Anyone regret buying a ragtop vs a coupe?

[Jxp1962]

Up until this spring, I had an 2017 ecoboost pp coupe, that i traded for a 2022 gt vert. I love the car! Love the 8 cylinder rumble… love the power, love those summertime topless days and nights… but its coming up on December, my car is put away for the winter already… where my ecoboost woulda had another month or so of use…

i am not saying i regret buying the ragtop, but i could not in good conscience leave the car in the driveway when we were getting freezing rain all the time. I felt it was not good for the top. So it is prematurely garaged for the winter…. My old coupe, i let it get snowed on without worrying a bit, but my ragtop is tucked in the garage.. so for this and next month, i kind of regret the fact that i bought a convertible. I kind of lost a months drive time.

i might regret it in early April too or as long as we get snow, sleet, freezing rain in maine, when normally the coupe would be accessible in the driveway.

come may through october ill be happy i got the convertible… now im just little sad that i did.


Oh and my garage where the mustang is now kept, shares space with a generator, snow blower, detailing cart and other clutter, so its not real easy to just pull it in the garage at night or during bad weather…

so now, my black beauty just sits……waiting till spring….

Sponsored

 

[coz0502]

I'm not a rag top guy, I learned that many years back when I got my mom's 89 Chrysler LeBaron convertible as a hand me down in college. It was a decent car, ignoring the fact it was not ideal for a college kid. But I learned very quickly the convertible was basically useless living in Florida, way too hot to put the top down most of the year even in the evenings. Plus I like to sing when I drive and believe me, you do not want to see that driving next to me.

 

[RowdyRam]

I have the opposite problem - sometimes I regret having bought a coupe. I've had 2 Mustang convertibles in the past and I never regretted either one of them.

 

[JJ'sPony]

No regrets at all, love the fact that the Mods made to date drive my wife nuts, she is always complaining about how Loud it is. If she did not have this to complain about, of course she would find another issue to complain about.

 

[Strokerswild]

Yep. Having had and loved ragtop Jeeps off and on since the late '90s, I was ecstatic to buy my '07 GT500 vert at the time, my first performance car convertible. Within about a year the honeymoon had worn pretty thin. The leather interior was too hot in the summer with the top down (the whole point of a convertible), and any hard cornering on less than perfect pavement induced a ton of cowl shake. Too many compromises. I'll never own another performance car in convertible trim, and if the Shelby had been a coupe I'd probably still own it. Meanwhile, I bought another Jeep (my fifth) in April, the best all-rounder in existence for my state IMO, otherwise my motorcycles are my wind-in-the-hair choice.

 

[Edgemere]

I have had two Mustangs and one Camaro convertibles. I also live in Minnesota where the weather is a crap shoot. Too hot in the summer, to wet in the spring and summer, too cold October 15th until May 1st, not to mention snow. With the conditions here in Minnesota there was not a lot of perfect weather time to enjoy the top down. Plus with the top up I am not a fan of the looks of the convertibles I owned. I have a 2022 Mustang GT coup and I like this car the best. Windows down or up, and AC, and Heat when needed.

 

[kaibab]

Love my Vert here in the Dallas area. I get a solid 11 mos. here with rag down and heated and cooled seats. It does rest in garage when at the house.

 

[Bobby57]

Up until this spring, I had an 2017 ecoboost pp coupe, that i traded for a 2022 gt vert. I love the car! Love the 8 cylinder rumble… love the power, love those summertime topless days and nights… but its coming up on December, my car is put away for the winter already… where my ecoboost woulda had another month or so of use…

i am not saying i regret buying the ragtop, but i could not in good conscience leave the car in the driveway when we were getting freezing rain all the time. I felt it was not good for the top. So it is prematurely garaged for the winter…. My old coupe, i let it get snowed on without worrying a bit, but my ragtop is tucked in the garage.. so for this and next month, i kind of regret the fact that i bought a convertible. I kind of lost a months drive time.

i might regret it in early April too or as long as we get snow, sleet, freezing rain in maine, when normally the coupe would be accessible in the driveway.

come may through october ill be happy i got the convertible… now im just little sad that i did.


Oh and my garage where the mustang is now kept, shares space with a generator, snow blower, detailing cart and other clutter, so its not real easy to just pull it in the garage at night or during bad weather…

so now, my black beauty just sits……waiting till spring….

It surely comes down to where one lives and what one's tolerance is to the environment. Up to 4 years ago, I had been living in the NYC area where there was a 5-6 month span where it was absolutely impossible to put the top down, and another roughly 2 month span in the heart of the summer where the temperature, humidity and air sootiness conspired to make daytime top-down driving very challenging.

I now live on the Treasure Coast of Florida where I can put the top down in the evening, year-round, and at anytime of day for 6-7 months of the year. Within the other 5-6 hotter months it is absolutely possible to have the top down during the day, but one must be tolerant of the sub-tropical climate and careful to protect one's skin from the intelense solar rays.

I should add that I am retired and pretty much live my life in shorts and t-shirts in a part of Florida that enjoys cooling daytime breezes off the Atlantic Ocean and where the vibe is distinctly live-and-let-live layed-back.

 

[barron64]

No regrets here...I Love my vert! That V8 engine & sound, along with a 6sp manual, makes a magical combo for a convertible. I live in Alabama so yea, smoking hot humid summers but nice at night usually. Fall is an amazing time to have a vert in Alabama. Lots of dry, sunny warm days from mid September till end of November. With all that being said, this is not my primary car so that makes a difference.

 

[lacanteen]

My car was ordered for me. I don't put the top down as much as I thought I would, though I do enjoy it when I do. I would rather have spent the $9K on the HPP package and magnaride. The vert is too mushy in curves. It might be the P Zeroes causing it. I've driven 28K miles in 13 months, so I'm enjoying the road trips.

 

[White Stallion 11]

No regrets here...I Love my vert! That V8 engine & sound, along with a 6sp manual, makes a magical combo for a convertible. I live in Alabama so yea, smoking hot humid summers but nice at night usually. Fall is an amazing time to have a vert in Alabama. Lots of dry, sunny warm days from mid September till end of November. With all that being said, this is not my primary car so that makes a difference.

I'm on my 9th Mustang convertible--I'm an old guy; my first one was a new '67 when I was 18--and I've owned them in the North, the South, California, the mid-Atlantic states and overseas, but none of them have never been my daily driver; they've all been garage queens when not being driven and only brought out on cloudless, blue sky days or cloudless, starry sky evenings.

Regardless of where I've lived, there's always been good days and evenings to enjoy driving with the top down. The only thing I can say is, some of us are just open air car enthusiasts.

 

[GTP]

I can imagine it could be a difficult choice for some.

I never saw so many convertible Mustangs as in Florida and they ALL had the top up. What's the point?

For me, I wouldn't want to spend $6k extra, give up trunk space, worry about interior dust and wear, worry about something else to fail, and not be able to go on track.

 

[jcttraveler]

No regrets. I've had convertibles most of my life as daily drivers. When it's hot I blast the A/C and vented seats. When it's cold I blast the heat and turn on the heated seats. My MGB didn't have either, so I suffered for the 20 yrs I drove that. Windows stay DOWN.

I guess it depends on why you've put it away. These cars aren't great in snow anyway, so I get that, but the "soft top" will hold up to just about anything. I'm in VA. Winters haven't been harsh during the time I've owned my Mustang, but we get cold and snow. I don't have a garage. My top doesn't leak in the rain, and it doesn't seem to be bothered by snow.

The only hitch I've experience is sometimes the window will freeze shut. When that happens, it won't go down 1/4 when trying to open the door. I have to either free the window (I use an old credit card), or be reaaaal careful opening and closing the doors.

I do enjoy the multiple layers of the top. The tops on my earlier cars were basically a single layer of vinyl which didn't provide much protection from temperature extremes. This top provides much more comfort.

Last thing: I like being able to hear the traffic through the roof. I don't have, nor do I really need, blind spot detection because I can hear what's back there. I miss that when I'm driving a hard-top car.

 

[barron64]

I can imagine it could be a difficult choice for some.

I never saw so many convertible Mustangs as in Florida and they ALL had the top up. What's the point?

For me, I wouldn't want to spend $6k extra, give up trunk space, worry about interior dust and wear, worry about something else to fail, and not be able to go on track.

Had mine on the track before and car performed well. The PP1 option is a big improvement over stock suspension.

 

[Wingnutzz]

Love my 2022 convertible. 27k miles and probably 20k of those on 2-lane backroads with the top down. I love it and absolutely no regrets!!!

Sponsored