1964 Pontiac Bonneville convertible with factory air / RM Sotheby’s
If you read a lot of automotive histories, you’ll frequently encounter the contention that the growing popularity of factory air conditioning on American cars in the 1960s and early 1970s led to the downfall of the convertible. Was that actually true? The data isn’t so persuasive.
That Old Devil Conventional Wisdom
The conventional wisdom about U.S. convertibles is that their popularity steadily declined from the 1930s onward, until air conditioning (and to a lesser extent sunroofs) made them more or less obsolete in the early 1970s. This has been repeated countless times over the years, sometimes even accompanied by charts like this one:
U.S. Domestic Convertible Market Share vs. Factory Air Conditioning Installation Rates, 1964 to 1973
The red line shows the declining market share for domestic convertibles, the purple line shows the growth in factory air conditioning installations / Sources: AMA data for factory sales of U.S. convertibles, Automotive Industries manufacturer surveys for optional equipment installation rates
Looking at that graph makes the correlation seem painfully obvious: A/C take rates (the purple line) went up as convertible market share (the red line) went down. However, looking at the broader sales data for convertibles reveals a more complicated trajectory.
Before World War 2
Until the early 1920s, most cars were open, especially inexpensive cars. Over the course of the ’20s, closed cars became significantly more affordable, and the popularity of open cars declined sharply, falling to roughly 10 percent of U.S. sales by 1930.
The 1922 Essex Coach, offered by a division of Hudson, was one of the affordable closed cars that shifted the balance of passenger car sales away from open body styles in the 1920s / Gr Auto Gallery
During the Great Depression, sales of open cars in North America rapidly collapsed. This was most clearly evident in roadster sales: Many domestic lines still offered inexpensive roadsters for less money than a coupe or sedan — for example, a 1931 Ford Model A roadster was $60 cheaper than a two-door sedan — but buyers who could afford a new car decided they didn’t just want them. Roadster production in the U.S. and Canada fell from 111,119 in 1931, 5.45 percent, to 11,952 in 1933, just 0.73 percent of passenger car production.
1931 Ford Model A roadster / RM Sotheby’s
By the end of the 1930s, roadsters and open touring cars were nearly extinct in the U.S. and Canada. Convertible coupe and sedan sales rebounded slightly by 1940, but they remained well under 3 percent of the market.
U.S. and Canadian Passenger Car Open Body Style Production, 1931 to 1940
The vertical green bars represent calendar-year open-car production, while the red trend line represents market share / Source: AMA production data for roadster, touring, convertible coupe, and convertible sedan body styles (the AMA apparently didn’t release comparable figures for 1941–1942)
A 1941 Chrysler Windsor Highlander convertible coupe, one of only 771 specially trimmed “Highlander” convertibles (which had Tartan check upholstery) built in 1941 / Bring a Trailer
After World War 2
In the postwar years, U.S. convertible sales made a modest recovery, climbing steadily through 1949, when the domestic market share of convertible models topped 5 percent for the first time in over 15 years.
In 1948, Nash offered a convertible only in the Ambassador Custom Line series; just 1,000 were built, at a list price of $2,355, over $100 more than any other 1948 Nash / RM Sotheby’s
Sales dipped again in the early 1950s, due in part to new competition from pillarless “hardtop convertibles” and in part to production restrictions during the Korean War. However, convertible sales then began to recover through the middle of the decade, before plateauing for several years during the late ’50s recession.
U.S. Domestic Convertible Sales and Market Share, 1947 to 1973
This chart shows calendar-year factory sales of domestic convertible models (indicated by the vertical bars) and their respective market share (indicated by the red trend line) / Source: AMA data for U.S. factory sales by calendar year (the AMA apparently didn’t release comparable figures for 1945–1946)
The above sales data, which are calendar year sales figures compiled by the Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA), unfortunately only includes domestic makes, which omits an important part of the story. Prior to 1948, the U.S. really hadn’t had any appreciable new car imports. (There were a few, but according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, they’d never exceeded 1,500 units per year.) Beginning in 1948, however, import sales began to increase significantly, including a growing number of small British and European roadsters like the MG TC and TD, which had no real domestic rivals. Between 1949 and 1953, for example, Americans bought 23,488 MG TDs (plus more that were imported privately by armed forces personnel and other travelers).
In 1951, a MG TD roadster cost less than $2,000 in the U.S.; MG sold about 3,790 of them in the States that year / Mecum Auctions
Compiling aggregate sales figures for imported cars in this period is very troublesome. Since the manufacturers weren’t part of the AMA, the AMA didn’t track them, and U.S. trade publications like Automotive Industries either ignored them or published only new car registration tallies for the 10 most popular makes, not separated by model or body style. Therefore, I don’t have enough reliable data to be worth charting, although just looking at the sales of major players like MG allows some rough approximations. In any case, by the late 1950s, I would estimate that imported open car sales added between 15 and 20 percent to the domestic figures.
For 1958, Mercury offered convertibles in all but the base Medalist series, but all sold poorly, thanks to a recessionary economy and Mercury’s ill-timed move upmarket — only 853 Park Lane convertibles were built that year / Mecum Auctions
Not all postwar roadsters and convertibles were luxury cars, but it would be fair to say that buying one was usually a luxury purchase. Therefore, it’s no great surprise that their sales tended to fluctuate with the state of the economy. In the 1950s, domestic convertible sales peaked in 1957, at 284,682, and then dipped to 193,717 during recessionary 1958 before gradually recovering in 1959–1960. Import sales were not strongly affected by those trends, since the cars were often cheaper and buyers more affluent. Combined U.S. MG and Triumph sales alone topped 30,000 units in 1958, and they were not the only players.
The 1958 Triumph TR3A roadster listed for $2,675 in the U.S., offering front disc brakes and muscular performance from its 2-liter OHV four / Bring a Trailer
The Early ’60s: More Air Conditioning, But Also More Convertibles
Although air conditioning had become more widely available in the mid-1950s, its cost made it very rare even on fairly expensive cars. In 1956, the earliest year for which I have data, the domestic makes most likely to have factory air conditioning were Cadillac, with a 26.0 percent installation rate, and Lincoln, with an installation rate of 16.2 percent. Chrysler and Imperial were third, with a combined installation rate of only 6.8 percent. However, A/C installation rates rose steadily, with the overall domestic take rate rising from about 4.1 percent in 1957 to 23.3 percent by 1965.
Only 14 percent of full-size Pontiacs had factory air in 1961; this Catalina convertible is one of them / Coyote Classics
That same period saw the largest postwar boom in U.S. domestic convertible sales, which doubled between 1958 and 1965, from 254,880 cars to 509,414. (Postwar market share of domestic convertibles actually peaked in 1963, at 6.4 percent, but more cars were sold in 1965.) This still doesn’t include imported roadster and sports car sales, which continued to account for at least 25,000 units a year in the early part of the decade, and jumped to perhaps 40,000 a year following the debut of the popular MGB and Triumph TR4.
The 1963 MGB had better weather protection than the outgoing MGA (including roll-up side windows and vent wings), which probably undoubtedly contributed to its popularity / Bring a Trailer
Here’s how convertible sales correlated with A/C installation rates:
U.S. Domestic Convertible Sales vs. Factory Air Conditioning Installation Rates, 1957 to 1973
The green vertical bars indicate U.S. domestic convertible sales by calendar year, while the purple trend line indicates model year installation rates for factory air conditioning / Sources: AMA factory sales data, Automotive Industries manufacturer surveys for optional equipment installation rates
If it was the success of factory air conditioning that chipped away at the popularity of convertibles, you might expect to see evidence of that in the convertible sales figures as A/C take rates topped 10 percent. Both air conditioning and convertibles were still fairly extravagant purchases, and a buyer who could afford one could likely afford the other, if not necessarily both. However, the initial rise in sales of factory air coincided with the greatest sales of open cars in 30 years.
1964 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible / Mecum Auctions
This period was also the heyday of sporty cars in the U.S., when nearly every domestic make offered at least one flashy “buckets-and-console” pseudo-sports model in hardtop and convertible forms. Unsurprisingly, this coincided with the the ’60s fad for domestic four-speed transmissions, which also peaked in 1965 with 444,776 sales, comprising just over five percent of model year production.
The Starfire exemplified the contemporary fad for bucket seats and a center console with floor shift / Mecum Auctions
Like most fads, it didn’t last, but one of its principal consequences was that the sporty car and convertible markets splintered into more specialized segments: cheap-wheels compacts, pony cars, sporty intermediates, imported sports cars, luxury cruisers, and big cars, each appealing to a distinct audience with a somewhat different set of tastes.
Like 90.6 percent of 1965 Lincolns, this Continental convertible has factory air conditioning — 1965 was also the best year for Continental convertible sales, at 3,356 units / RM Sotheby’s
The problem this posed commercially was that if you cut up a niche into too many pieces, the individual slices can become too thin to be sustainable, which is what began to happen to open-car sales in the latter half of the 1960s. Most of the cheap-wheels ragtops soon went away, unable to compete with their sexier pony car cousins. Domestic luxury and personal luxury customers were becoming more fascinated with blind rear quarter panels and lusher interior treatments; a crucial sign in this regard was that the Ford Thunderbird convertible disappeared after 1966, superseded by a four-door Landau. Big-car buyers, meanwhile, increasingly decided they’d rather have bench seats and a roof over their heads.
Ford built 5,049 1966 Thunderbird convertibles, the last drop-top Thunderbird until 2001 / Mecum Auctions
As you can see from the above charts, domestic convertible sales began to drop off after 1965. This wasn’t true of imported roadsters and convertibles; to the extent I’m comfortable generalizing the incomplete data, imported sports car sales remained fairly consistent throughout the latter ’60s.
In 1967, Cadillac sold 18,200 convertible DeVilles, most of them with air conditioning — this one has automatic climate control / Bring a Trailer
Furthermore, it wasn’t until 1969 that both domestic convertible sales and domestic convertible market share fell significantly below their ’50s median. In calendar 1968, for example, convertibles accounted for 3.14 percent of domestic sales, only a little below the 1950 to 1959 average of 3.36 percent. The total number of domestic convertibles sold in 1968 — 276,731 — was only a little below the ’50s peak of 284,682 cars, in 1957.
Only 25,376 1968 Mustangs were convertibles, about 8 percent of production; this one has air conditioning / Mecum Auctions
Installation rates of factor A/C on domestic cars continued to climb during that period, reaching an average of 38.4 percent for 1967 and 54.0 percent for 1969. Did that contribute to the decline of convertible sales? Maybe a little, but the pertinent question is which convertible sales. As I’ve previously written, air conditioning installation rates for low-price full-size cars had surpassed the domestic average by 1967, and there is some correlation between A/C installation rates and convertible sales in those lines. For instance, Chevrolet built almost 30,000 full-size convertibles for 1967, 24,730 for 1968, and only 14,415 for 1969, during which the factory air conditioning installation rate rose from 39.3 to 62.1 percent.
This 1968 Chevrolet Impala is a very rare combination: an SS427 convertible with Comfortron automatic climate control / Callaway Classics
However, air conditioning generally wasn’t a big factor in pony car sales, and in the intermediate class, A/C was only really common on the Buick Special/Skylark and Oldsmobile F-85/Cutlass in this period. Many of the imported open cars of the time didn’t offer air conditioning at all, except perhaps as a crude dealer-installed kit. For buyers in those segments, a more significant factor may have been rising insurance rates: Increasingly, convertibles and imported sports cars cost a lot more to insure, reflecting their higher repair costs, vulnerability to theft, and higher rates of some kinds of injuries.
Select-Aire cost $360 in a Mustang in 1968, and was fairly rare, installed in only 17.5 percent of model year production / Mecum Auctions
Convertible Collapse
By the late ’60s, the U.S. convertible market was beginning to succumb to a new problem, which I’d summarize as, “If you don’t build it, they won’t come.” As the individual niches became smaller, it became harder to justify the cost of continuing slow-selling models. Consequently, slower-selling convertibles began to disappear completely: Lincoln dropped its convertible after 1967, while AMC and Imperial abandoned theirs after 1968. Looking at the sales figures, you can easily see why (the final 1968 Imperial Crown convertible sold a mere 474 units, the 1968 AMC Rebel convertibles only 1,200), but it left ragtop fanciers in some segments with fewer and fewer choices, which began to have a reciprocal effect on total convertible sales.
1968 was the final year for the Imperial convertible / Classic442.com via ClassicCars.com
This problem was greatly exacerbated in 1969–1970 by more stringent federal motor vehicle safety standards. Charting a chronology of federal regulations is complex because they go through several stages of announcement, draft, public comment, and finalization, but by 1969, automakers knew that federal safety officials were contemplating big chances to the occupant protection standard, FMVSS No. 208, including rollover protection requirements. The revised 208 standard was published in 1970, and while it didn’t take immediate effect, it appeared to sound the death knell for convertibles in the United States.
The GM A-body convertibles went away after 1972; this 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme is a very rare 4-4-2 convertible with the 455 and four-speed / Bring a Trailer
U.S. automakers went to court to challenge other parts of the revised FMVSS 208, but they didn’t even try to fight the de facto convertible ban, apparently having decided that it was no longer worth the bother. In 1970, domestic convertible sales had fallen below 100,000 units for the first time since the 1930s. Some existing convertible models would continue through the end of their existing generation, but they wouldn’t be replaced, and there would be no new ones in the foreseeable future.
This 1972 Olds 4-4-2 convertible has air conditioning as well as the four-speed / Bring a Trailer
Here’s the AMA’s domestic sales data through 1973, in tabular form:
U.S. Domestic Convertible Factory Sales, 1947 to 1973
| Year | Convertibles | All Factory Sales | Convertible Market Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | 173,863 | 3,558,178 | 4.89% |
| 1948 | 196,597 | 3,909,270 | 5.03% |
| 1949 | 259,334 | 5,114,269 | 5.07% |
| 1950 | 208,090 | 6,665,863 | 3.12% |
| 1951 | 143,388 | 5,338,435 | 2.69% |
| 1952 | 100,116 | 4,320,794 | 2.32% |
| 1953 | 159,200 | 6,121,787 | 2.60% |
| 1954 | 155,667 | 5,558,897 | 2.80% |
| 1955 | 239,790 | 7,920,186 | 3.03% |
| 1956 | 198,962 | 5,816,109 | 3.42% |
| 1957 | 284,682 | 6,113,344 | 4.66% |
| 1958 | 193,717 | 4,257,812 | 4.55% |
| 1959 | 254,880 | 5,591,243 | 4.56% |
| 1960 | 304,539 | 6,674,796 | 4.56% |
| 1961 | 300,472 | 5,542,707 | 5.42% |
| 1962 | 437,659 | 6,933,240 | 6.31% |
| 1963 | 489,824 | 7,637,728 | 6.41% |
| 1964 | 489,494 | 7,751,822 | 6.31% |
| 1965 | 509,414 | 9,305,561 | 5.47% |
| 1966 | 394,679 | 8,598,326 | 4.59% |
| 1967 | 306,078 | 7,436,764 | 4.12% |
| 1968 | 276,731 | 8,822,158 | 3.14% |
| 1969 | 201,997 | 8,223,715 | 2.46% |
| 1970 | 91,863 | 6,546,817 | 1.40% |
| 1971 | 87,725 | 8,584,592 | 1.02% |
| 1972 | 61,655 | 8,823,938 | 0.70% |
| 1973 | 50,837 | 9,657,647 | 0.53% |
I don’t have complete AMA/MVMA factory sales data for the period of 1974 to 1976, but by that point, there were so few domestic convertibles left that it was possible to simply add the individual totals and divide by total model year production. Since this doesn’t line up neatly with the calendar-year factory sales data, I’ve charted it separately:
U.S. Domestic Convertible Sales and Market Share, 1974 to 1976
The vertical green bars indicate model year convertible production, the red trend line indicates market share — as you can see, it wasn’t much / Source: AMA model year production data
That the remaining U.S. convertible models lasted as long as they did — GM’s final B-body convertibles and Corvette convertible survived through 1975, the Cadillac Eldorado through 1976 — was due to a regulatory reprieve: In 1971, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration established a temporary exemption for convertibles from the rollover safety standard. This exemption was originally intended to expire after the 1977 model year, but in December 1972, a federal court ruled that the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, the statutory basis of the federal safety standards didn’t permit the agency to ban convertibles and sports cars, and in fact obligated the agency “to afford such vehicles special consideration.” It took some years for the NHTSA to decide what that should actually mean in regulatory terms — the eventual decision was to extend the temporary exemption indefinitely — but U.S. automakers had already thrown in the towel, so until the ’80s, domestic convertibles would be left to aftermarket specialists.
The Pontiac Grand Ville was one of the last remaining full-size convertibles of the ’70s, offered through 1975; this is a 1974 / Mecum Auctions
British, European, and Japanese automakers had been very concerned about the federal regulations — the 1972 court ruling was in response in part to a petition by the Automobile Importers of America, an unincorporated association representing Alfa Romeo, British Leyland, BMW, Citroen, DAF, Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru), Honda, Lotus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Rolls-Royce, SAAB, Toyota, and Volvo — but they eventually got what they wanted from the court, enabling various long-in-the-tooth British and Italian convertibles to remain on sale in the U.S.
Fiat sold 12,935 Sport Spider 124 convertibles in the U.S. in 1977; after Fiat pulled out in 1983, Malcolm Bricklin continued to market the 124-based convertible (renamed Pininfarina Azzurra) through about 1985 / Davidsclassiccars.com
Surprisingly, none of the regulatory issues really dampened sales of those imported cars. The same data limitations I mentioned earlier remain, but even a rough back-of-the-envelope estimate indicates that imported roadster and convertible sales never dropped below 50,000 units a year throughout the ’70s, and sometimes approached as many as 80,000 cars a year.
The ’60s vintage Alfa Romeo Spider remained available in the U.S. into the 1990s; this is a 1978 Niki Lauda Edition / Bring a Trailer
Their continued popularity not only challenges the air conditioning argument, but also the hypotheses that U.S. convertible sales declined because of bad air quality (which made top-down driving a recipe for eye irritation and respiratory distress) and the expansion of the interstate highway system (whose higher speeds tended to make convertibles more uncomfortable than fun). It would be hard to envision a new ’70s car less suited for American interstate travel than a tiny, elderly British roadster like the late MG Midget, and yet it continued to sell distressingly well. Even in 1979, the Midget’s final year, American buyers still bought about 6,000 of them, along with about 20,000 of the bigger rubber-bumpered MGB. Obviously, air conditioned comfort and easy highway cruising weren’t the first priorities for every convertible shopper.
Not so much a car as a rather cramped shoe with an exhaust pipe, but Americans kept buying the MG Midget through 1979 / Bring a Trailer
Nevertheless, many of these survivors lingered in an awkward limbo of being too popular to kill and yet not popular enough to justify anything more than modest updates for safety and emissions compliance. Their sales volume was still inconsequential by Detroit standards, which was why domestic automakers didn’t rush to return to the convertible market even after the regulatory situation became clearer.
Another antiquated ragtop holdover, the Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible survived in the U.S. through 1979 / Barrett-Jackson
This gets back to the point that I made earlier about market fragmentation. Even in the ’70s, there was obviously still some market for convertibles, even big domestic convertibles without a premium badge, but it was no longer enough to justify offering a convertible or two for each make (as in the ’50s), much less in each compact, intermediate, full-size, and specialty model line (as had briefly been tried in the early ’60s). Niche markets tend to be fragile, and they may collapse entirely if there are either too many players or too few.
Although Cadillac didn’t offer a factory convertible in 1981, this Eldorado was one of 126 ’81 cars converted by The Hess & Eisenhardt Company, at a cost of $13,500 (on top of the original price of the car) / Bring a Trailer
Still, convertibles made a modest comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, including a domestic resurgence kicked off by Chrysler in 1982.
In 1982, Chrysler became the first U.S. automaker to offer a factory convertible since 1976 — convertibles like this 1982 LeBaron accounted for about 12.4 percent of 1982 Chrysler production / Bring a Trailer
Convertibles have been niche items since the Great Depression, and as such, their sales have always been highly variable. Looking at the numbers, their decline in the late ’60s and early ’70s seems mostly the product of a relatively brief sporty car fad that quickly proved unsustainable, with the subsequent regulatory challenges then preventing the segment from stabilizing at a lower volume, as it had in previous decades.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say air conditioning had no impact on that — it probably had some, particularly in the cheaper price brackets — but I think it was ultimately a fairly minor factor, and the correlation between rising A/C sales and declining convertible sales was much less significant than is usually supposed. Correlation isn’t causation, and conventional wisdom isn’t always right.
Related Reading
Automotive Histories: The Last Full-Size Convertibles (by William Stopford)
Air Conditioning On Low-Priced Full-Size U.S. Cars In The 1960s (by me)
Curbside Classic: 1973 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible – Lipstick On A Barge (by Tatra87)
Curbside Classic: 1982 Chrysler LeBaron Convertible – One Had To Be There (by Joseph Dennis)
Convertibles are more popular in Northern Europe and Canada where you can put the roof down to enjoy the two weeks of sunshine every year, More Mustangs are sold north of the border than the states… The USA a paradox as more Alfa and Fiat Spiders sold than Italy where no one in their right mind would buy one as you roast in the summer.
Friends of mine were “ upgraded” to a Caviler convertible at Orlando airport. On summer. Should have seen their red necks!,
The modern car I associate most with the convertible model is the Mustang. I don’t know the percentage of Mustang sales, but I think it was significant for 1965, and the overall number of convertibles sold that year would seem to reflect that (if not the actual overall percentage).
That’s why it’s something of a shocker that, by 1968, the number of Mustang convertibles sold was down to a meager 8% which, by numbers alone, was still a good amount of Mustangs.
So, by the time of the 1974 Mustang II, the convertible would be dropped, only to return for 1983. It would be late in the planning stages, but I’m sure the success of the 1982 Lebaron convertible played a role.
And, ever since, a convertible has been in the Mustang line-up which, apparently, seems to be mostly due to sales outside of the US.
LIkewise, there’s another lifestyle vehicle that has consistantly enjoyed a strong-selling, top-down version throughout its history, although not specifically classified as a convertible, and that’s the Jeep CJ, i.e., Wrangler.
And, ever since, a convertible has been in the Mustang line-up which, apparently, seems to be mostly due to sales outside of the US.
If you take a drive on Hwy 1 on the Pacific Coast in CA, you’ll see an endless stream of Mustang convertibles coming the other direction. Hawaii too. They’re snapped up by rental car companies.
Of course some might say that CA and/or Hawaii are outside the US.
That’s true, most non GT used Mustang convertibles sold are former rental cars, the majority from FL or California. My wife’s fire engine red ’07 V6 was a former Cali rental we bought with 42k (now 67K) miles. Even in often cloudy NY and VT we like putting the top down when we can! And of course being modern it does have a/c.
Probably Florida, too. Convertible rentals in any three-season tourist destination would surely be the greatest.
It would be interesting to see the break-out of Mustang convertible sales versus the fastback for, say, the last 10 years or so. Then, that number further broken down as to rental fleet versus civilian.
Whatever the numbers, they’re evidently high enough to keep a convertible in the Mustang line-up, which seems to be one of the few remaining bright spots of an affordable convertible.
OTOH, I’ve yet to see anything about Mazda discontinuing the Miata roadster, either. That car’s initial great success led to a several would-be competitors, all of which departed long ago.
I would argue that convertibles, at least in the postwar era, were cars that appealed primarily to younger buyers. Larger cars appealed more and more to an older demographic as the 1960s progressed, so that (plus air conditioning) reduced demand in that segment.
Smaller cars and imports tended to be bought by younger buyers in that period, and I would expect more interest in convertibles/roadsters in that segment.
The graph comparing convertible sales to a/c % is interesting. I see two inflection points. 1962 saw a small but significant jump in a/c rates, but where a/c kept increasing (with another big jump in 1964) convertible rates stalled, then began to decline. I would imagine that a graph restricted to large cars would be more severe in these trends, since most convertible demand after 1965-66 was in lines with low a/c take rates (like Mustang or Camaro).
The favored sign of status had something to do with this. One indicator is leather. Before 1930, open cars were cheap peasant cars. They had leather seats because leather is waterproof and tough. After 1930 open and closed shifted, and open cars became the marker of luxury. The names changed from roadster to convertible and touring car to phaeton. Leather shifted with the names, becoming a luxury option.
In the 70s, sport coupes and fake-limo Broughams became the status symbol. Soft leather and plush cloth migrated to the sport coupes and Broughams.
I had two convertibles, both with Air Conditioning. Living in the Midwest, the relatively few days of top down driving and lack of roof insulation really didn’t justify keeping them. As I recall some impending safety standards were a major factor in the Decline and Fall of The American Convertible. And in most cities, it’s not always SAFE to drive open air. BUT I still remember Cruisin top down and drawing so much attention. No offense, but it seems when I see a Vintage Vette Convertible, or similar Convertible, there’s usually an OLD guy driving it. Reliving their dreams?
Old guys drive classic Vette convertibles and similar cars because they can afford to buy them now AND they remember them brand new from when they were young.
I’ve always been in the Interstate highway/rising speed limit theory camp. I’ll re-tell the story of going 100mph in the back seat of a Buick Centurion convertible, and how awful it was.
This post also added the theft/insurance angle, one which I’d not previously considered, but absolutely makes sense. I’ve only owned a couple of soft top cars for brief periods, but I spent a lot of time being paranoid about leaving visible items in the cars when I parked them.
A GF and I once got a ride hitchhiking on I-80 in Illinois in a convertible. We hopped into the back seat thinking this was going to be a ball. It was an utter nightmare. We both had long hair, which whipped into our faces. We ended up huddling down on the seat cushion, practically on the floor.
It explains why roadsters continued to sell well and why big convertibles didn’t. The back seats are unusable above 30-35 mph, unless you’re a hurricane hunter.
Jeep Wranglers seem to have taken over what is left of the convertible market.
Would you buy a house without a roof?
See. And a house doesn’t drive around at 80 mph or more…
Yet in Sweden one big thing to do around the big “Midsommar” party time is drive around with lots of folks and the top down (and often booze, at least the “ragarre” guys), if you have one. Especially at BPM Vasteras.
It’s like in Vermont, you want to take advantage of the rare warm sunny days. In our summer community there’s a very large % of “campers” (camp being the New England terminology for “summer cottage”) who have convertibles, there’s even a nice Viggen convert. At least 10 out of 62 cottages that I can think of.
Very interesting article. Of course the AC option became less expensive which could be a factor. Convertibles also became more expensive then hardtops. Noted that higher speed Interstate travel became more frequent and could be a factor. But fashion and demographics could play a part in the sales of convertibles. In the 1950s-60s many women wore head scarves when in a top down convertible, my Mom included. But the fashion in the 1960s was bigger and bigger, complex hairstyles and a head wrap was out of the question. Even with a can of hairspray, windows up & top down, a few minutes on the Interstate at 60 mph and the lady was not going to look well groomed. And lets face it, us Boomers had parents who really got into the swing of things and had a lot of children in the 50s-60s making a more expensive convertible a less desirable family ride. I suggest it wasn’t one factor affecting the sales of convertibles. Expansion of the Interstate, higher cost of convertibles and lower cost of AC options, changing demographics with more young children, and not to forget 1960s lady fashion of bigger and bigger hair. My aunt, mothers sister, just like Mom liked her convertibles in the 1950s. But in the 1960s it was typical the sisters would go to the beauty parlor weekly, get teased up and sprayed and if it was all wrapped up and pinned at bedtime the hair structure would last another week. Aunt not only stopped buying convertibles she would not buy a car with a sunroof to mess up her hair. As for me I am lucky to still have hair, mostly where I want it, and can drive 60 mph top down, windows up and AC on, and still look reasonably presentable to other geriatrics. Just need a little hairspray on the backside to keep the thin spots secured (LOL).
A convertible back East and the Midwest with snow in the winter and hot humid weather in the summer isn’t appealing to me. A/C in the summer and heat in the winter is. The south, while not having snow as a major issue, the heat and humidity is to me so same result, no. Coastal California would be the place for me and which so happens where I am. However, sun does have it’s issues like actinic keratosis and dysplastic nevi as you age and need removal. Of course that is now at 71 whereas at 25 no one usually thinks about those things on their face. Last item would be safety. One thing cruising down Mission Avenue at 35 versus US 5 at 70-85.
Back in 1963, my wife’s parents bought a new Catalina convertible. I was shocked to find out it had AC, after all, why have a convertible when you have AC?
Turns out they were ahead of the times.
I always favored convertibles – even my 911s were mainly convertibles. Why? Because they were fun to drive slowly as well as quickly, you could hear that flat 6 more and dropping the top made loading my bikes easier. I remember driving to the South of France many times and driving alpine switchbacks full on. Here the convertible gave you visibility looking up to check if anything was coming down the opposite way. With a wind blocker you could drive fast on the Autobahnen in relative comfort – I regularly drove open at 280+kmh. And driving along the Rhine, or through the Scwharzwald became a much more visceral experience…
If I were to buy another 911 it would definitely be a cabrio…
Took me till “age 63″(almost “63.5”), to finally get a convert. Been liking it for about a year now.
The age of the car is what concerns me. (and the sad fact I have to park outside)
I do have “a/c”; like that too.
Great article. Thanks so much.
I bought my first convertible, a used 1959 Ford Galaxie, in 1967 upon graduating with my MBA. Since then, I have always owned at least one convertible, and at one time, 3 at once. They have included a used 1968 Mercury Montego MX, a new 1969 Ford Galaxie 500, a new 1973 Corvette (which I purchased due to the possible rollover standards outlawing convertibles and I wanted something that wouldn’t rust out — I owned it for 39 years — no rust but LOTS and LOTS or other problems), a used 1997 Ford SVT Mustang and a new 2012 Mustang Shelby GT500 which I still own. Obviously, I love convertibles!
That Parklane convertible is great looking. I would love to own one.
Interesting analysis. I believe if the Euro and UK sports car makers had put more effort in to modernizing their roadsters sales would have remained strong. The bigger domestics certainly threw in the towel too early.
Re: the Midget, those were never intended to be highway cruisers, nor MGB, Fiat and Alfa Spiders et al. They were back road cars and more fun by far than driving a muscle car, 10/10ths motoring was their forte. Owned 12 MGBs 8 TRs and Spits, 1 Bugeye, and a E-type, but the new Midget I drove helping a girlfriend evaluate her first car (vs a Fiat 850) was one of the most fun of all. They had a lot of foot room, surprisingly, and at slightly over 6′ and 200 lbs at the time I fit fine…once in the car. For years I wanted to autocross one with a Moss supercharger kit. Never happened. You wear that car, not drive it, they’re the most motoring fun for the buck ever, just like a fast go-cart.
That was exactly my point: They were considerably less happy in interstate highway trips than, say, an Impala convertible, but people kept buying them even after the Impala convertibles and their like were gone.
The Midget is a car that makes perfect sense for an area with a temperate climate and mostly narrow country roads where you’re unlikely to see many living creatures besides cows or sheep. In the rest of the world, on the other hand……
17% of 68 Mustangs have A/C. Less than what I would think as my 68 does. Although it was sold in Houston. Now British sport cars need to be convertible. Just saw a video from the fellow I bought my Ambassador wagon from and it is about two Cadillac convertibles.
http://youtu.be/k7YJ_UESdvM?si=wZs4jPsbvYh_7G80
Nothing better than a Detroit convertible, driving at night with the top down and stars above. Fun factor was driving with my brothers MG, floor shift, no roll up windows. I remember late night drives with my brother, damn it was cold.
Yes.
Another great article by Aaron; informative, readable, and beautiful eye candy as a bonus!
I was upgraded to a Mustang convertible in Palm Springs recently, but it was so windy that we didn’t put the top down (plus, my wife didn’t have anything to keep her hair from flying around). I had one in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and enjoyed plenty of top down driving, even on the freeway, when my wife wasn’t in the car.
I had my ’91 Miata for several years before I resurrected the air conditioning, and now I wonder what took me so long. In the summer, I will often take back roads to work with the top down and then drive home on the freeway with the top up and the A/C on. I still drive on the freeway with the top down occasionally; it’s more the noise than the wind that can make it unpleasant.
I bought a heated seat pad last winter so I could drive more comfortably with the top down on chilly days, and that, along with a strong heater, have made such drives quite pleasant.
I never knew how much I’d enjoy a convertible until I had one.
I may have missed it being mentioned, but another feature besides A/C that surely contributed to the convertible’s demise was the widespread advent of the motorized sun/moonroof and removable targa/T-tops. In effect, someone could have their cake and eat it, too, with an experience almost as good as the real thing, without any of the demerits.
While T-tops have pretty much disappeared (with the exception of the lifestyle Wrangler and Bronco), sunroofs have become virtually ubiquitous in their availability (including pickup trucks).
But I’ve noticed a sorry trend with sunroofs, and that’s how small and far back they’re now located, due to the nod to an extreme windshield rake to improve aerodynamics/fuel economy. Conversely, one of the largest (at least in past generations) was the sunroof on the Subaru Forester.
One of the absolute worst is the sunroof on the Mazda3. It’s not much more than a slit and sits far enough to the rear as to be nearly useless.
Then there’s the current movement to fixed glass panel roofs, something I do not understand considering how that panel, even when tinted, can quickly magnify the temperature of a vehicle’s interior, more than just a solid steel roof. IIRC, the first one of those was way back with the 1955-56 Ford Crown Victoria Skyliner (not to be confused with the 1957-59 retractable hardtop of the same name).
I’ll let someone else write about the retractable hardtop.
I didn’t mention it in the text, but I don’t think that was a significant factor in the U.S. market because the timing was wrong.
While sunroofs were not unknown on U.S. cars prior to the ’70s, and the first 911 Targa debuted in 1965, their U.S. market presence was negligible until a couple of years after the regulatory crisis that directly precipitated the demise of the domestic convertible. (The Ford Thunderbird Sunroof Registry offers some incomplete numbers that are nonetheless revealing in this respect; sunroof installations on the likes of the Eldorado and Mark III were even scarcer.) Although there were still convertibles on sale when sunroof/moonroof sales began to take off, the asteroid (in the form of the FMVSS 208 rollover standards) had already hit, and domestic automakers had already given up on convertibles.
Had it not been for the regulatory crisis, I think it’s likely that power sunroofs/moonroofs would have further eroded convertible sales, at least on pricier luxury cars. However, as things played out, I think the actual impact of the power sunroof was more akin to “breaking your leg falling down after having been shot.”
Outstanding article – informative from a number of different aspects. Incidentally, I never knew the exact process by which the “convertible ban” was lifted, so thanks for the good explanation about that whole ordeal.
Maybe I’m an outlier, but I’ve always been skeptical of the whole “convertibles keep you cool” theory. Having the sun blazing down on me in the summer makes me hotter, not cooler. When I had cars with sunroofs, I usually drove with the windows down and the sunroof closed on hot days (I didn’t use a/c much until pretty recently)… to me the open sunroof just made it more uncomfortable on those really hot days.
And if – by the 1960s – a convertible were essentially a luxury good, and air conditioning was also a luxury good, then a convertible equipped with a/c must have been the ultimate statement of automotive excess.