons tied to the fenders and roof.

Happy trip.

I don't know about the SL, but on my CLK I am pretty sure my rear window is glass.

DAS

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"Dori Schmetterling" hat in Betrag news:3f802ba9$0$27813$ snipped-for-privacy@news.dial.pipex.com dies gedichtet:

I do know pretty sure that the current SL is the first SL to have a glass rear window. As the current SL features a retractable metal roof, the question of the OP would be somewhat obsolete if he had one of those ;-)

Frank

Nice images.

If I had to guess I would guess that you are employed in either marketing, sales or advertising.

Thanks very much, very kind of you; I've always enjoyed your postings, very circumspect, enlightening, helpful and well-written.

I'm a senior manager at Microsoft. As you can probably tell, I spend some time daydreaming about fun things instead of work.

Have fun.

No wonder your operating systems have so many holes in them. People are day dreaming rather than fixing problems.

Huh,

HUH!

DS

ASK A WOMAN

if she would like to take an easy to remove SOFT top or one that has to be stowed.

case

the case, minus a few cans!

Thanks! I really appreciate that.

Good for you. I haven't had too many opportunities to talk to any senior Microsoft staff so if it not too presumptuous I was wondering if you could offer any tips to someone who wants to work at Redmond and has lots of technical experience but virtually no Microsoft experience - only Oracle and Unix. I suspect many people like me wonder the same thing.

Each company uses a different mix of technology, and so it goes inside MS. In fact, you see Macs next to Wintel machines; Oracle and SQL7 together, XP Servers connecting to Sun, HP-Unix, etc. Bourne, Shell Scripting, C++, ASP, HTML, DHTML, XML, .NET are good starters (pick any two or three), with recent (last three years) active experience a good beginning. There are definite ways into every area of commerce for MS in Redmond; I'll contact you offline when I can devote some time to lending a hand, the next few days hopefully.

That is very interesting. Sounds great. Thanks!