Since I don't see many Tesla's running the hard top, I presume they were not included with the car? If not, what do they cost? Thanks
My (painted) hard top was CDN $3670 (clear carbon fiber would have been $5,735). The US prices were slightly lower.
Mine was $3,200, but they didn't have the color in stock so it took about 14 weeks. Also note that you need to have Tesla fit it the first time as they have to do window adjustment; I don't know if/what they would charge for that as I got mine fitted as part of the annual service and they didn't charge me for that part of the work.
My recollection is that my carbon fiber hard top was about $5000 when I purchased my car last summer. I swapped onto the car myself and didn't need any adjustments. I nearly took it off today with the warm weather here in VT this weekend, but I decided to hold off until it was really summer and not just faux summer!
Heck, I'm in Canada and I took the top off today! Unbelievable weather. Broke the previous record by 8 degrees C (14F).
Thank you guys! The cars do come with a soft top, correct? Is it water tight? Any idea how much weight savings there is between the carbon fiber top and the standard steel, aluminum, fiberglass top?
Apparently (Tesla says) there's no significant weight difference between CF and painted hard tops; but that's never been confirmed with data AFAIK. The soft top is waterproof, but in heavy rain there is a tendency to leak around the top of the doors and it will drip down onto the door sill and your pants when you open the door to exit/enter.
It was confirmed by Tesla employees in Menlo, who directly weighed both kinds of tops when I asked. I wasn't there when they did the weighing, in case you want to continue the conspiracy. :wink:
You misunderstand. Both hard top options are CF; the difference is whether it's painted or clear carbon. As for the soft top, yes it is included. It's quite water tight, although I'm told you might get a tiny bit of leakage in hard driving rain. (As it happens I've yet to encounter a nasty thunderstorm except when I happened to have the hard top on.)
Had the soft top on with every kind of weather, including extreme rain where you are unable to drive. No leaks.
I had my Roadster for 2 years without a garage and never had a problem with the soft top leaking (I had the soft top on from end of March to end of November and the hard top during the winter). So the problem for me wasn't when the car was sitting in the rain. However, the water does tend to drip on the door sill when you open the door and it is raining. That's my experience but it sounds like it varies slightly from car to car.