Convertibles
Soft-top cars are defying the wintry weather and clocking up steady sales according to the latest edition of the Black Book of used car values.
Convertible cars such as the MGF, BMW Z3, Porsche Boxster and Lotus Elise are all selling well.
“The seasonality factor which means that convertibles sell best in summer and pickups do better in the winter is fading fast,” said Daren Wiseman, Black Book editor. “Soft tops would normally be expected to suffer a sales downturn in the winter months – and a corresponding dip in value”.
Typical convertibles.
Volkswagen Cabriolet
Charming favorite of little rich girls. Based on Volkswagen’s discontinued Rabbit with custom Karmann-built body. New driver’s-side air bag and front power windows. Roll bar results in fewer convertible rattles. Takes two more passengers than competitors. Sturdy 1.8-liter, 94-horsepower four-cylinder. Nice handling. Optional automatic slows acceleration. Dated design. Tiny trunk.
Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
First Olds convertible since 1975. Distinctive padded structural top bar. Power top with glass rear window. Top has full headliner to provide “finished” interior appearance and trims wind and road noise. Decent acceleration and handling.
Buick Reatta
Stunning appearance. Reatta coupe a head-turner, but new convertible version can pass for exotic Italian sports machine. High quality because of much hand production. Personal-luxury car rather than sports car. Plenty fast with 165-horsepower V-6. Jiggly ride over bad pavement. Pricey.
Cadillac Allante
Vastly improved over earlier Allantes. Not a true, fun-to-drive sports car. Advanced features include traction-control system for sure-footed handling in all sorts of weather. Strong acceleration. Great handling. Stiff ride. Pricey. Poor fuel economy. Earlier marginal models drag down reputation.
Chevrolet Corvette
Corvettes and spring almost an American tradition. Few rattles because of superb structural integrity. Same oh-my-gosh acceleration and race-car-style handling as ‘Vette coupe. New fiberglass hardtop offered for colder weather. Pricey.
Mazda Miata
Everybody’s sweetheart. Cute, racy body. Economical, strong, high-revving, 116-horsepower engine. Comfy interior with good instrumentation. Great shifter. Good ride for such a small car. Engine must be revved and gearshift used a lot to get good acceleration. Excessive engine and road noise on highways.
Pontiac Sunbird LE
Slick, aerodynamic styling. Decent handling. Nice ride. Easy opening power top. Standard power windows and door locks. Average acceleration with 96-horsepower four-cylinder (optional 165-horsepower turbo). Pleasant, but unexciting.
Chrysler LeBaron
Simply world’s best-selling convertible. Drop-dead styling tops most other us automakers. Down-to-earth price. Pleasant ride and handling. Lively, if not neck-snapping, acceleration. Much-improved attractive, functional interior. Some shakes and rattles. Little rear-seat and cargo room.
BMW 325i
Hardly cheap, but with all the virtues of the fast, solid little BMW 3-Series sedans. Much standard equipment, including driver’s side air bag, anti-lock brakes, premium sound system and leather upholstery. Quick acceleration and top-drawer road manners. Styling and engineering have become fairly dated.
Ford Mustang GT
Plenty of fire and thunder from potent 225-horsepower V-8. Sizzling acceleration. Purposeful appearance. Sports-car handling on smooth roads. Dated design. Tight interior. Stiff ride. Fuel-thirsty.
Chevy Camaro RS
Big and sexy, with Ferrari-influenced “wedge” styling. Hearty acceleration. Decent handling. Typical convertible rattles and shakes. Old rear-drive design. A handful to manage on ice and snow.
]]>
But passengers are far more likely to have experienced nausea than drivers, the survey from the RAC Foundation found.
Only one in five drivers said they had felt queasy when they were behind the wheel themselves.
The RAC Foundation said medical opinion estimated that motion sickness affects up to 80pc of the population at some time – most commonly when people are travelling by car, air or sea.
The foundation added that some car travellers have reported being so severely affected that they resorted to strange methods to cope, including:
Travelling 450 miles in the winter with the car windows wide open;
Avoiding journeys on motorways so that they could stop every 10 minutes;
Never travelling anywhere that involved using bendy roads;
Always wearing sunglasses;
Fasting for 24 hours before journeys, chewing liquorice or sucking sticks of celery, or breathing through a handkerchief soaked in lavender water.
Sue Nicholson, head of campaigns for the RAC Foundation, said: “For many people the comfort and convenience of car travel is diminished by the dreadful nausea that they can experience. While most only suffer on occasion, some feel sick every time they embark on a journey”.
Dr. Tony Lavelle, the RAC Foundation’s consultation general practitioner, said: “It’s best to always look out of the car, preferably forwards, to allow the eyes to focus into the distance to help stabilise the balance mechanism.”
Summer may not have really arrived, but the cabriolet season is in full swing: tops are coming down, and prices in the classified ads are going up.
In an ideal world, the second-hand soft-top buyer would find a cherished, fair-weather convertible that has been kept in a heated garage and regularly serviced. Sadly, springtime flushes out a crop of unscrupulous sellers.
To avoid being caught out, make sure that any car in which you are interested has a full service history. A soft-top used only for posing purposes during the summer and ignored for the rest of the year is unlikely to have been serviced at the right intervals – which can lead to severe engine wear. Ignore the deceptively low mileage and look out for blue smoke from the exhaust, overheating and perished rubber tubing under the bonnet. Clutches will also stick open and brake discs corrode, so that, initially, braking performance will be poor.
An abused hood can be folded away, so remember to unfold it, checking its operation and looking closely at the fabric. On modern cars, hoods are costly to repair and replace. Bear in mind that seats and interior trim are likely to have been baked by the sun and soaked by rain.
With older “classics”, look beyond the gleaming paintwork and period charm at the reality. Rust is often rampant. A quick fix is filler and fresh paint. Inside, look for water stains – and lift the carpets. If possible, take the car to a garage so that you can put it up on ramps to look underneath for bodged repairs and rust. If the car has been “restored”, find out who did it and ask to see the receipts and photographic records, if any.
You might love the idea of a convertible, but your insurance company will probably take a different view. As open-tops are more vulnerable to theft and vandalism, premiums will be higher; and the wrong car in the wrong area may be prohibitively expensive. Check this out before you buy. My search for good convertibles coincided with a downpour and an unpleasant wind. This was lucky because:
(1) if you can live with a damp cabrio you will adore it when the sun comes out;
(2) wet weather makes it easier to check for leaking hoods; and
(3) sellers are more likely to soften their soft-top prices in a gale.
The most numerous, popular and reliable open-tops are those derived from hatchbacks. At Hills Garage in Leytonstone I found a 1988 VW Golf GTi. Every bit as good as the saloon version (albeit slightly heavier and slower) this smart, businesslike little car displayed no evidence of its 50,000 mileage: unmarked grey paintwork, unchipped alloy wheels, factory-fresh interior. This was a two-owner car with full service history, at a tempting pounds 4,995. For cash I could have pushed the garage a few hundred pounds lower, although I was politely informed that when the sun shone they would have no trouble in getting pounds 5,500.
In search of something much less sensible, I took a trip to the Harlow car centre to view a 1984 Jaguar XJS 3.6 advertised at pounds 6,995. It had a 98,000 mileage, two previous owners, bubbling paintwork, a resprayed nearside wing and a patchy non-franchise service history. Which is why I thought the price ought to tumble. And it did – down to pounds 6,495 and, if I was prepared to buy direct without the added complication of a warranty, all the way to pounds 5,995.
But I could not be persuaded. In the upmarket drop-top stakes I would always plump for a stylish BMW 3-series. I popped into Hexagon of Highgate, a BMW dealer that always has at least a dozen of used cabriolets to choose from. At one end of the scale was a 41,000-mile 1989 320i with a leather interior for pounds 12,995. By doubling my budget and expectations, I could have had a 1992 325i, again with leather, a low 13,000 mileage, and an electric hood, all for pounds 22,995.
Not far from Stansted Airport I met Fred and his classic but more affordable pounds 950 MG Midget convertible. The last MOT had run out back in 1990, but the engine turned and the floor was solid.
Of course, an old MG comes at a fraction of the price of its modern equivalent, the Mazda MX5. Chequered Flag in Chiswick has a bewildering line-up of these Japanese cars, which created the retro style to be worn by new offerings from Alfa Romeo, Fiat and MG. There were 15 to choose from, starting at pounds 10,295 for a 1989 model, rising to pounds 15,295 for a 1992 special equipment version.
They may be pretty, easy to drive and faultlessly reliable, but I still could not afford one. So it was back to Fred and his mouldering Midget. Even though it was cloudy and cold outside I reckoned that the Midget could just be running by the autumn, so it looks as though, against all my best advice, I’ll be taking on a restoration project. Please, don’t try this at home. Unless you are as mad as I am.
Hardtops or convertibles, here is the list of warm-weather, fun-in-the-sun autos for the 1995 warm-weather driving season, with base prices and their pros and cons:
Audi Cabriolet ($35,900): More of a slick cruiser than a stoplight racer. Great all-season top lowers quickly for warm-weather driving enjoyment.
BMW 3-Series convertible ($31,050 to $39,600): You can get it with either a four- or six-cylinder engine. The lower-cost four-cylinder calls for lots of shifting. But both are handsome, and a kick to drive.
Chevrolet Camaro ($18,160-$23,195). It’s rakish, very fast with the available V-8 and good-handling, but there’s little rear-seat or trunk space.
Chevrolet Corvette ($43,665): It’s still a tough guy, with a brawny engine and chassis. The list price is shocking for a Chevy, but slow sales might allow you to get one for around $37,000, which is near dealer invoice.
Chrysler LeBaron ($17,469): This is the last year for LeBaron, which has a decent power top. But it still looks good, is reasonably priced and comes with a big load of standard items, ranging from air bags and air conditioning to sports car gauges, power windows and an AM/FM cassette.
Ford Mustang ($20,995-$22,795): It’s less powerful and has a tighter rear seat than the Camaro convertible, but is fun to drive.
Mazda Miata ($17,500): This delightful little two-seater is more of a sports car than a convertible. But car classifications aren’t as rigid as they once were, and the Miata functions well as either type of car.
Mercedes-Benz E320 ($79,000): This is one of the highest-quality convertibles ever, and knocks ‘em dead with its grace and stylishness.
Pontiac Sunfire SE ($16,764): It’s pretty and practical, and also one of General Motors’ lowest-priced convertibles.
Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme ($25,460): This is one of the roomiest, most comfortable convertibles. The optional, 210-horsepower V-6 makes it fairly quick.
Pontiac Firebird ($22,039-$27,239): It’s mechanically the same as the Chevy Camaro, but has more-rakish styling.
Saab 900 ($32,995-$40,070): Saab’s very safe convertibles long have been costly, but items such as excellent tops enable them to act like hardtops in winter or during a summer downpour.
Toyota Celica ($23,998-$24,798): It’s smooth and racy enough, but too slow to be anything but a good-time cruiser.
Volkswagen Cabrio ($19,975): This cute, equipment-loaded car is the first new VW convertible in a very long time. It should seriously challenge the Miata. For one thing, it’s got decent room for two adults in the rear. For another, it’s nearly as much fun to drive as the Mazda.
