Comfortable again

[...m...]

...it's more difficult to put on than to take off, due to the aforementioned screw catching issues - i'd say ten to fifteen minutes to unstow and put on, five to ten minutes to take off and stow...

...yes, all of us weighing the hassle of it are really just wusses...

[Darkside Eng]

My hardtop was the best thing I got for my car by a long shot!

[TheViper]

I find it very exciting in the early summer when I have to put it on, but get even more excited in the late fall when I take it off.
Michael

[jesterbot]

+1 for hardtop... the soft top looks awful on these cars, and personally I don't even like the look of open-air. Makes the already toyish looking car TRULY look like a micro-machine/kit-car/miata-gone-wild(MGW). The hardtop completes the lines, and make it look like a shrunken race car at least...

[Bane]

Yeah, my hardtop hasn't come off since I installed it almost a year ago.

I was planning on just running it in the summer to try to keep some of the AC in but I ended up liking it to much to remove

[TheViper]

I guess you are either a convertible sort of guy or not, I hate feeling enclosed when I have to put the top on. Wind in the hair and all that
Michael

[MikeinAlexandria]

For me, my hardtop is off for summer. I'll put it on when the average temperature outside is under 45 degrees. I love the look of the Elise with the hard top, but I really like motoring around in convertible mode. It's not much fun in the blazing sun at 90 degrees, but on a balmy night with the moon lighting your way, it is awesome.

As to appearance, my car looks good with either top in place. And the soft top is super easy to install and remove, and in the bag (Which I am STILL waiting for... Criswell... ) looks like it would fit behind the seats on the package shelf.

Installing the Hard top is not nearly as difficult as the manual makes it sound, nor does it have to be a two-person job. I can do it myself. Just have to be careful.

For people living in colder climates, I think the hard top is worth, since the looks are great, and it does make for a cosy cockpit.

[sleepe]

My original hardtop developed cracks along one of the rear mounting points so I had it replaced under warranty.
My replacement hardtop is the same as the original except it has an integrated central-rear hold down piece that effectively pulls the back part of the hardtop down so as not to bulge up as the original one had. It seems to work pretty well.
My Elise is an 06 and I am sure all the 08+ Elise's have this modified top.

[...m...]

...personally, i think the best line of the car is emphasised top-down, windows-up - i keep an arctic silver hardtop on my storm titanium elise, which also helps accentuate that same line a bit, enough so that i've toyed with the notion of having the upper rollbar panels above the window line painted to match...



...my hardtop goes on seasonally when the temperatures climb above 100 or below 30, but otherwise i'm topless as much as possible, even in light rains...

[DWebb]

The hard top somehow restricts my vision and so I don't like it.

The hard top make driving in 100+ heat tolerable so long as I don't exceed 100 mph <A/C stops blowing - low on freon> So I like it.

The hard top is really noisy and squeaky, So I don't like it.

I used mink oil on the weather strips and that shut it up, so I like it.

It's a lot harder to carry on conversations with other drivers whilst driving, So I like it.

Well, I guess I like it a little.

I prefer topless so long as I'm not living in the third circle of hell.

Wow, all that and still I've managed to contribute nothing.

[stinkyonion]

My hard top sqeaks terribly. Never use it anymore. Tried antisquak grease from autozone, didnt do much. And the soft top looks better in my opinion.