Blowin’ in the wind
The American Experience, the freedom of the open road, calls out for a convertible
By Jeff Rundles
One of my earliest memories in life, somewhere around 1953 or 1954, is of my dad’s 1952 Chevrolet Convertible, baby blue with a white interior. I have this particularly strong memory because I got in a lot of trouble: I had an “accident” on the back seat. To say my father suffered apoplexy would be putting it mildly. It was my first lesson in the human frailty, particularly that of the American male, called car obsession.
That my father’s particular car obsession was with convertibles is not unusual. Many people in his generation – the “Greatest Generation” according to Tom Brokow – had a thing for convertibles because they were raised during the Depression, and then the war, and had to aspire to something beyond survival. In movies of the 1930s, you always see the rich, beautiful people, like Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Katherine Hepburn, William Powell and Constance Bennet, cavorting in convertibles; the general public had run-down old cars like George Bailey’s.
Then as adults, the parents of us Boomers further went with the obsession for convertibles because having a rag-top automobile was one of the only things where people in the 1950s could step out of line a little bit. I mean, c’mon, the men wore dark suits, white shirts, club ties and were basically afraid not to tow the line. It was an age of oppression, for the most part, so taking the top down was a way of expressing some sort of freedom.
For us kids back then it was just cool, a big departure when we got to ride with dad and not, for a change, in the back seat of our mother’s station wagon. It’s no wonder that when Boomers came of age it was the beginning of the end for the station wagon as we knew it.
But the real obsession for convertibles for us Boomers was really surf music and everything California that began in about 1963 or 1964. The convertible really took on an even greater manifestation of freedom than it did for our fathers since, as we all know, we had much more than convertibles in our Boomer arsenal of conformity-fighting weapons. And they fit together nicely: long hair and convertibles were made for each other. One of my friends in high school had a bright red, 1965 Buick Wildcat convertible, big V8 power, white leatherette interior, power windows, booming radio (stereo? You must be kidding), and I can tell you for a fact that it was the ultimate chick magnet, and it got more than a few of the guys drooling as well. It was even better than another friend’s ’66 GTO hardtop, although that may have had something to do with him being a geek.
But to be honest, the convertible was really a ‘60’s thing. While there were still convertibles around in the 1970s and 1980s, and there were diehards who clung to the freedom they offered, there weren’t very many memorable rag-tops from that era. Indeed, even some of the more iconic convertibles of the Golden Age of convertibles, in the 1960s – MGs and Triumph TR6s come to mind – ceased to exist on these shores in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
I really think the renaissance of the convertible began in 1989 with the introduction of the Mazda Miata, a two-seat roadster, sort of reminiscent of those 1960’s MGs. I remember reviewing one when it first came out and hearing the story that the biggest problem the Mazda engineers had was making the car sound as cool as they intended it to look. It was, after all, a little Japanese car, and they put a little Japanese car engine in the thing which sounded like, well, a Toyota Corolla. So the Mazda people, it is said, designed a special muffler not to deaden the engine sound, but rather to give the Miata a sound commensurate with its open-top, two-seat roadster image.
Anyway, within a couple of years you began to see more convertibles – BMW roadsters, Audi roadsters – and then more interest in convertibles based on larger cars. And the trend continues.
I usually use Yahoo! Autos to do basic research on cars, so I went there recently and took advantage of its search capability to show me all the convertibles available in the American market. I really thought there’s be around 20 or so, and it came as quite a surprise to me that the list numbered 63 convertible model, and that’s not counting all the trims of each model.
They range in price (base MSRP) from $16,990 for the 2009 Smart Fortwo convertible (the Passion Cabriolet, which a friend of mine just bought and loves), to the $507,500 ‘09 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster (which I have never seen). The list also includes a few models set for the scrap heap of history: the Pontiac Solstice $24k-$29k) and the Saturn Sky{$33k} (they are really the same car, made by GM, and while Pontiac is being discontinued, I suppose there is hope for the Sky what with Roger Penske buying the brand; we’ll see), the Pontiac G6 GT ($39k), the Audi S4 Cabriolet ($58k) (there are other Cabriolets, meaning convertible, in the Audi line), and two Chryslers scheduled for demise: the Crossfire ($39k)and the PT Cruiser ($19k).
In between, of course, are some of the more iconic cars of this or any other age. The Mustang ($25k-$34k) and the Shelby GT {$48k} (most people I know who would buy a Mustang would only go convertible). The Chevy Corvette – four of them: the LT1 through LT 4, ($53k-$63k), The Nissan 350Z Roadster ($37k-$42k) in three trims – better known by car enthusiasts as simply a “Z.” Porsche – both the Boxster ($46k-$56k) and the 911 {$87k-$141k} (“Porsche. There is no competition.” Quick – name that movie).
Then, of course, you have your exotics – The Jaguars -- XK through XK XKR($83k through $101k); the Dodge Viper SRT-10 ($88k); the Tesla Roadster ($109k); two Aston Martins; the V8 Vantage ($132k) and the DB9 Volante ($199k); the Lotus Elise ($47k-$55k); the 2008 Panoz Esperante ($92k-$121k); Bentley Continental ($197k) and Azure ($335k); the Ferrari 430 Spider ($287k); and, of course, the Lamborghinis -- the Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder ($221k) and the LP640 ($382k).
And yes, there are the more mundane. The Chrysler Sebring (($28k-$35k); the Toyota Camry Solara ($27k-$31k), the VW New Beetle ($26k-$27k); and, the Volvo C70 T5 (($39k). There are more sporty Saab convertibles (maybe), and various normal-person BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, Mitsubishis, Lexus, and Cadillac.
You’ve got your high-performance convertibles, your Dad-cars made sportier, roadsters, race cars, luxury cars – pretty much any category you could think of. I even recently saw a custom-made convertible pickup truck at a car show.
There is just so much romance built into the American experience with the notion of the open road, and nothing opens up the possibilities of a wide open road quite like a convertible.
So everyone has their own idea of what that means, and their own image of themselves tooling down the highway or a winding mountain road in some kind of convertible. Yeah, it would be fun to go Lamborghini or some exotic sports car, and truth be told a convertible top even makes the awful Chrysler Sebring acceptable. But we’re talking Boomers here, so I asked my wife to make the distaff choice while I take the manly option in a his-and-her convertible fantasy. What would we choose?
My wife, a big convertible fan (our first date was in a Sebring on a beautiful Spring evening) with a little bit of an economical/ecological streak, says she picks the 2009 MINI Cooper Convertible S. British Racing Green. An I4, 1.6-liter engine, turbocharged, with 172 hp rated at 26 city/34 highway, will give my wife all the driving fun she’s after with enough economy to hit a long and winding road.
My choice: I’m going to have to go with the 2010 BMW 650i Convertible, at $86,215. Black, of course. With a 4.8-liter V8 and 360 hp, a great look and legendary handling, I think the BMW offers the all-around best experience, in spite of the fact that I’m not a fan of the on-board electronics. I’d go roadster, but I have to have something my golf clubs would fit into.
We’ll wave at each other as we pass, hair blowing in the wind.
