Power sliding doors on minivans are often unreliable....particularly on the Odyssey.

 

If someone doesn't want a sunroof, they can't really keep it closed and treat it as no roof with MB. I don't think I've seen this comment but MB's standard sunroof is **** annoying. Why do they have to have those opening in their cover? Certain time of the day the sun will hit right on your hands. Are they the only ones that do this design?

 

Not even .... halogen headlights?

 

I still would much rather have them than not...

If it was otherwise a car I really loved and wanted, possibly not

 

Somebody please think of the children! LOL

Not sure what you mean...

 

I saw a Merc with halogen reflectors yesterday lol

 

Does yours not have two rows of openings in the cover that the sun can get through? Look up when you're in your car with the sunroof closed. I read it's a MB thing. Maybe not the S?

 

My old BMW 3-Series has slats in the cover so that you could tilt open the sunroof to vent the car, but close the sunshade to keep the sun from beating down into the interior. But the sun didn't really shine thru the vent slats.

Is that what you mean? Like this:

 

The only car I have ever had with a sunroof that doesn't spook me is actually my 190E, it somehow doesn't leak and has a manual override. I think it has proven itself at this point to not be a risk but it's also the most simple system of any car I have. It's an actual sunroof as well, metal panel not glass and I find that interesting and slightly less scary.

I probably just jinxed it though lol!

 

I think VW has the slots in the manual shade. GM has the clip this as well, I think BMW does as well where you have to clip the shade into place. Dumb idea.

 

No, mine is a panoramic roof and has a fabric roll out shade. My old Explorer had slats like that though, its so you can get ventillation with the roof tilted while still blocking the sun.

 

Yeah something like that but you can't close them. They're always open.

I see. Yeah if I get a MB, it'll be either Pano or no sunroof. When the time is right, the sun will hit right at the steering wheel.

 

I drove that Explorer for 8 years and never had that happen...

No MB has no sunroof, I don't think...

 

The amount of light that gets thru those vents is so minimal, it's not relevant. Allowing for the venting of air from the cabin is a nice feature; my old Lexus, I couldn't close the sunshade fully if I tilted the S/R while parked, so that let light into the cabin as well.

 

Precisely my point. I don't want a sunroof or a glass roof of any kind. The former at least usually was optional on some models. The latter tends to be totally unnecessary and unwanted standard equipment. To remove the latter on an otherwise great car would require substantial custom work to remove and replace with *some* kind of solid and shaped metal panel or CF panel to replace it.... something which is a nightmare to contemplate undertaking.



Because at the time I bought it I WAS looking for, among other specific vehicle features, non-sunroof cars and eventually I simply had to buy something. I did not initially plan to keep my factory manual SC for very long but I have had it for 13 years now and am keeping it. Since some hardtop non-sunroof editions were made for the U.S. and Japan I have looked extensively into removing the sunroof entirely in the future and having a skilled body shop that works with classic cars form a steel panel in the empty space above to be welded in and finished seamlessly as a solid roof conversion. I have already tracked down the non-sunroof overhead switch assembly and have been been on the lookout for a solid roof headliner from an SC or Soarer. They have to be picked up locally to ensure no shipping damage will occur to such a rare original and discontinued factory part.

I would love to have bought a factory manual SC300 which came in the non-sunroof variation but as you can imagine they are extremely rare to ever find for sale.

Nonetheless since it is a classic car now that I'm keeping I am willing to entertain that long term conversion project to it at some point.

That is what I have done with my last two vehicles which came with sunroofs that I didn't want in the first place. The shade stays closed and I never use the thing and don't want it there. I do roll my windows down as I need to.

In the U.S. cars are sold mostly based on the on site stock inventory model at dealers. Only some manufactures even allow customers to directly order a vehicle to their own specifications while the order books for that model year are open. Mostly U.S. vehicle sales work on the business model that you buy what is already available on the lots and as such generally dealers and/or manufacturers are the ones making the ordering decisions for the majority of the models and trim levels that they sell.

Take my SC300 or all 1992-2000 SC's: Toyota/Lexus *allocated* whichever numbers of which configurations they wanted each U.S. and Canadian region to have regardless of customer demand and requests. So the scarcity of manual SC models, scarcity of SC non-sunroof models and scarcity of SC models with failure-averse manual adjust steering columns are far fewer than SC300's with automatics, sunroofs and auto-tilt & telescope steering columns.

In the Japanese market however these cars were almost entirely ordered by customers (as is still the case today with Japanese market vehicles). A great majority of the Japanese version of the SC (Z30 Soarer) were ordered by customers without sunroofs and with manual adjust steering columns. Only the manual transmission option remained just as rare as it was in the U.S. market SC version.

Market research is one thing but that can be swayed by customer choice if allowed to influence what trim levels, options and variants are preferred. In the U.S. as you say it is very difficult to say that the presence of some feature you do not want will be a dealbreaker because if that's generally all you have available to buy in your market and at a certain point you just need to decide on a car and be done with it... you hold out as long as you can for the exact configuration you want or just buy something and move on with life despite your preference of what you actually do and don't want in your new vehicle.

I just don't like sunroofs or glass roofs and so, yes, that does narrow down my potential vehicle options considerably. And that assumes that even if the option exists I can even FIND that vehicle in that trim configuration if I can't order it, get assigned a VIN and wait for it to be manufactured and eventually delivered.

I don't regret buying and owning my SC300 even with its sunroof. It is a classic at this point and becoming a secondary car soon but it's too good to write it off because of the small glass section up top that never gets used.

However going forward I just don't feel like giving in as much as I used to on vehicle feature preferences in a new or used car. Same with my dislike of crossovers and most SUVs. Sure, it's a challenge to avoid these things but for the money that vehicles cost I feel it is worth it to try hard to get the features you do want, avoid the ones you don't want and let the other choices and options you are 50/50 on let you have better odds.

Specific vehicle color preference for instance is generally less important to me than the hardware configuration and design of the vehicle.

To each their own! We all have our preferences with vehicles