Speaking of road trips, we put on our bathing suits, grabbed our body boards, packed some snacks, dropped the top and
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| Since the engine is in the rear, there is no trunk in the Spyder, so storage space is in very limited supply. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
headed down to the beaches in San Diego. Let me back things up before I talk about San Diego. First I want to talk about storage space, or lack there of. Since the engine is in the rear, there is no trunk. There is also no room in the hood of the car because a full-size spare occupies the storage bin. Hasn't Toyota ever heard of run-flat tires? There is, however, a lockable compartment behind the driver and passenger's seat that extends the width of the car. Again, there is not much space in there to store stuff, but it was good enough to get a couple girls and their gear comfortably to our destination. Next, I want to talk about dropping the top. It was so easy and fast. The setup is similar to the Mazda Miata. There are two manual latches in total; one located above the driver's side sun visor and the other above the passenger's. Dropping the top took little effort, I just folded back both sun visors,
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| Dropping the top on the Spyder is extremely easy and fast, with no clumsy tonneau cover to deal with. (Photo: Alexandra Straub, Canadian Auto Press) |
powered down the windows, unlatched the latches, and lifted back the top until it was completely folded back. Then, I pushed on the top until it snapped into place and I was ready to cruise. What's that you say? No protective tonneau cover? That's right, this system is brilliant. Instead of fussing with the tonneaus most entry-level convertibles such as the Mazda Miata, VW Beetle and Chrysler Sebring have, the roof just snaps into place and is immovable unless the latch is pulled. Putting the top back up was just as simple. I pulled the top release button and repeated the same steps as listed above, but in reverse order. I pretty much went everywhere with Sarah so going topless took only half the time - she took care of the passenger side latch. That in mind, it might have been a bit of a stretch if I were on my own.
