Soft top: taking it off and putting it on

The soft top is not a folding roof. It comes off completely, is rolled up, and is stored behind the seats or in the boot. There are no electrics. Owners report about 30 seconds to 1 minute to take it off and 1 to 2 minutes to put it on, and several do it at the roadside or in traffic. In a 2004 owners' race, four cars put the roof on in 20 to 35 seconds.

How it attaches

• The top is one piece of fabric, glued to a plastic support at each side.
• Each support has four lugs that drop into holes in the body, eight in all. The two outer lugs on each side lock with a latch, which you slide in to release.
• Two plastic spreader bars (struts) are separate from the hood. Each pushes into a hole in the rear window surround at one end and the windscreen surround at the other.
• The top is under tension from its cables, so a loose cable makes it harder to fit. See Soft top sagging and leaks.

Taking it off

Official procedure, from the workshop information system:

1. Open the windows and doors. The door windows must be down, or the doors open, so the top can clear them.
2. Release the latches on the driver's side and lift the top off its brackets.
3. Roll the top across to the middle of the car.
4. Release the latches on the passenger's side and lift the top off its brackets.
5. Remove the top and put it in its protective bag.
6. Remove the spreader bars: slide them out of their holes from the front, bending them up slightly.

Lift the top clear of the windscreen seal as you roll it. Two owners were told this by the dealer, and one tore part of the front edge off the windscreen seal by rolling it straight up. The seal can catch on the cable, which folds back on itself as you roll.

Putting it on

1. Fit the spreader bars first. Each has an arrow at one end, and the arrows must point forward. They won't fit the wrong way round. Slide the rear end into its hole first, then the front.
2. Start on one side. Tilt the plastic support up and drop the four lugs into their holes, starting with the two nearest the middle of the car. Then lower the plastic support so the two outer lugs line up, but don't latch them yet.
3. Roll the top across the car and drop the two middle lugs on the other side into their holes.
4. Slot the lower, outer lugs home, and the tension drops the other side into place. Latch the outer lugs on both sides.
5. Check both sides are secure, then close the windows and doors.

Rolling and storing it

• Roll from both sides to the middle. One owner rolls each side to the middle and lays the spreader bars on the hood as he passes them. The rolled hood then goes back in the middle when refitting, and you unroll each side without having to remember which side to start from. It also gives an oblong roll, which is easier to push into the space behind the seats.
• Coloured tops: one owner with a coloured roof rolls it with the coloured side outermost. On hot days the black adhesive that holds the fabric to the plastic supports softens and can mark the fabric if it is rolled the manual way. Rolled this way any marks end up on the inside, which is black.
• Behind the seats. This is the usual place, and it leaves the boot free. Slide the driver's seat forward and push the rolled top in horizontally, in its bag. One owner measured the gap as 16 cm. Some owners say their seat won't go far enough forward, and it is more awkward with a harness bar (one owner's doesn't fit at all). Unclipping the top of the Vauxhall storage net lets the roll go in.
• Risks of behind the seats: it can brush and mark the seats (one owner stopped doing it for that reason).
• In the boot: works fine and keeps the interior clear. Two owners warn that the roll can knock the inside of the clam and leave a star in the paint, or damage the rear lights, if it moves about on a spirited drive. Pack it so it can't move.
• Both the soft and hard tops come with a storage bag. Owners differ on using it: some always do, one just throws the roll in the boot, and one who stuffed it in the footwell in the rain wasn't sure how long a hood would last treated that way.