We’re in, boots and all

local supermarket and left the roof off, without having to worry about the leather seats cooking while I was away.

When I returned to the car laden with shopping, I didn’t have to raise the roof, instead I operated the loading aid, lifted up the luggage cover, stored all the food, clicked the luggage cover back in place and then folded the roof back into place.

It also came to the fore when I visited friends who own a BMW convertible. I was giving my friend, Ash, and her daughter, Laura, a lift to see their new horse and demonstrated opening the roof off the fob ( that their soft- top couldn’t do). But Laura had a large bucket with her and I didn’t want it on my lovely cream leather seats.

Before they could say, “close the roof so we can store the bucket in the back”, I had operated the loading aid. Again, tick for my 420i convertible and a cross to their model.

While there aren’t many new hard- top convertibles available in our market, you can expect other premium brands to follow suit with their own versions of this loading aid.

As in my 420i convertible, something you’ll find in other European marques is throughloading systems, which help increase available storage space. The rear seat backrests fold down so you can slide large pieces of luggage through, such as a second golf bag ( hey, I don’t even own one golf bag), snowboards ( nope), skis ( no thanks) or flat- pack desks ( yes). Go to Driven. co. nz to read Liz Dobson’s tips on surviving driving around in a convertible.