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VW Beetle Convertible

Go back far enough and every car was open to the weather. Nobody thought about putting a roof on a horseless carriage until the turn of the 20th century and even then, it took a couple of decades before they became commonplace. A roof was a luxury item.

Today, it's the removable roof that's a luxury item. There's more technology and materials in a convertible compared with a sedan or coupe and that costs money, but there are plenty of drivers who want the option to drop the top and let the sun shine in.

Most convertibles are premium cars, luxurious, sporty or both. There are exceptions, such as the Smart fortwo cabriolet and the VW Beetle Convertible, but even then, they're an option on an existing hardtop car.

Early convertibles were noisy and drafty; their fabric tops leaked and their retractable mechanisms often broke. One hundred years ago, the frames built around cars were as flimsy as tents and drivers were reluctant to venture out in inclement weather – cars were just too unreliable.

However, in 1925, new manufacturing techniques for steel "closed" cars finally made them more popular than open cars and, within a few years, open cars were relegated to a fraction of the market. There was a resurgence in the 1950s, but convertibles were still heavy and clunky and handled poorly; by the mid-1970s, once air-conditioning caught on, their sales barely registered. You could buy an Alfa Romeo roadster and a VW Beetle convertible, but the 1976 Cadillac Eldorado was declared to be America's last convertible.

And so it was for a handful of years, while Detroit's auto makers struggled with emissions, fuel economy and safety standards. The soft top didn't return until 1982, when Chrysler's Lee Iacocca introduced the LeBaron Convertible as a way to make the company stand out from other brands. The LeBaron was expected to sell 3,000 units in its first year, but instead, sold 23,000. Auto makers noticed and convertibles have claimed a slice of the market ever since.

"Today's soft tops are not what they were even 20 years ago – they're not leaky or any less safe," says Matthew Wilson, national manager of product planning for BMW Canada. "It used to be that you were making quite the sacrifice in driveability, but all the cabriolets we bring to market today have little to no difference versus the hard top versions."

("Cabriolet" is the European term for a convertible. Fun fact: the earliest horse-drawn carriages with foldable roofs were called cabriolets and were used as taxis, which is where the term "taxi cab" comes from.)

Wilson says BMW's convertible market has stayed fairly stable over the past decade. About 40 per cent of its smaller 2 Series cars are sold as soft tops, though the proportion of the more mainstream 4 series is less: about 17 per cent in 2016.

The 4 Series cabriolet is only sold as a hard-top convertible, which carries more weight and more technology: more than a dozen different motors are used to raise and lower the roof. Wilson says the hard top is quieter in the cabin, but there's not much difference.

Today's designs mean it doesn't have to be windy or turbulent when the roof is down; back baffles and even windshield extender lips keep much of the slipstream out of the cabin if the windows are up.

At Mercedes-Benz, sales have also been fairly stable for convertibles, though the percentage of overall sales is a little smaller. About one in 10 E-Class and S-Class vehicles are sold as cabriolets.

The price premium of a convertible – several thousand dollars and sometimes much more – means they're rarely offered as an option on non-premium cars, though there are ways to make them less expensive. The open models of the Fiat 500 and Smart Cabriolet both advertise themselves as convertibles, but they're really just cars with large sunroofs: the B-pillars stay in place behind the driver. The Jeep Wrangler is a manually operated convertible, but its fully-removable canvas roof snaps and ties in place and is not-so-quick to reinstall.

Small premium cars make ideal convertibles, however – just ask Porsche. For drivers already prepared to spend $61,500 on a base Cayman, the extra $2,400 needed for its otherwise identical soft top sibling, the Boxster, is hardly a penalty. Porsche reports a 50/50 split in sales between the two models. The same is true for its 911, where cabriolets and targas outsold coupes in 2016.

It all comes down to personal choice, but at least the choice is there – and will be for the foreseeable future. It helps to have money, too. And don't forget to wear a hat.

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