Is there anything more romantic in car-dom than the notion of carefree cruising in a convertible? The wind in your hair, the sun on your face, the freedom of the open road before you? It’s pretty gosh-darn delightful, is it not?
Indeed, the notion of driving in a convertible is wonderful. The actual practice? Ehhh, I don’t love it. Now, don’t get me started on chassis rigidity, because you can’t get me started on chassis rigidity. I promise you, if you put me in a convertible, any convertible, chassis flex will not even be among my top 100 gripes.
Chief among the gripes: I find the entire affair to be unpleasant. The niceness that having the top down does add – sun on your face, wind in your hair – is more than made up for by the headache I get from wind noise, and the annoyance of all the head-buffeting turbulence that’s also making me miserable.
It all looks like fun, especially in movies and on TV. For example, consider Ben Gazzara in Road House below, just enjoying the weather in his 1988 Mustang GT drop-top, drifting from lane to lane and forcing any wayward Daltons off the road.
Or how about Jon Bernthal in the opening credits of American Gigolo (the Showtime series), taking in the California sun in that most phallic of convertibles, the Jaguar E-Type? Though second to the Jag, the Mercedes 450 SL Richard Gere drives in the 1980 movie also makes top-down driving look sexy and fun.
But it’s never sexy or fun for me! The not-sexy part, I get. After all, I’m in the car, so there you go. But it should be fun! And above 30mph or so, I don’t think I’ve ever really had fun in a convertible.
Now, to be fair, I haven’t yet ridden in a modern convertible, which I’m sure manages airflow much better and feels less like a car missing a roof and more like a car meant to operate well while roofless. But I’d love to give one a try!
Your turn:
Well, I’m a sunflower and daily a Fiata, so any time the weather is nice enough for the top to be down, it’s down.
I daily drive a 1993 Miata. And I also have long hair.
I love having the top down when I can, but I also need to prep myself a lot. If I just let my fine hair fly free, it will go in my eyes and tangle beyond belief. If I put it into a ponytail, it will whip my face mercilessly and I’ll look like I just lost a slap fight with a declawed kitten.
I’ve found the best hair management is to go with a ball cap and a ponytail, and tie the ponytail up in the ball cap. Also sunglasses are a must to keep stray hairs out of my eyes.
Once all of those conditions are met, I get a nice top-down motoring experience. My Miata has the MSSS1 stereo, which just shines with the top down.
And no, I don’t want to cut my hair. I really dig my hair.
Ah, the full Samurai Cop, eh?
I also am a domestic longhair. I usually put my hair in a top bun and stuff it into a beanie.
The earliest memories of convertible riding were when I was still in single digits; in a VW Beetle that belonged to a friend’s mom. The infinite headroom is a feeling that gets seared into the gray matter the first time it happens.
After that, I tried to get into every convertible I possibly could after that.
A high school friend had a mid 70s Oldsmobile something with a 455 in it, and it was like riding on the deck of an aircraft carrier. AWESOME.
I worked at Thrifty Rent-A-Car when I was 18-20 and we had Chrysler Sebrings and later Mitsubishi Eclipse GS Convertibles. When a customer needed a lift home, I’d always suggest taking the ‘vert so I could put the top down.
I also drove one of those Eclipses through a snowstorm with the top down, that was fun just for the looks I got.
Before we got married, my wife and I leased a Wrangler X for a few years, that was the pinnacle of top down motoring. Nothing better than off-roading without a top.
I went a long time without topless motoring, until my parents decided to add a Ferrari 355 Spider to the fleet as an investment about a decade ago.
THIS, and no other car, is the very tippy top of the pinnacle of top-down motoring.
Yes, it’s a 6-speed.
Yes, it has a full catless exhaust.
Yes, the engine has to come out.
Yes, again. 🙁
But the sound with the top down – exquisite.
Much love.
I just bought an 89 4Runner just to take the top off all summer.
Daily driven a Fiata for 7 years so I’ll use this article as a perfect excuse for unsolicited car experiences!
– wind noise sucks but that’s an issue above 60 ish mph. Windows up top down plus a good set of ear plugs fix that.
– hats are mandatory, especially with the Fiats tiny sun visors that don’t turn. Just keep one in the car.
– sun screen is also mandatory, especially on your arms and face, also keep one in the car.
– sweating is inevitable in the heat, choose your own adventure on how you wanna deal with it.
– your interior gets dirty relatively quickly but yout mileage varies based on where you drive.
– Ive whipped the top down to better see while parking plenty, it’s basically a visibility cheat code.
-HVAC still works on modern convertibles with the top down, use that to your advantage especially when driving in colder weather and sitting at lights/traffic
– too much wind in your face? Roll them windows up.
– you look infinitely cooler with the top down and I judge people who drive convertibles with the top up in nice weather
– Top down for tall stuff is nice
Hauled a dining room chair that way.
– Top down for easily getting into the car is also convenient, especially for low vehicles.
No regrets here, the ND manual top is perfect for whipping up and down in seconds.
The number of top-up convertibles (usually late-model BMW, Mercedes, Bentley) around here on a beautiful 75-degree day is disgusting.
Absolutely, similar situation here too. Then there’s the Miata guys that’ll top down in the middle of a blizzard lol.
I absolutely love convertibles and always have one in my fleet. There’s just something magical about riding around in one with the top down and music playing when the weather is nice and the sun is shining. Wind deflectors make interstate driving quiet and comfortable. I’ve even used them moving furniture and things that would never have fit in a normal car by putting the top down and loading them in the back, sometimes extending over the trunk.
I can even pinpoint exactly what made me want my first convertible – the VW Cabrio commercial where Nick Drake’s song “Pink Moon” plays over it. I remember watching that as a teenager and thinking to myself “that that’s exactly the vibe I’m looking for when I can drive” and I’ve been chasing it ever since
When I’m in the mood for top-down motoring, there’s nothing else like it. My NA stays in the garage through most of the brutal SW Florida summer, save for the occasional night drive after it’s rained when it’s nice and cool. When the weather starts to cool down and the humidity drops, the NA is released from its prison and it’s game on. I’m the lunatic who will be commuting to work with the top down when it’s 45 degrees out… that’s what gloves are for and NA Miata heaters are as good as their AC’s are terrible.
Driving with the top down forces you to be a better, or at least a more courteous, driver (as does driving the smallest thing on the road barring the few Honda Beats you see around here) and strips away the layer of insulation that ordinarily separates you from your environment. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, sometimes it’s delightful. It’s always interesting.
There is such a thing as a time machine. It is a convertible with Bluetooth radio.
You go on a country road, where there’s no traffic and no signs of modernity, and listening to music of the era prior to the year of your car, and for all intents and purposes it could be 1973,or whatever that era is…
Yup. Listening to “Jagged Little Pill” while driving a ’95 Miata feels right, somehow.
In my opinion it‘s one of the rightestest feelings one could have.
Anything that’s not long haul highway driving or below mid 40s F, top down. At least that’s what I’ve always done (for decades at this point) and it never gets old for me. A trip to the grocery store becomes an adventure.
And plenty of convertibles are actually worse with the top up. Like how I’m always appalled, for instance, to see a final gen Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible with its completely unnecessarily tiny rear window. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to try to see out of that car with the top up.
I’ve always really enjoyed it and some of my most formative car memories from when I was a kid involved riding in convertibles. I certainly think everyone should drive a lightweight, rear wheel drive, manual, two seat roadster with the top down at least a few times. There’s a reason everyone loves Miatas, and I think that classic roadster experience is quintessential and something every enthusiast should try.
If you’re going fast enough that the wind is a problem, roll the windows up.
If you’re going slow enough that you don’t have a breeze anymore, that’s what the air conditioning is for.
You can fit a visor in the center console.
It’s nice once in a while but way overrated. My Miata had no ac so it was either top down or bake extra hard under a sheet of black vinyl and since I only drove it during the spring-fall at the end, it was top down almost all the time.
For every day where it was nice having the top down, there were 10 where it kind of sucked. The way I’d always explain it to people who’ve never been in a convertible is that if you walk outside and think it feels hot out that day, it’s just as hot in a convertible with the roof down
Two-seat RWD roadsters only since 2008. Despite living well in the snow belt.
Always top and windows down unless it’s raining and I’ll be under 40mph at points. Then I just will keep the top of the bimini in place, but take the back piece out.
Not sure how romantic mine would be though. At this point it’s more like the Top Gear skit with “Lauren” with her expensive haircut. Except the engine induction noise is at 104dBA, 110dBA with the bimini top in place but rear removed.
There is no wind noise. Just engine induction noise. All of it.
There is also still to be a thing in my nose that has a face.
I now have a 2nd car that has a fixed roof. Cars with a roof feel weird and fancy!
NA Miata owner here. It’s great having the top down, minus when on the freeway. Keeping the softtop up is MISERABLE. It’s somehow louder, has buffeting, etc. I normally rock the hardtop, but sometimes the weather is worth pulling the top off.
Top down/off while cruising around town feels like sitting on a park bench. It’s really nice.
Top-up on mine is “storage position”. When convertible weather starts the top goes down, the boot goes on and it stays that way until it goes back into hibernation.
I am the same, as long as the hardtop is off. Keeping it off and on a stand makes me nervous due to my clumsiness.
For me, it’s more about the setting of the drive, rather than the convertible experience itself.
Driving through the mountains, or along the less used coastal road, or in France through the twisties along a river? Absolutely drop the top and enjoy it.
On the majority of American roads with 2+ lanes (mid size roads up to highways), absolutely not.
This is a good point. I enjoyed having the top down in my Miata much more when I lived in rural-ish PA. Once I moved to metro Detroit, I hated it
I do not like it actually. I have had convertibles and jeeps and I am a bald so the sun is an issue, and did not like it when I had long hair. I do not like hats and I just do not like the sun and loud wind. I have had the top off my jeep a time or two, nope. I had a sunrider flip top in place of my freedom panels for a few years that was one second open and still did not use it. I also do not like sunroofs. I did like the solid metal sunroof on my VW Rabbit. My next vehicle will be a full hard top.
A lot of the same here. I just accepted that wheeling the Jeep was going to tear a soft top from time to time and that was the cost of not getting burned and enjoying AC.
You think having wind-whipped hair is unpleasant!? Try having most of it atop your head missing! All the inconvenience with added sunburn! (when you forget to wear sunblock and your hat flies off!)
Besides, most of my hats are from places I’ve visited or things I’ve done. I don’t want to lose them.
I am also bald and hate hats so I just do not convertible.
The last one I drove/rode in is Dad’s ’27 Model T Touring. Which has no windows, the aero of a brick, and 45 is literally top speed – and feels like it! That you’re never going far in, and never fast enough to lose a hat, so it’s fine.
I am glad for the GT86/BRZ existing. It’s the Miata Alternative for Bald People.
Oh that sunburnt scalp is terrible. After that experience I learned to like hats. I also have sunscreen in both of my cars just in case I forget my hat and have to be outside unexpectedly.
Yeah, earlier this year, I did some outdoor work for my grandmother and forgot a hat or sunscreen. Skin peeled for half a week. I started to be more vigilant after that!
I went to an indycar race in Colorado 30ish years ago. The track had shiny steel stands, so I got it form above and below. I was lobsterized before I knew what happened. I was literally sick for two days.
Won’t forget after something like that!
I enjoy driving my Miata but as long I stay out of the highway. Unfortunately for my work commute, 70% of the drive is highway. I have to keep the windows up with the roof down, engine screaming at 4K rpm, blasting the radio too, feeling like a little ant in a sea of monster trucks.
The problem is that Michigan gets such a few months of nice weather and nice weather to me is spring/fall season, not summer. Winter is storage time.
I’ll prefer a convertible over a sunroof, moonroof, T-Tops, Glass roof, and anything else that’ll make water leak from the roof any day of the week. If I want to experience the drive with the air in my hair and whatnot, I’m going to do it with the top down.
I live in Southern California. We get at least 10 full months of top-down weather a year.
Saab 9-3. Convertible. Stick. Turbo. At $2500, it was the best purchase I’ve ever made.
Unless it’s below 20 or raining, the top is down. I’ll leave gloves and a beanie in the car in the winter. A hat and a light jacket in the summer for the sun. If my convertible dies, I’m getting a minivan. Gotta enjoy every moment of top-down bliss while I can.
Doing it right.
Top up is just telling everyone you bought the wrong car.
Don’t change.
I had a job one summer in college doing high-mile testing for ford – 500 miles a day, 4 days a week. One of my regular cards was a convertible V-8 mustang (sadly an automatic – although my other regular car was manual, albeit the V-6 and hard top). That summer confirmed for me I hated convertibles. At any decent speed it was loud, windy, and unpleasant, and if you were stuck in traffic it was too hot. Basically convertibles are nice when you’re cruising at 30 on a sun-dappled quiet street, otherwise I’m out.
I love convertibles. I’m a person who opts for windows down all the time, even when it’s sort of unpleasant. I spend a good deal of my lifespan in a basement toiling away on a computer. Driving is one of my only opportunities to experience “being outside”. I also love sunroofs.
But will I ever own one? Probably not. The weather here is, charitably, shit. Having the top down is practical maybe, I don’t know, 40-50 days a year here? Maybe? It’s either cold, or it’s rainy. For the summer, when it isn’t raining, I would totally be willing to bake to death if I had a convertible.
Fat dude here who sweats easily and has tinnitus:
Hate it, plus sunroofs are out as well.
I say bring on the sweats and ringing
When I was a high school student my friends and I routinely used sunroofs for things they were not intended / designed for and which brought us great amusement.
Since graduating I have had no further desire for an open top of any sort.