The vinyl top on my 06 convertible was slashed two nights ago. they cut straight through the external and internal liner and actually climbed into the car through the hole. they stole a total of maybe $2 in change that was in teh glovebox... and in exchange forgot their knife behind, so i think they actually lost money on the deal. sigh.

I took it to my insurance adjuster, and just found out he ordered an aftermarket roof as a replacement. Anyone have any experience with this? Should I be trying to fight it?

am i right in assuming the outcome is going to end up being i have to pay the difference... and any idea what a new vinyl top is going to cost me?

does it really make a difference if i stick with the aftermarket top? hurt resale value?

 

Personally I wouldn't accept an after market roof. You pay monthy premium's to replace what you have and that would be a ford made roof.

I deal with this every time I need to replace a windshield. They try and pawn off a cheaper non factory windshield. I just tell them take it back call when you get the factory one in. When you make it clear what you want It never is a problem.

 

I would tell your insurance adjuster that your top is going to come from Ford unless he can show you where in your policy it says aftermarket parts will be used when you have a claim. I would also take it to Ford, get an estimate and have them send the estimate to your adjuster. (Don't just call and ask how much the top and labor will cost because sometimes what it will cost an insurance company is different than what it would cost you).

He himself should not be "ordering" anything anyway. His job is not to order your parts or get your car fixed, his job is to approve/not approve an estimate for the replacement.

 

Get the Ford top. I highly doubt the aftermarket top will be as good a quality.

 

Your car, take it and get an estimate and take it to your agent/adjuster.

 

Worked it out. Getting an OEM top. Thanks!

 

That's why I haven't owned a convertible since the early 70's. I remember having to replace my '64 Impala SS top twice due to some ***%oles cutting the top...just for a tape or a few cents of change. After that I just left my doors unlocked.

Oh...and be thankful you haven't had the jerks who pour Cokes into your back seat or flip a cigarette butt (sometimes lit) into the car if you leave your top down for a few minutes while you're in the local 7/11.

People are just so jealous...hope you can get your top replaced soon.

 

Everyone I've known through the years w/ convertibles leave their doors unlocked to avoid what happened to you. Live and learn.

 

What? no active alarm system???

 

The interior sensors didn't pick up someone climbing through?

Life with a convertible can have its drawbacks but you forget all of those when the top is dropped.
My dog used to sleep in the back seat of a couple of my previous convertibles, a very good deterrent. Had one stupid a#% pinned against the dashboard/windshienld in my CJ7, I stood and watched for good five minutes while the guy starting crying before finally pulling Bear off.

New top is quick and you'll be back on the road.

 

Can you get any fingerprints off the knife?

 

actually, I'd upgrade to the GT500 roof. The material is nicer than the regular Mustang roofs and may be an option on the new Mustangs

 

Good to hear they'll let you get a ford unit, if it's not too late have you considered upgrading to a cloth roof?

Don't get discouraged, there are jerks everywhere and wheither it's a hardtop or convertible people will do stupid things to our cars. This is my fifth convertible never had much of a problem all were nice cars. But one beater I had some idiot smashed five windows and stole probably three dollars and a photo album and another one someone stole a AM/FM cassette deck that was ABSOLUTELY CRAP.

 

Glad to see you got it straighten out.

 

That is the first question that popped into my head. Before touching the knife I would have had it checked for prints. Most likely whom ever did this already has his prints on record.

 

I live in the city... the police don't even bother coming out for this kind of thing. They took the report over the phone and gave me a number to provide to the insurance company. The day it happened, I stood in the street waving frantically at a police car to try and get him to pull over and he literally turned away from me and kept driving. sigh. Given my previous experiences with them here, it really didn't surprise me at all, that's the really sad part.

 

So, I got my car back a week later. Unfortunately, there are some problems. The vinyl is peeling along the bottom of the rear window. Also any time I raise the roof, the roof appears to be catching on the back of the seats... I hear a thud and see the seats vibrate. Never did that before.
Also, they did a crappy job installing the interior part of the roof... it's not lined up properly at all and it shows.

But what's really bothering me is that although this is supposed to be an oem roof, it looks completely different to me. I'm not sure if I'm imagining things or not, but it just looks different. The biggest thing is that there are huge seams that run from front to back on each side of the car. I don't really remember it looking like that, or at least they didn't stand out so much to me before... and when I look at the pictures the insurance adjuster took, it doesn't seem that visible either, but its not the greatest pic.

Maybe i'm just looking too closely now after what happened.... does anyone have any closeup photos of their convertible vinyl roof they can share... in particular where that seam would be that I'm talking about. i'll try and take some photos tomorrow.

Unfortunately most people don't take pictures of their convertible with the roof up... and when they do they aren't taking closeups of them!

I took the car back from them for the weekend. But I'm scheduled to meet with the body shop and the adjuster on Tuesday after the holiday.

 

Oh and I do have the active alarm system, or at least so I thought. But it didn't go off. I was trying to make it go off myself today to see if it even works and I couldn't make it go off. Does it activate immediately when you lock the doors with the remote, or after some amount of time? What's a good simple test you guys know definitely works that I can try and duplicate before I go and complain to the dealer.
Trying to find my owner's manual now.

 

I think you just lock your doors and wait a few seconds and mine goes off if you wave your hand through the window.

 

well just confirmed the anti theft does work when i stick my hand in through the window. decided not to try cutting through the roof to see if that works...

so.. can anyone help me out with any closeup pics? i'm going to try hitting up a dealer tomorrow to take a look, assuming i can find one that has a vert in stock. so far i've only found one that has any and it's not even in the same state.