I love my car.

(This post is partially for JV, fellow Miata owner.)

I love my car.

I bought Nomi two years ago last May, and since then, we have had a lovely time together.

Driving the countryside together. Going out to lunch. Traipsing about with neices and nephews, one at a time. Usually going to lunch.

But the time has come.

He needs a new roof.

Now, brace yourselves for what is about to come. It might come as sometyhing of a shock to you, as it has to all those who have heard the tale told so far.

Last week the zipper that holds in the rear window ripped out of the inside of the roof. Which sounds like a small matter, right? Well, no. Without the zipper the car is open to the elements, which any ragtop owner can tell you is not a good thing. I tried sewing the zipper back in, just as a temporary fix, but there just wasn't enough material to sew to. I thought about buying a top and installing it myself, and I also got an estimate on having it replaced. As of last week, my options seemed to be buy a new roof & self-install (250-300 bucks), install vinyl roof with plastic window (650), install new roof with glass window (850). I know, 200 bucks for a glass window, dosen't seem right. Right? Read on.

So later in the week I started calling around for more estimates. They were coming in at 800 and 900 bucks for the vinyl roof, plastic window. So the first estimate was looking better and better (for the vinyl roof installed). Right? Read on.

This morning I started looking at replacement roofs on the web, and the first thing that struck me was that the roofs I was finding were pricing out at a hundred bucks higher than the roofs I looked at last week. Oh well; maybe I was just hitting expensive sites? I had one more shop to call for an estimate, one I failed to reach last week, so I called over there. How much to replace the Miata's roof?

"About a thousand dollars."

Okay. Alright. Don't panic. I called the first shop, which is one I have dealt with severla times in the past (with my last convertible, a Chrysler LeBaron that people kept trying to steal), and we talked about the options. The guy I talked to there said that the $650 for the plastic window top still stood, but after talking it over I decided I did want the glass window. Partly because I like the glass window. Partly because something told me the $650 estimate was not going to stand.

So we made an appointment for the day after tomorrow, and a few minutes later the guy called back to revise the price: Rather than going for $950 (the price he gave me for the replacement roof with glass window, installed) it would be $1050. I said I had expected that. He said well, they were giving me a break, actually. If he hadn't given me the lower estimates already, it would have cost me 1300 bucks.

The moral of the story is that if you are a Miata owner, the days of replacing your roof for three or four hundred dollars are long gone. If you want your roof replaced, with warantee and with all work guaranteed by a licensed professional, it's going to cost you a thousand bucks. And if you plan on being a Miata owner, you will need to replace the roof every six to eight years.

And them's the facts.