OEM sunroof - recommendations?

[Sunny43.5]

Hi Rob I am referring to "aftermarket" fitted sunroofs , yes in Europe you would find a lot more sunroofs in all makes of cars , the numbers quoted a few years ago was Europe around 35% of all cars sold have a sunroof installed Australia around 5 % . As I said we were the first ones to fit a fully built in style" aftermarket" sunroof to T5,s even though the T5 was released in Europe before we had them here my sunroof was the first of its type fitted to a T5 anywhere The Europeans are very reserved in doing installs as here in Australia we have done so many installations that have not been attempted in Europe or for that matter any where else at all . Our technical installation site in Europe sometimes use the data we collate for release in other countries where they havent done a particular model . The only factory sunroofs that I have seen on T5,s here in Australia have been external sliding but I will admit there could be fully internal sliding with tilt function sunroofs now available that I have not seen . I dont tend to lurk around dealerships too often unless I am asked to do a model car I havent done before and this applies to VW,s as well.

[mikinoz]

So out of interest, a ball park figure on a T5 sunroof would be comparable or cheaper than OEM?

[Sunny43.5]

Depends on what model T5 ie Transporter or Comfortline as the internal air ducts etc on the upspec models can make the install a longer process . As is the normal case an aftermarket fully built in style roof can vary between $2350 to $2500 fitted as opposed to factory online fitted around $1800 . Our work we get is mainly due to the fact that Aussie car importers dont tend to keep many of the top spec models in the country as the costs of models with sunroofs are likely to push a car into the luxury tax bracket . Also our work comes from dealers who know that once a car has left the factory it cannot go back and have a sunroof fitted , thats were we come in as we can usually fit a sunroof on the same day at a dealer , this then saves a customer who wants his car sooner rather than later . As long as they understand that they can get an aftermarket sunroof fitted quicker than waiting for one from the factory with a 3 year warranty this helps our business .

[Tombi]

It's been some time since I last posted pic's, so hopefully this link to Photobucket has some pic's of my '09 Transporter and factory sunroof.

Fingers crossed.

http://s1052.photobucket.com/albums/s443/Tombi2/

[Sunny43.5]

Hi Tombi yes that looks like an internal sliding sunroof same operation as our afermarket ones , if I am not mistaken the first series T5,s only had an external sliding roof so it shows how I have not kept up with all the changes . But you can be certain one day soon I will get a call from an owner to fix a problem that will most likely occur as I cannot think of any make of car right around the world that doesn,t eventually develop some problem due to a design flaw . The main problem is that most issues occur after the car is out of warranty thats were I get most of my repair work from , classic case is the BMW X5 has a notorious problem with the double panel "Panorama " sunroof , these frequently have a problem where the rear glass panel stays open when it should be closed . BMW,s reccomended fix $6500 my fix $160 just goes to show the ineptitued of service departments . Howard