Sunroof
 

Greetings,

Having driven a Toyota the past 6 years (and my wife's acura) each of which have a sunroof, I don't know whether I can live without it (here in southern california, I use it way too much).

Anyway, the dealer will put one in my Hybrid for me for $1,000 or so. I've asked extensive questions and multiple people at the dealer said it won't make much of a difference in the FE and it shouldn't effect any safety features or the dynamics of how the airbags are computed and so on.

My question for people on this board is whether putting a sunroof will significantly effect things adversely. If its just 1 or 2 MPG FE then I'm not concerned but if it'll be something like 5 MPG then I'll think twice. Of course, people here may not know but I've seen two 2006 Civic Hybrids these past few days that have a sunroof and I know it isn't a factory option, so perhaps it is more common than I think?


Thanks,
Shawn

Re: Sunroof
 

My only worry would be possible leaks. I know in the past when people I knew added sunroofs to a car, more often than not, most of them had a leak of some sort.

Re: Sunroof
 

Yes, that would be a concern. Had that happen once in my truck. I would think that if the dealer themselves install it, though, that it would be pretty sound. Also, from what I gather, whatever the dealer does to the vehicle before it leaves the lot gets covered by the warranty, right?


Thanks,
Shawn

Re: Sunroof
 

I had one put in our CRV (1997--before it was a factory option) at the ASC dealer. They did a great job. Never leaked.

My concern would be having someone tinkering around with my electrical system, and I wouldn't be comfortable with someone screwing around where my side-curtain airbags are.

Re: Sunroof
 

Honda's factory sunroof's seem very leakproof from my experience. They have drains that empty below the doors. Does a Honda dealer installed sunroof have this feature as well?

Re: Sunroof
 

I tried to get my dealer to install a sunroof in mine and they told me no way. I told them I don't care how much, put one in and then insisted that they would not, but wouldn't say why.

Re: Sunroof
 

Where I'm purchasing my Civic Hybrid, Penske Honda of Ontario, California, they said they used to contract sunroofs to a third party but then they started leaking and the the company would only honor the warranty to Penske and not the owner of the vehicle so Honda dealt with it for those customers but they have since stopped putting in sunroof's.

Irvine Honda puts them in and warrants them as do many others but some don't. In any case, if there is a drain pipe it won't leak, the key is to find one that installs a drain pipe.


Thanks,
Shawn

Re: Sunroof
 

The MPG hit is probably NOT great, even though the weight-savings and cost-savings is why it is NOT factory nor a factory option (my guess).
Note that the Accord Hybrid did not have a sunroof available in 2005, but now in 2006 they do. I'm surmising they would NOT have added one unless the MPG hit is pretty minimal.
Chances are that the Honda dealers are having a third-party do the actual sunroof installs on 2006 Civic Hybrids. Just like leather installs. Some dealers simply don't want the extra potential liability issues (sunroof leaking and ruining interior or electronics, leather keeping side airbags from deploying, etc.)

Re: Sunroof
 

That is exactly what I was told from the dealer when I inqured about the sunroof.

Re: Sunroof
 

I believe the original reason Honda didn't put a sunroof in the 2005 Accord Hybrid was that they wanted to keep the car in a lower weight class (for EPA mileage estimating purposes). Now in 2006 they put one in but went up a weight class and the EPA estimates dropped significantly (although real world probably not much - I haven't looked at that data though). There are "adjustment factors" for lack of a better term that the EPA uses to modify the raw data to give them the EPA estimates. Higher weight class = more downward adjustment.

Eric