This review is well overdue on my part, I've just been so busy with work, life, and moving (from Chicago to California) that I had to put this on the back-burner for awhile but I did want to share my experience with Ballade and their hardtop with fellow S2000 owners.
I'll start with why I chose to get the Ballade Sports OEM hardtop; I did my fair share of research and it seemed to be a great product by a very reputable company. Honestly, the OEM rear glass was also one of my major deciding factors as well. I just figured that since they used OEM glass and had a great reputation online, there was no way I could go wrong but that unfortunately was not how everything went.
I originally purchased the hardtop off Ballade's website on 11/21/14. Four days later, I did not even receive a shipping confirmation email or any updates since they sent me an automated receipt for the purchase. I had to reach out to them for an update (already off on the wrong foot). They reply that same day and notify me that they will be shipping it out the following day and will send me an email with the tracking number shortly after. Another four days go by, no response and no tracking number. I have to reach out to them yet again to which they NEVER even bothered to reply to!!
Regardless, the hardtop came around a week or so after my last email. I was super excited so I wrote off the poor customer service and communication from Ballade but that excitement ended pretty quickly after I found multiple scratches and scuffs on my brand new hardtop (the pictures do not do it justice).
I was pretty disappointed with the product so I reached out to Ballade to see if they could do anything about it. Unfortunately, there was no way of returning it so I just kind of had to deal with it (they would make me pay for shipping which I was not willing to lose 300 dollars over something that was not my fault). For the cosmetic imperfections, they offered to give me a discount on a future purchase (Great, I have to spend MORE money to make this right? What a joke...)
The worst part was the fitment though, it fits significantly "tighter" on the passenger side compared to the drivers side. I spent days trying to get it to line up correctly and had some friends help but never had any luck with it. Originally, I was using the stock latches to secure the hardtop from the front (which Ballade stated would work on their hardtop) but I couldn't get the passenger side to lock in (it would making cracking noises when I tried to latch it down because it was so tight, whereas the driver side latched on with no problems). The gap from the window to the hardtop is much bigger on the drivers side than the passenger side. The top of the window even hits the hardtop on the passenger side! When I contacted Ballade about the new issues that I ran into, they proved to not be much of any help at all and just told me that my window had to be aligned (seriously?! Would should I have to rip my door panel apart and adjust my window for your hardtop?!). They also told me that I could try purchasing their front brackets and that they would refund me for them (WHICH THEY NEVER EVEN DID!!) and the funny thing is that THEIR OWN brackets did not line up with the screw holes on the hardtop!!! The hardtop even leaks in the rain and has air leaks in several spots!
Roughly 8 months into owning the hardtop, the clear coat faded in two spots! I don't even daily my car plus it was ALWAYS garaged, how does clear coat fade that quickly? I had to take it to a body shop to have it re-cleared and have them paint parts of it to cover up imperfections.
Overall, I would personally pass on the Ballade Sports hardtop, it was a terrible decision on my part.
TLDR; Very poor customer service and extremely disappointing product. AVOID AT ALL COSTS WOULD BE MY ADVICE.

 

You don't have any pictures of this?

 

thanks for the review i was considering picking one up from them.

 

Pictures?

 

Cool thanks for the review, I'm also looking into getting a OEM style CF hardtop to replace my Mugen rep hardtop that came with my s2k.

 

All I have to I guess "opinionate" on is does anyone really know how hard this is to actually mfg. a hardtop for a mass produced vehicle? ...? U bought a cheap hardtop, thats what you got. period. Lol.

 

I just bought OEM. Really can't beat the quality.

 

I would never buy a hard top, but if I did it would probably be OEM. I'm not taking chances with a CF top, warping, cracking, and the pain it is to keep CF looking great without fading, let alone from a company I've never heard of.