Patent ID: 7273244

Claim:
Device for protecting objects placed inside the rear boot of a motor vehicle bearing a foldaway roof movable between a deployed position in which it covers the passenger compartment of the vehicle, and a folded, stored position in which it is stored and retracted in the boot closed with a hood, the device comprising a panel forming the vertical limit between a protected zone of the boot used to receive the objects and accessible when the boot is open from the rear forward, and a second zone of the boot used to receive the roof in the folded, stored position and located above the protected zone, the panel being moveable between at least a low protecting position in which the protected zone fills a first volume which is free when the boot is closed and the roof is in its folded, stored position, and a high protecting position in which the protected zone fills a second volume which is free when the boot is closed and the roof is in its deployed position, first and second securing means being used to respectively lock the panel in its low protecting position and in its high protecting position, the panel in the low protecting position being used to co-operate with a first sensor so as to authorise the folding of the roof, wherein the co-operation of the panel with the first sensor is such that, when the panel is higher than the low protecting position, the roof can not be folded, and in that the co-operation of the panel with a second sensor is such that, when the panel is higher than the high protecting position, the boot can not be closed.