Convertibles With Diesel Engines Used To Be A Thing Before Volkswagen Ruined Everything

Rarely have two different things met in such an incongruous way as the diesel convertible. On one hand, you have your wind-in-the-hair experience, the outside world, the smells and sounds … and then you have the smells and sounds of a diesel car. Granted, the newer the car, the less clattery or coal-rolling it is going to be, but you’re still going to be more acutely aware of the way internal combustion is handled in those particular cars. On the other hand, if you’re really into open-top driving, so much so that it’s not just for Saturdays and Sundays, you might as well get around with one of the more frugal options available. That’s where a 1990s-2000s turbodiesel is really at home, getting the most miles and smiles out of a gallon.

The diesel convertible is a uniquely European phenomenon, strongly related to the zeitgeist of the diesel car up until the Volkswagen Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal turned the tables around. For some time in the 2000s, it felt like you could get anything with a diesel engine here: it wasn’t simply Passat wagons and Mercedes taxis that clattered around, getting 45-50 mpg, but convertibles as well. In the right use, being driven enough so that everything isn’t sooted up, a diesel can be an excellent choice. In a free-spirited convertible, it brings a touch of the real world with you.

When I still had a 100-mile daily commute, I got around in a Volvo XC70 D5 with the 163-horsepower five-cylinder turbodiesel and a six-speed manual gearbox. It was perfect for the task, as my daily route was mostly straight country roads, and I enjoyed the good, supportive seat that only Volvo seemed to be able to do so well. Sticking to the speed limit, I was able to get 40mpg out of it, which felt great – especially because in those days, diesel cost as little as five bucks per gallon. In European terms, that’s nothing– these days it easily costs double.

It amused me to no end that you could get the same drivetrain in the Volvo C70, so I could have commuted with the top down all day every day. Sure, you couldn’t get the C70 with the AWD the XC70 had when it rolled out of the factory gates, but the system was broken on my car anyway, and it was FWD only at that point.

Mercedes-Benz And BMW Are Still At It

Mercedes-Benz is still building diesel convertibles, as it offers the current CLE convertible with a 220d turbodiesel option. It’s a two-liter mild hybrid powerplant with 197 horsepower out of the diesel engine and a 23-horsepower assist from the hybrid system. It gets 48mpg combined, which is quite a bit better than the comparable CLE 200 gasoline version manages.

Back in the day, you could get the R172 generation SLK convertible (above) and the big W221 S-Class with the same engine, if you chose the SLK 250 CDI for weekends and the S 250 CDI for the weekdays.

Both cars got 204 horsepower out of a biturbo setup, and there must have been some synergy benefits from running the same engine in your fun car and your serious car. The SLK managed 47mpg combined, while the bigger and heavier S-Class still did 41.

Currently, European buyers in selected markets can get the BMW 4-series as a regular 420d diesel convertible, but you can also specify an all-wheel-drive M440d convertible, which is pretty bonkers. With 340 horsepower, it does 0-62mph in 5 seconds, and returns 34.5 mpg.

Audi discontinued the A5 convertible in 2024, as the current A5 generation doesn’t include a drop-top version. The earlier A5 was sold as a diesel, but Audi has some earlier cabrio diesel history of its own.

1990s TDI Cabrios from Volkswagen and Audi

After Mercedes-Benz built the 1936-1940 260 D, a 45-horsepower diesel passenger car that was available in both landaulet and traditional convertible form, the first post-war diesel cabriolets were the 1990s Volkswagen Golf Mk3 TDI and Audi Cabriolet diesel.

Both the Audi and the VW had a 90-horsepower 1.9 TDI, but in the VW it was transverse, and in the Audi 80-based Cabriolet, longitudinal. The Audi was built all the way until 2000, with the last ones built by Karmann. After production ended, there was a short gap before the B6 generation A4 convertible was introduced: again by Karmann, and again as a diesel as well.

Audi also sold the later TT Roadsters with turbodiesels, so the Mercedes-Benz SLK 250 CDI wasn’t the only diesel roadster sold. At least Porsche didn’t put a diesel in the Boxster; BMW did offer the E46 as the 330cd convertible, as well as the 6-series as the 640d.

The Mk3.5 version of the Golf Cabrio, the one with the Mk4 front end, also got a 110-horsepower diesel. While these are the first official-official Golf Cabrio diesels, some Internet message boards note there was a small batch of UK-registered and RHD Golf Mk1 GLD diesels in the early ‘80s.

Photos of a 1981 Cabrio were posted online, but these were likely to be gasoline cars retrofitted with the diesel engine either before or after shipping them to the UK, as a factory official Mk1 diesel cabrio didn’t exist.

These days, the only drop-top that Volkswagen builds is the T-Roc Convertible, VW’s own CrossCab. It will reportedly be phased out in 2027, and it was never available with a diesel, unlike the regular T-Roc.

Americans Were Briefly Converted

Another effort from Volkswagen was the New Beetle TDI Cabrio, which was also sold in the United States. It’s a noteworthy car, as is its successor, the Beetle Cabrio, as those are likely the only diesel cabrios sold in the United States! However, I’m happy to be proven wrong.

If we’re talking North American car sales, we can include the Smart ForTwo. Smart sold the ForTwo with the CDI engine in Canada, and there were even a handful of Brabus edition CDI convertibles in Canada.

Still maintaining the Mercedes-Benz tangent, the C123 generation coupe was only sold in the United States as a 300 CD diesel in its final years. Some of those have been converted to convertibles, as Mercedes didn’t produce a factory convertible out of the C123. The above shot is of a Crayford Engineering converted UK-market 280 CE called the St. Tropez. Jason Cammisa spotted a brown 300 CD convertible on the road once.

The following C124 generation was available as an open-top version, but it didn’t get a diesel from the factory. As well as later CLKs, the G-Class convertible got a V6 diesel.

You could also get an American convertible car with a diesel; however, despite being made in Michigan, it wasn’t sold in the States. We’re talking about the third-generation Chrysler Sebring convertible, which received the Volkswagen 2.0 TDI “Pumpe düse” engine, badged as “CRD” to continue the naming convention for Chrysler.

As well as the engine, the roof system was German, as it was produced by Karmann. All Sebring CRD convertibles were destined for export, so it’s unlikely any were left behind on American soil.

While the Saab 9-3 provided the base for the Swedish-built Cadillac BLS, no convertible version was developed of the BLS. That also means that there wasn’t a diesel BLS convertible, even if the BLS was made with the Fiat-sourced TTiD turbodiesel in sedan and wagon form, with 150 or 180 horsepower.

Reportedly, Saab once brought a single 9-3 TTiD cabrio to the US to show it off, but didn’t include the turbodiesel in the import program. Opel put the same 1.9 engine in the Astra cabrio, which was also sold as the Buick Cascada, but Buicks didn’t get the diesel.

As for Ford, it quickly introduced the diesel version of the again Karmann-designed 1990s Escort Convertible after noticing Volkswagen sold the competing Golf Cabrio as a TDI. The Euro Escort was available with the 1.8 TD with a Golf-matching 90-horsepower figure, up until 1998.

The later second-generation Focus convertible was also sold with the 1.6-liter PSA diesel engine, as were cabrios from Peugeot and Citroën using the same engine, as well as the Volvo C70 mentioned earlier. You could get the funky and flawed Citroën Pluriel with a diesel, too.

The aforementioned Dieselgate ended up accelerating electrification for European carmakers, and the once-popular diesel alternatives have been largely phased out, as well as some entire model lines that used to be available as convertibles.

These days, oddballs such as the Alfa Romeo Spider’s diesel version seem nearly unimaginable, but that’s why we have car nerds to remember all this stuff, for trivia rounds if nothing else.

Top graphic image: Audi