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-   -   Sunroof : Yes please or No thanks? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/234756-sunroof-yes-please-no-thanks-9.html)

I was neutral till I did a test drive of a car that had a sun roof. A couple of questions to those who own a car with one.

1. What’s the diff between a sun/moon roof? Or are they used inter-changeably?

2. For those who love to see the rain drops falling on the sun roof, how do you get to clean the residual water drops? Is that a pain?

Voted Yes!

I used to always feel sunroof being useless, it is just a sliding window on the roof. But opinion changed from 2019 when we purchased EcoSport and got to experience Sunroof (or Funroof as Ford advertises). Agreed, it’s small, but sunroof is never meant to pop head. We have hardly opened it, but just sliding sunshade feels amazing, especially while experiencing rains and travelling to hill-stations.
I will definitely prefer buying a car with sunroof (panoramic sunroof is even better).

For all practical purposes, they are used interchangeably, and today in most cars they mean the same. However, strictly speaking, there is a technical difference. A sunroof is an opaque movable roof that will not let in light when closed (i.e. completely opaque when closed), and will let in both light and air when opened (i.e. it creates a direct opening or a through hole in the roof when opened). On the other hand, a moonroof is a glass panel that will let in light even when closed (it is never fully opaque) and when open, it will let in both light and air. Sometimes, a moonroof may not be fully openable at all.

However, what we have today in most cars is a combination of both. We technically have a moonroof (the top sliding panel made of tinted glass) with an opaque sliding shade under it (which by itself could be called a sunroof since that shade is opaque when closed). Thus, we have a hybrid of the two roofs today (in most cars) and they are casually called sunroofs or moonroof interchangeably.

However, even today, some cars strictly have moonroof (and not sunroof). For example, recently I test drove Jaguar IPace, and that has a massive panoramic roof made of tinted glass with no opaque shade under it (see the picture below). Thus, it will always let in light (thought it is quite dark tinted) and will always remain transparent when seen from inside through the top. That is a moonroof by definition.


Moonroof in Jaguar IPace. This roof can never be fully made opaque.

I never specifically clean the water drops. They get dried out just like the water drops on any other panel of the car. No special treatment is needed for the water drops on the sunroof. There are drains built in the sunroof housing to drain out any excess water if it accumulates. And unless blocked, the drains work well and one never notices any water accumulation or any other rain drops issue.

In the honeymoon phase of my Creta ownership, I'd religiously clean the sunroof every Sunday standing on a chair, carefully wiping the glass panels and drying them quickly to avoid water drops marks.
Now I have started to ignore them rl: I realized I was spending too much time, keeping my black car clean (yes I'm stupid). Now that the novelty factor is gone, I just get her washed in the detailing studio once in a month. And I use Jopasu duster every two days to get rid of dust.

Voted yes!

A sunroof makes a difference to the driving experience. I was indifferent to a sunroof until I drove a car with one over a long distance. It surely makes the car look more aspirational.

And mostly because my kid loves it

Would definitely like to have it in my next car, purely from the positive ambience it creates inside the car and the fun and joy it brings out for the kiddo.

I was not convinced about the utility of the sunroof until it helped me convince the better half to go in for the XUV300's W6 trim. She was concerned that the windows were too small and too high, and as a result gave the cabin a claustrophobic feel - but with the sunroof opened (even just the opaque cover inside) there suddenly seemed to be much more 'atmosphere' in the car, and so it didn't seem as closed off.

Of course, as a driver, you can rarely enjoy the freedom of looking straight up...

Voted No despite loving sunroofs. I enjoyed the sunroof in my Acura in the US, but in India I rarely even open my windows - it’s too dusty in bangalore and chennai where I predominantly drive, and it gets too noisy on the highway. Bummer.

Apropos the problem of kids standing on armrests to stick their heads out of the sunroof - wouldn’t the problem be solved by adding a weight sensor on the central armrest/lid of the central storage bin to trigger a warning over a certain weight?

I voted Yes- but for Panaromic sunroof
Why ? Cause it makes the cabin more open and airy to look at.
I don’t think I’ll ever open the sunroof but just keeping the cover open on a panaromic sunroof makes the cabin more breathable.
Just very recently, I visited the Skoda showroom and there I sat in the new Octavia and instantly I could feel that the whole cabin was let down cause a sunroof was missing and those black head liner isn’t really helping to make the cabin look airy.

Several examples of inadequate safety awareness in India car owners, with sunroof being a prime example. See:

https://twitter.com/CyrusDhabhar/sta...366908420?s=19

I was always against sunroofs, but finally picked up a car that has one and boy ohh boy it made me immediately realise what I have missed all along!!

This morning I was a witness to one of the dumbest acts that can be done in a car on a highway. I had stopped our car beside a highway side temple(on NH 275) to seek blessings of the almighty, which I always do whenever I take this route and so do a lot of other travellers as well. After the break, as I was about to start again, I saw a white XUV 5OO slowing down and eventually stopped close to our vehicle. I am not sure how many were inside the XUV, but a little girl about 4-6 years old was standing inside the car with her head popping out of the sunroof. As soon as the car stopped, the innocent kid was real quick to climb out of the sunroof and started crawling on the roof towards the front windshield. Luckily the driver(I assume him to be the kid's father) got out of the car and managed to get hold of the kid in the nick of time.Those few seconds were really terrifying to watch!

This incident reminds me of a meaningful quote from an elderly person from our place. During a casual conversation with my father long ago, he had said-

"Whether you are educated or not is inconsequential, what matters the most is your common sense"

I have nothing more to add. Period.

Note: Mods, please move this post to a suitable thread if this is not meant to be posted here. Thank you.

Sorry for not being able to gauge.
What was the risk? Did she climb out before the car came to a stop?

When I specifically said "in the nick of time", I thought it was self explanatory. Maybe, I haven't elaborated the situation well enough. The kid was just a few seconds/inches away from tipping over.

I'm of the opinion that sunroofs are only worth it if it is the panaromic kind, especially the dual pane ones. It makes the cabin feel bigger than it is and its a hoot when its raining or you are driving through a forest road. Ideally it should be visible to you from the rear without having to look up at a weird angle. Squeezing a tiny sunroof onto the roof of small car just to tick a box has zero appeal to me.