Soft-tops here to stay

Expect more convertibles with traditional fabric roofs as folding metal lids prove too costly and impractical.

That's the view of Porsche's Detlev Ranft, the Germany brand's resident expert of convertibles and body structures.

He believes recent improvements in the quality of the fabrics used for soft-tops makes the demise of folding metal hard-tops more likely.

"It's still making its way, whereas the folding hard-tops are disappearing little by little," Ranft told Drive during the launch of the Porsche Boxster Spyder in Italy last week.

"From a technical point-of-view, let's say it's very complicated to produce electric folding hard-tops. Just look at the products, there is a lot of technique, there is a lot of hydraulic systems to move all these arms, etc. So it's a question of weight, a question of packaging because you have hard panels that you have to move and you have to put them in the back of the car.

They need a lot of space in the car so it reduces the volume of the trunk in the car. That's a real issue.

"We never thought about making foldable hard-tops because we knew from a point-of-view of weight it was an issue for us. We always say 'we just want to open the roof' that's all we want. So we have no problem with these fabric tops because we've made high-speed ability, you can use it all year long – in winter, when it's raining and in summer – there's no problem about using the car all the year. So why should we do a foldable hard-top?"

Ranft believes that folding metal hard-tops remain too complicated for Porsche compared to a fabric roof, and expects others manufacturers will move away from them in the future. The fabrics used for soft-tops now offer improved noise and weather insulation, addressing previous weaknesses.

"There are many manufacturers that, let's say, have quietly let disappear their folding hard-top cars," Ranft said, referring to Volkswagen ditching its Eos and Mazda yet to confirm a hard-top variant of its latest-generation MX-5. 

"And we are going to see in the years to come how many of these cars will stay on the market, or how many won't. They will be replaced by fabric roofs."

"I'm not going to talk about other cars from other manufacturers but from what I see it's far too complicated," he said.

"We just want to open the roof, that's all we want, so we do it with a fabric roof. Which is no problem because it meets all our requirements."