I have had tilt and slide sunroofs on my cars since the '80s but on Thursday I take delivery of my new car without one - a Golf MK7 1.4TSI Match Edition.

It was a sudden impulse buy in a way, as I went into the showroom to have a demo to try the dreaded electronic handbrake but which turned out to be a pleasant experience. I then discussed availability of the above, fully expecting a factory order of several months as in the previous last two Golfs where I had specced a sunroof and one or two other extras. However, I am now willing to forgo that and, as a result there were at least three cars available in about 3 weeks and it turned out that one was at the back of the dealership in wraps and so bought that, in the colour I wanted!

No sunroof but everything else bar Climate Control which I would have liked but heyho simple Aircon has sufficed on the last 3 or 4 cars and wasn't prepared for another 4 month wait for a car anymore.

To be honest, apart from the welcome extra interior light afforded by the sunroofs, I don't use them much nowadays and the new cars have the so-called panoramic ones which are clunky and clumsy and don't really give a much bigger opening and have a £900+ premium.

Don't worry. Folk used to drive Triumph Heralds with a tin-top. Unfortunately it was just bolted on the same version as the convertible.

Roll either over and they were reduced the level of the bottom of the windows!

Any hole cut in a sheet of anything will inevitably reduce the strength of the remainder of the sheet. The weak points are the cut line of the hole, and is why 'normal' sunroofs, just like airplane windows, have rounded rather than sharp, squared-off corners (after the Comet metal fatigue/crashes debacle) - they don't concentrate loads at those 4 corners as much.

I'd have had a sunroof on my V60 if we didn't already have a convertible (SWMBO's Mini Roadster). I can't believe that a car would get through the NCAP testing process if it were seriously weakened by having a sunroof.

Re electronic parking brakes - they do work better on automatics. I much prefer a proper mechanical handbrake, but to insist on one reduces your choice of car more and more every year. I suppose that having one with a manual gearbox may be manageable provided that there is a hill-hold which lasts more than a second.

Autohold operates as soon as one depresses the brake and the car has stopped. It stays that way until you apply some 'gas' and release the clutch at which time it releases. I suppose, like simple hil hold assist it can sense the angle of the car i.e. its inclination to the horizontal.

I am follically challenged on top so a sunroof is out of the question.

I was once being given the hard sell by a car salesman. The model he had to sell had tinted windows at the side and rear; he called it 'privacy glass'. The car also had a glass sun roof. When I said that tinted windows were prone to make the inside of the car gloomy and I would need to keep the sun roof closed, he said that he always drove with the sun roof open so that he could let some light into the car. That rather negated the use of the tinted windows.

I first met 'privacy glass' when I was working in Jeddah. That permitted the women to ride in the back of the car and nobody could see them

Edited by Alby Back on 08/07/2016 at 23:35

The sunroof on my Mersedes c350 is perfect with no buffeting.

But the real surprise was the Fiat Twin Air Convertable, which I drove round the alpine circuit at Milbrook on a sunny day last month.

The roof folds right back or halfway with little or no buffeting and the engine is an absolute miracle being only a twin cylinder 900cc .

I dislike sunroofs, they are an excellent source of wind noise and leaks.

I dislike sunroofs- too noisy at speed.

And btw, what is sun?