From: born@scepter.raleigh.ibm.com (Christopher J. Born)
Subject: Re: Aftermarket sunroofs - are they any good?
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 92 13:11:15 GMT
News-Software: IBM OS/2 PM RN (NR/2) v0.13 by O. Vishnepolsky and R. Rogers
Reply-To: born@vnet.ibm.com (Christopher J. Born)
Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research

In article <1992Oct6.200330.17647@unislc.uucp> bay@unislc.uucp (Bethanne Yukman) writes:
> One other really nice thing about the American sunroof that you are

 Aftermarket sunroofs in general, and ASC ones in particular, are a huge mistake.
 I have a friend who learned this lesson the hard way.  Problems with aftermarket
 sunroofs:

 1. Just try to get the warranty honored.  Remember, that ASC roof
    may come with a three year warranty, but unlike the warranty on 
    your car it will only be honored (and then reluctantly) by an ASC 
    dealer, not by a car dealer.  I can tell you from painful 
    experience that there are very few ASC dealers left and those that 
    are do not want to do warranty work because ASC pays a laughably 
    low rate for warranty work.  

    My friend bought his Toyota with the ASC roof in 1987.  It had a 
    three year warranty.  In 1989, the roof stuck open.  My friend 
    pulled out the list of ASC dealers that had been given to him when 
    he bought the car and started calling.  Guess what?  No one would 
    do the warranty work!  They had either been dropped as ASC 
    dealers, or just refused.  Apparently ASC had a major 
    restructuring in 88 and dropped a lot of their dealers.  This 
    alone is a good reason to avoid an aftermarket roof.  What good is 
    a warranty if you can't find anyone to honor it?  Factory roofs 
    don't have this problem!  

 2. Poor workmanship.  This same Toyota with the ASC roof is now 
    five years old and the roof liner has almost completely fallen 
    down.  It started falling over two years ago.  Also, the liner of 
    the sunshade has almost completely come off, as has the paint 
    around the edging of the glass piece.  In short, nearly everything 
    touched by ASC in that car has turned to crap.  Also, the drain 
    hoses were improperly installed, causing the roof to leak (and no, 
    he couldn't get it fixed under warranty) Other than the roof, this 
    car has a NEAR-PERFECT service record.  Also, when my friend went 
    to fix his liner, he found that most of the components had been 
    installed with electrical or masking tape!!  That's why the liner 
    came down.  The tape came unstuck and the weight of the components 
    against the liner caused it to fall.  And, of course, if the 
    workmanship turns out to be bad, who's going to honor the 
    warranty?

In general, from the experiences I've seen, I would only purchase a 
factory installed sunroof.  Preferably one made by Honda, BMW, 
Volkwagen, Toyota (if factory installed).  Ford has finally designed a 
factory installed sunroof for the Taurus/Sable but I haven't heard 
about the reliability.  I believe that up to only a few years ago(let 
me know if I'm wrong), all of the domestic car makers used 
after-market sunroofs even for cars that had the sunroof installed at 
the factory (i.e., they would send the car to the after-marketer 
before sending the car to the dealer).  In 1978, I had a friend buy a 
1978 Honda Prelude with a factory installed sunroof, it was awesome!  
I've seen sunroofs in Hondas lately and they have changed very little 
since then.  
 
--
Christopher J. Born

born@ralvm48.vnet.ibm.com