A friend wants a convertible. The time to buy is now, rather than spring or summer, when prices go up because a dash of sunlight tempts people to think they want blue-sky, wind-in-your-hair motoring.
Come dark days and rain, many leave their convertibles in the garage or sell them.
My friend is looking for a 10- to 15-year-old Golf, a good choice. It’ll have the usual Golf virtues and he’ll use it not only for local fine-weather pottering but for bucolic excursions to France. Golfs are comfortable and reliable, with plentiful spares in the event of breakdown – albeit limited rear legroom for taller passengers.
For the same reasons, he could step up in class and image and consider Audi A3 cabriolets – and pay more.
There are plenty of other choices; as always with car-buying, it depends on what you want your car for. If two seats are enough, the obvious choice is a Mazda MX-5, the sports car that conquered the world after MG decided there was no market. They’re a bit cramped but well-priced, well-made and fun to drive; just beware of rust in older ones.
If he wanted to splash out and stand out, he could go for a Lotus or a Morgan, not to mention the awesome Bentley Continental. Or he could take a chance on a rebuilt MGB roadster, enduringly popular and surprisingly practical, with parts provision that puts many moderns to shame.
If four seats are essential, there are plenty of smallish, reasonably priced breeds to choose from. The Fiat 500C squashes you in the rear, but brings a smile to the face of any driver. The Mini drives and handles beautifully – but again you’re squashed in the back with the hood down. The nippy Peugeot 207 CC does everything well, but it’s little.
Stepping up in size there’s VW’s Eos (2006-15), a nice driver with more room but iffy hoods and prone to leaks, which wreck the hydraulics.
The various BMW convertibles all drive well and are rightly popular, but are hard-riding when fitted with bigger wheels. Petrol engines of the 2005-12 3 series have a dodgy reputation, so best go diesel – or maybe opt for an Audi A5. If you don’t mind paying for the badge, you get style, performance and luxury with the 2016-24 Mercedes C-Class cabriolet – but yet again a somewhat cramped rear.
For proper four-seat comfort, provided you aren’t worried about age (you needn’t be, if the car’s been well kept), look at the 2006-13 Volvo C70. It’s no beauty and never caught on but it has all the Volvo virtues, with 2010-on models the best.
Or take the left-field option of the 2003-11 Saab 9-3 – again no beauty, but safe, comfortable and reliable, as long as you change the oil every 5,000 miles.
If it were me, I’d go for a classic, such as the 1940/’50s Jaguar XK 120, 140 or 150, groundbreaking cars with perfect lines. Most would add the E-Type, but I prefer the more curvaceous XKs.
A more esoteric choice would be a Bristol 402. They made 23, of which 13 are currently known. Otherwise, going down the scale, an MGA (whose lines echo the XK), Morris Minor, VW Beetle or – sweetest and cheapest of all – a pre-war second-generation Morris 8E.
That said, I’ve only ever owned one convertible, a 1954 Daimler Conquest Century, white with a red hood and an endless thirst for oil. The hood seized, of course, and I sold it to a commune.
Truth is, convertibles don’t really appeal – wind in the hair is OK for a while, but on modern roads you can’t hear yourself speak. And then the sun goes in.
