Dwindling Convertible Sales

[Wingnutzz]

I took a quick look through YouTube and most of the commercials were for Fox body and older. This was the only one for a relatively recent model year,

That is a great video…for so many reasons!!!

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[JCFoster]

I kick the idea to sell mine especially with what they bring right now. But, it’s been a solid car, paid off, not a daily and so enjoyable to go for cruise when it’s nice weather.

 

[TigerStang]

Kicked the sell idea around myself. Could get what I paid for it but like others, paid off, enjoy a convertible and struggle to figure out what I would drive as a replacement - plus any replacement would be at elevated prices as well. I just decided to drive the wheels off of it.

 

[Brian_S550]

I took a quick look through YouTube and most of the commercials were for Fox body and older. This was the only one for a relatively recent model year, and is not so much a commercial but a tribute to armed services personnel. I’m no expert but maybe a 2011?

That ad was run once in 2005 on NBC during a TV series called ‘American Dreams’.

 

[DRB]

This may be somewhat cyclical; my recollection is that the availability of convertibles dwindled in the late 70s as well.

So, I looked it up just now. Here's an article that mentions it (yes, old man can too use this goddamn Google contraption):

By the 70s though, the loud noise and wind at top speeds became more bothersome for convertible drivers. Driving safety grew into more of a hot topic. And convertible sales went from 6% of the automotive market a decade earlier to 1% in the early 70s.

In 1982, Chrysler LeBaron rejuvenated the convertible car in U.S. and sold 23,000 cars. Toyota and Cadillac manufactured their own convertibles, which bring us to the mid-90s where the retractable hardtop convertibles became popular with models from Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi.

Here's another:

Furthermore, the adage in the automotive industry, "When the market goes down, the top goes up," may have been proven true again as the recession of the 1970s drove a stake through the convertible's heart during that decade. In fact, according to Lesley Hazelton in "Return of the Convertible," no mass-market convertibles were available from the early seventies through the early eighties, though a driver could purchase a convertible "for a price: the Rolls-Royce Corniche; the Alfa Romeo Spider; the Mercedes-Benz 450SL, 380SL, or 560SL."

In 1982, Lee Iacocca, chairman of Chrysler, brought back the convertible after a six-year absence. Buick introduced a new convertible that year, and Chevrolet, Ford, Pontiac, and Cadillac soon followed. With only seven American convertibles and a handful of European and Japanese convertibles being manufactured in the mid-1990s, some question whether the convertible will remain after the turn of the century. Others believe that convertibles will remain an automotive option so long as there are romantic drivers who wish to feel the wind in their hair.

The decline was so noticeable, as I recall, that when one manufacturer reintroduced a convertible in the early 80s (Failing memory suggests that it was a Japanese manufacturer, but I guess it might have been Chrysler's LeBaron) they trumpeted it with an ad picturing an older drop-top and the headline "They called it the end of an era."

 

[MIDLYFE]

Sales are down because people are too busy looking at their baby televisions to take minute and look up at the stars and moon. Top down all the way.

 

[Johnnybee]

Sales are down because people are too busy looking at their baby televisions to take minute and look up at the stars and moon. Top down all the way.

Yep, I drop the top at every opportunity. I walked out of the office yesterday to sunshine and 2C and was going to drop it and then didn't (and it's 95% highway so I have to make the decision before leaving the parking lot). Got home and regretted it.

 

[GR11M]

I'm not sure why we have any vert sales in the UK, we only get about 2 or 3 good days a year and for the rest of it you got to put up with the extra noise, temps and weight.

 

[kmetz77]

I love having a convertible. Have had a few over the years. 89 LeBaron, 06 Toyota Solara, 05 Mercedes CLK500, and most recently 2018 Wrangler Sahara I traded for my 16 GT premium a month ago. Use the convertible all summer here in Indiana, and when I lived in Florida had the top down pretty much year round. Hope Ford doesn't stop making the Mustang convertible. If they do I'll definitely be keeping mine!!

 

[Reagan2791]

Just bought my first ever convertible (picking up Friday). Excited! More pics in the introductions thread.

 

[#1ford]

Fantastic looking car congratulations

 

[MIDLYFE]

Just bought my first ever convertible (picking up Friday). Excited! More pics in the introductions thread.

Beautiful from the color to the wheels. Don't change a thing.....cosmetically.

 

[Mossberg]

I guess I'll share mine. I picked this one up a couple weekends ago. I flew from ATL to Pitt to pick it up and REALLY enjoyed the road trip home.

2018 GT PP, MT82, Magnetic/Showstopper Red, 401A, Active Exhaust.

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