25 Oct 06
With the hours of sunlight now falling into single figures, and daytime temperatures not performing much better, it's time to wave goodbye to our Micra C+C after a summer's worth of drop-top motoring and look back on the ups and downs of the Micra C+C.
Being someone of reasonable size, my main bugbear with the Micra was the interior space - or rather, the lack of it. Sure it looks light and airy, thanks to the blue interior and the glass roof, but looks can be deceptive. It is actually a very cramped place to spend time and that's only with two people on board. Those rear seats are not seats by any stretch of the imagination: discount them from your mind as being nothing more than somewhere to dump the shopping that won't fit in the boot.
If you have the roof up, closing the interior off from the elements, then the Micra's boot is surprisingly cavernous, although I lost count of the amount of times I smacked my head on the boot's lip when it was open. Taller drivers be warned. However, if you want to take advantage of the folding roof - and as you've paid a good few thousand pounds premium to have it - the space available isn't as much as you'd hope for.
The Micra's roof allows itself to be folded away even when you're in motion - although only up to 3mph. This is a complete waste of time, as trying to keep a car at 3mph for 22seconds is nigh-on impossible. Not to mention the fact that you have to keep the roof's button pressed the whole time, leaving you to drive single-handedly.
On a number of occasions I found myself driving along with the bootlid stuck in the air and the roof half-folded away, while all the car did to help was to beep incessantly at me. Either allow the roof to still work at a decent speed - the Astra TwinTop manages 18mph, or don't bother at all (the MX-5 Roadster Coupe falls into this camp).
