Sun/Moon Roof on chase ride

[Shane Adams]

Any exposed glass is a risk out there, and the last place I would want there to be a risk of breaking/flying glass is directly over my head. This issue is a lot like having auto insurance IMO; it's something you'll probably never have to deal with, but if you ever do - you wanna make sure you're covered.

In my humble opinion, I think a moon/sunroof is a liability.

 

[Mark Farnik]

I'm real lucky because the sunroof on my 1990 Mercedes 300TE wagon is a steel sunroof. It has a two mode system: push the button backwards and it retracts back into the roof; push it backwards and upwards only the rear part pops up for ventilation purposes. In place it pretty much looks like just another part of the roof and headliner. So the risk of broken sunroof glass is a non-issue thanks to German ingenuity! Yeah, it's nice to be able to look up into the sky or stormclouds through a glass moonroof, but the compromise there is safety if you run into some megastones or if you are very close to a tornado, in which case debris may rain from the sky, some of it more than large enough to smash through your moonroof and into your lap; with my steel sunroof I sacrifice being able to look up without opening the sunroof but in turn I will have complete safety (from above at least) if I run into megastones or tornadic debris is raining down from above.
I have the advantages of ventilation, sky viewing (if it's not raining/hailing) and maybe popping up to take some quick stills or video without sacrificing my safety and the safety of any of my passengers (I might be taking some of my friends chasing this summer!) 8)

 

[Dick McGowan]

Sweet ride yo, might have to get me one of those Mercedes wagon's.

 

[Mark Farnik]

Hey Dick, you know how you were saying you might just have to get a Mercedes wagon like mine? Well, I found this one just 16 miles from Olathe on Autotrader:
http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/searchresult...66062&x=83&y=10
It's a silver 1989 300TE wagon with 100,118 miles in what looks like really good shape for $4,995. The only thing about it is it doesn't have the 4MATIC on demand all wheel drive option, which mine has. The 300TE for sale has just the standard RWD. That 4MATIC option was a pretty costly one at about $2500, so you'd be hard pressed to find many 300TE wagons that were equipped with it; I just got lucky that I found mine and jumped on it before anyone else could. Nontheless, if you are genuinely interested it might be worth looking at. These Mercedes are built like tanks and you could run that thing another 100,000 miles and still resell it for about $3500-4000.

 

[Caleb Lawrence]

Here's another one in Illinois: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mercedes-Be...1QQcmdZViewItem

Looks like a decent vehicle for someone looking for a sunroof'd vehicle; as discussed in the thread...

 

[Mark Farnik]

Hey Caleb, that car on Ebay is my wagon's identical twin, paintjob and all! :shock: Only difference between them is mine is two years older, has about 15,000 less miles and the paint on mine is in better shape. Small world...

 

[Bill Tabor]

I used to chase with a Rodeo that had a glass sun/moon roof. I always worried about the hail aspect and probably had some nightmares about it. However I managed to avoid the big hail back then. Today I am glad to have sturdy metal overhead in my Tahoe, but I miss the view of the moonroof of course. Obviously a moon roof isn't really a practical chase option, but perhaps some metal shield could be rigged making it safer.