It’s Friday! Soon, many of you will punch the clock and get to enjoy just over 48 hours of time to decompress and maybe have a little fun. Let’s hit the road for the weekend. What car are you taking?
Weekend drives are some of the best. There’s nothing quite like pointing the handlebars of a motorcycle or the steering wheel of a car in a direction and just driving. Maybe you’ll go on a date, or maybe you’ll discover a new museum. It’s your vehicle, you’re in command!
If it’s a warm weekend in Chicagoland, it’s going to be the perfect time to go car spotting. You’ll find countless enthusiasts zipping around in Subaru BRZs and Volkswagen GTIs, as well as endless Ford Mustangs, a surprising number of Lamborghinis, armadas of Corvettes, and maybe even a Ferrari or two. Of course, the primary sign that warm weather is around is the call of the Harley-Davidson.
My usual weekend vehicle is actually not that amazing. I often take my 2005 Genuine Stella out for a weekend ride. I’ve now managed to put about 2,000 miles on the scooter since reviving it, and I plan on riding it through the fall and winter. If I’m going about my day on four wheels, then I’ll usually take my 2008 Smart Fortwo. If it’s a special occasion, like a car show or even a milestone date, then I’ll pull out one of the garage queen Smarts or one of my Kei cars. Back before I learned I didn’t quite have the correct license class, sometimes I even drove the bus around like it was a 30,000-pound Corvette.
But I suppose none of the above really answers my question. What is the perfect weekend car? I think the perfect weekend car is a convertible. I don’t care what kind of convertible. It can be a Wrangler, a Miata, a Chrysler Sebring, or one of those rare convertible pickup trucks.
There’s nothing quite like putting the top down and hitting the road. This is especially true here in the Midwest, when warm days are few and there isn’t an abundance of driving roads. So, you drop the top and cruise between the cornfields while you still have warm weather left.
Then, you have people like David Tracy, who live in a place that gets rain so infrequently that owning a vehicle with limited weather protection is easy. I’m jealous of you folks!
How about you? The weekend is here. What car are you going to drive?
Wow. A RHD Cruiser in the lead picture!
Anything with a sun/moon roof is adequate for me. Especially if it’s reliable enough to complete the mission of going somewhere and back. I’ve never had a convertible. Rented one in Hawaii, but it rained all week.
A BMW X5 my then about to be wife owned had the moon roof part down, but one of its fatally injured run-flat tires ruined a romantic getaway weekend some years ago.
Only cars with real spares after that.
That depends on the weekend plans.
Unimog with backhoe and mower attachments?
If you have a bunch of of 20 something friends and live in NYC with a truck, boy will you be popular, so that’s either the best or worst choice depending on how you feel about being popular.
In the other hand, a finicky old sports car may be the perfect weekend car. “Sorry I can’t come to the twins’ oboe recital, I’m replacing the crankshaft seals on the TR3”
Like I said, it depends.
Used to have a 69.buick lesabre convertible with a 455 automatic beautiful car for weekend drives now its either a gmc 2500 or a 73 chevy nova
Used to have a ’96 Audi Cabrio with a V6, it was a really nice weekend car, just about fit 4 people comfortably with the roof down, so it was ideal for summer trundles. Took it to the Nurburgring twice, always a hoot, sad to see it go but too many projects left it by the wayside more than once for a year or more.
We’re retired and currently enjoying a 20 day road trip in our wonderful 2015 Fit.
My Jeep Comanche is my perfect weekend vehicle, because that’s when I do all of my around the house/property projects. The convertibles and sports cars are for commuting to work.
Unpopular opinion maybe, but my 2005 PT Cruiser Convertible with the turbo and 5 speed was a delight to drive on road trips!
That said, my Maverick is now my daily driver, weekend rider, road trip cruiser!
The Jag E-Type I just bought, or maybe the Yamaha CV80 scooter I have if the weather is just right. Oh wait, the Jag is on the lift, waiting for a new clutch, scoota time.
My 128i convertible does pretty much everything well. Quick enough to be entertaining, handles well, reliable, comfortable enough to drive from FL to ME and back, even has a back seat that humans can use for reasonable amounts of time. Drop the top when the weather is nice, keep it up and drive in peace when it’s not.
I may be in the market for a 128 convertible. What should I look out for?
The trifecta of oil leaks. Oil filter housing gasket – cheap and easy to DIY. Valve cover gasket – not horrible, but not exactly cheap and easy as the right way to do it is to replace the whole valve cover, as it contains the PCV diaphragm which will fail eventually. Most of these cars have had a new one already though due to the VANOS bolt recall. Oil pan gasket. This one sucks to do, but the part isn’t expensive (and at least none of them are AWD – those REALLY suck to do in 3-series). Otherwise, just buy the nicest, newest, lowest mileage one you can afford. They are pretty simple cars with not a lot of dilemmas, as BMWs go. Lots of good buyer’s guides online.
I’ve had my car for five years, minimal dilemmas. It had the valve cover and oil pan gaskets done before I got it, I did the OFHG pre-emptively. Otherwise, just rear shocks and a heater fan last year. I did the serp belt tensioner and belt pre-emptively as well, otherwise just fluids and filters routine maintenance. About 77K on it now.
Thanks for your very helpful response!
Happy to help!
I aquired a rolled grand Prix off the old boy who rolled it a few months ago. It’s currently at my farm I plan to cut the top off for a real red green style weekend vehicle when I have time. I think I’ll probably just take an ebike out this weekend.
The perfect weekend car is a motorcycle. Specifically any one of MY motorcycles. I don’t care which – I will be riding either way.
There’s currently a ’91 Shadow ES convertible with the 2.5 turbo on FB marketplace and I want it so bad. Like so so bad. But I don’t have a garage, likely won’t anytime soon, and I won’t sentence a survivor like that to a slow death outside. But damn I want it.
While Mercedes has shown off a few twisty roads in the past, much of the Midwest is flat and straight roads. The perfect vehicle for this weekend is a cruiser that emphasizes comfort above all else: the old school land barge. And I will be finding every excuse to take mine out.
In a way I’ve always had some kind of convertible in my ‘fleet’ – 3 Miatas, Rabbit cabrio, MGB, Chrysler LeBaron and cheating slightly- a ragtop bug. But truth be told – I rarely drove any of them with the top down. I don’t like being roasted by the hot sun, I don’t like braving the cold, and I don’t care to be blasted by the wind and noise on the freeways. The idea of owning a convertible is cute. But most of the time it is not.
Whichever one of my turds I just finished fixing!
Convertible is the correct answer! I have a 2007 e93 with 120,000 miles that I’ve owned for over 10 years and it still puts a smile on my face. I love a topless grand tourer with enough space and reliability for a weekend trip somewhere. Jag F Types are sexy, but you can’t fit much more than a clean pair of undies with the top down.
Exactly why if I could have only ONE convertible it would be my e88 128i and not my Spitfire, much as I love the little Brit. It’s just sooo much more practical and comfortable, of less fun under perfect conditions. And why I have that car and not a Z3/Z4 – that back seat and more usefully sized trunk make a huge difference, especially two-up.
If I had a separate weekend car, I would want all the inconvenience I can’t justify on a daily driver. Give me an Alfa Romeo Spider with a pair of Webers or a Fiat X1/9, maybe an MGB. I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a Triumph, either. The world of 70s/80s roadsters is weird, and I really want to explore it. I wouldn’t go as far as a Lotus 7, because I’d like to be able to enjoy it out on the town and have a canvas top ready for potential changes in weather.
Lotus 7 clone. I don’t even bother with motorbikes any more.
So you’re really in a No Kids, No Bikes situation then…
I mean…I haven’t sold them. Yet.
Miata is obvious, but the first thing that comes to mind so it’s probably the correct one.
A RHD PT Cruiser convertible was definitely not the first thing I had in mind.
Owned over fifty cars. If they’re able to leave my driveway under their own power then they get driven every day. Never believed in driving cars at certain times. If it’s good enough for the weekends then it’s good enough for every day.
This is my opinion save for the Jeep Comanche and Austin Healey Sprite do not get to be driven in the winter. Honestly they are more of the summer vehicles and the BMW e36 M3 and Honda Civic Si are the winter beaters.