There's nothing better for a new car owner than to have a crowd of onlookers gather around your vehicle (provided they are not wearing tracksuits, swilling Scrumpy Jack and asking about its ability to outrun a Garda car).
To achieve such a crowd-pulling feat these days requires either a prestige badge or an eye catching passenger. To do so in a €35,000 Renault is an admirable feat. Yet this year's big crowd puller seems to be the folding metal roof.
It's out with cloth and in with metal this summer. How far we have advanced. Well not that far if truth be told. As with many "innovations" in the car industry, if you scratch below the surface you find that they've been around for decades, only to be resurrected some time later with the addition of some new gadget or improved features.
We're not brave enough to claim it was the first, but Peugeot was certainly offering a retractable metal roof back in 1934. A feature of the 301 Cabriolet Eclipse, it had a one-piece metal roof that could be stowed beneath a clamshell rear deck. Admittedly the operation was manual, the engineers at the time had hoped that it would eventually be electric. Sadly the motors and wiring were not up to the task.
It didn't end there either; an automated folding roof featured in the 1957 Ford Skyliner. That roof took 40 seconds to fold away - so long as all seven motors and 180 metres of wiring worked according to plan - and when it folded away in the boot there wasn't room to fit a handbag. It cost a lot more than the regular saloon and the extra weight meant it crawled along the highway with the speed of an asthmatic donkey.
These days the folding time has dropped to about 25-30 seconds and you can probably fit an overnight bag in the boot, so long as it's pliable and soft.
Weight has been reduced, though they are still significantly heavier than the regular hard-topped equivalents. So how far have we come? Not that far considering it was 50 years ago.
Yet the big guns of the car industry are making a determined effort to relaunch the hard-topped retractable idea. The big problem of the 1950s was undoubtedly the mechanics of the operation. It's okay if the roof doesn't close on a balmy night in California, but on a damp night in Clifden would you trust all seven motors to work in unison?
Have we overcome those doubts these days? Only time will tell. Certainly the technology and its reliability have improved dramatically; however, so has the complexity.
The great unknown with all these hard-topped retractable roofs will be how they hold up to the trials and tribulation of modern motoring (and family) life. In 2016 will you buy a 10 year-old Megane CC - or any of its competitors - and still feel confident when you drop the roof?
Maybe that's being a Cassandra about the new technology. Provided it is serviced properly there really should be no major problems. What if, however, the previous owner was not so diligent about repairs and brought it to a back street garage rather than an authorised dealer once the warranty ran out. What would your average small independent mechanic make of its folding metal and the mechanics that drive it? Would he ever resort to the odd clatter of a hammer to get the motor running?
The other issue we have with folding metal roofs is the limitations it puts on the car's sleek design. Renault has been keen to "shake that ass" with its Megane range, and rightly so. The hatchback design is bold, eyecatching and original. It looks very smart. This coupé cabriolet on the other hand has a booty that makes Jennifer Lopez look positively bony. That should not restrict sales, however. The Irish have always had a thing for a big rear end, preferring full-bodied saloons to pert little hatchbacks.
One strong point for the Megane's roof is the use of glass in most of its covering surface. This means that even on those inclement days of winter you can still enjoy a relatively airy cabin as light streams in during the days and the stars twinkle in the night sky.
We've mentioned the lack of potency that plagued the 1950s versions and there are signs that it remains an issue in this generation of hard-tops. Yet the Renault is not a slouch in this regard. We were really surprised by the ability of the 1.6-litre to pull the 1.8 tonnes of metal along.
With a 0-100km/h time of 13.6 seconds, according to Renault, the 1.6-litre engine is never really going to lend itself to sporty performance. Yet in fairness to the Megane, its direct competitors are not exactly hot performers either.
While performance came as a pleasant surprise, the handling didn't. Renault has clearly made a conscious decision to opt for light steering. For town driving that's a great boon, offering smooth, silky handling in traffic. However, out on the open road it just feels anaesthetised, remote from the action. Similarly the suspension is designed with comfort in mind and it succeeds in this regard, though it does bottom out a little on rutted country roads.
The downside of this is a tendency to lean in corners and there is noticeable body roll.
Apart from the folding roof, Renault has also included a high level of specification on the Megane CC while keeping the price competitive.
The Megane will do well thanks to the glass roof, but it does face some serious competition this summer from the likes of the lower-priced Opel Astra Twintop and the smarter looking VW Eos to name but two.
And that's before you consider the more traditional soft-top competitors in this price bracket, the best of which is probably the Mazda MX-5 roadster, though you do have to sacrifice the back seats.
Whatever choice you make, you can be sure that car firms have their sights set on rectifying the two major limitations: reducing the weight and the space required in the boot to house the roof.
The Renault is a comfortable and stylish offering that has all the positives of the hard-topped flexibility and all the limitations that come with it.