My '94's original top is still in pretty good shape--a bit worn, but no
air or water leaks. I've reglued a separated armature sleeve twice, no
biggie. I almost wish the damned thing would fail, so I could justify a
no-zip glass window top like yours. But it's against my principles to
replace a top that still works. It's hardly ever up, anyway.

If you want yours to last, get into the habit of using the boot
faithfully. UV rot of the inside fabric is the main cause of early
demise.

Anything over five years is gravy.

-- Larry

My 1992 MX5 is still on its first top with wear and tear only really setting
in now. On the inside one of the flaps that's supposed to wrap around the
cage bars has come unstuck but I suppose I could glue that back on. Since I
usually have the top down, though, I haven't bothered. Only in the last 2
months or so has a tiny tear/hole appeared in the bottom left-hand corner of
the hood, where it attaches to the body of the car - it looks like that's
where a lot of folding takes place when putting the hood up and down. That
may well develop into a larger hole quite quickly, but still, 12 years isn't
bad.

As someone else in this thread has said, whenever I have the top down I use
the boot cover which I'm sure has prolonged its life by a fair bit. Apart
from that I just keep it clean by washing it (along with the rest of the
car) every week or two, and apply regular Kiwi shoe polish from time to time
to get it back to black again and to protect it from rain. Seems to work
very well.

Eric

That will vary.  If you keep your car in a garage all the time, it will last
a lot longer than if you have to leave your car out in the sun all the time.
I used to own a '95 that had les than 40K miles when I sold it earlier this
year.  I kept the car in a garage the whole time I owned it and the prior
owner use to keep it covered with a car cover.  The top looked great.
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Alex