If everything else about the car is what you're looking for, then you might just make a great deal on it. My 2005 Roadster had a non-working top. The small, specialty car dealer that had the car found a Chrysler dealer who diagnosed it as a bad hydraulic cylinder on the top. But he didn't want to start down that route of fixing it. I let him look at it on his lot for a month and then I got it for about $1000 off at the end. I fixed it for about $300. Pizzaguy is right. Most of the time, the fix is simple but figuring it out is more than most people want to bother with.

If you want to throw out a price that you're looking at and the details on the car, the folks here are pretty reliable at telling you if it's a good deal or not....