Nothing says ‘summer’ like the purchase of a cheap convertible. Especially in the UK, where we famously buy open-top cars at a rate that cannot possibly be commensurate with the amount of sunshine we actually get. It’s blithe optimism at its best: the roof comes off, therefore life will present us with ample opportunities to remove it. Any evidence to the contrary can be dismissed out of hand, like dietary advice or a utility bill or an email from Ben Lowden.
It is into this ocean of bliss that we dive headfirst this week. Barely anything more needs to be said: we considered enforcing a power or rear-drive criteria, but to do so would have unfairly stymied the amount of stuff which is on offer in the classifieds (plus there’s always the chance that someone might accidentally misconstrue the challenge as an invite to buy a mobile sunbed in the Vauxhall Cascada mould, and get flamed like a porterhouse steak).
Consequently there is only a £15k budget to worry about, alongside the requirement for the roof to dissemble itself, with or without your help. Unusually for a segment with sporting aspirations, there are deals to be had everywhere - thank the aforementioned volume for that - and no end of interesting outliers. Or we could end up with six MX-5s in different shades of blah. Let’s find out…
On the B842 is where I fell truly in love with this car; it was my 2006 S2000 in Nurburgring Blue. Travelling up from the south of England for a trip around Scotland's finest roads the Honda had performed adequately on the M6, but now was truly at home on the narrow moorland tracks. On and off ferries, bezzing down between pine forest, across hill top roads - it was a smile-a-minute adventure.
And to me that is what I immediately think when someone says "convertible”: two-seats, country roads and buckets of fun. The fact the S2000 has sufficient boot space for a tent and some clothes means you can extend the enjoyment in far flung places to several days. It was that combination that led me to taking my girlfriend for a convertible camping weekend in Cornwall, and that is where it all went wrong. So successful is the car’s ability in courting wingmanship that a marriage and couple of kids later (not necessarily in that order) it had to go. I still miss it!
Residuals have been rising slowly on these through the years, so I present you with the bargain of a reasonably mileage version. Going for a 2003 will save you 200-odd pounds in road-tax to later models and with a GT top it becomes an all-year car - just ask if they have the stand and cover for the roof. You also get one of the best gear changes ever produced, and the ability to make it into a noisy screamer just by removing the top of the air filter box.
I'm not saying the S2000 will get you married, but buy this and you will certainly keep a box somewhere with the mementos from your time together - it is frankly the only convertible choice out there. I’m off to the shed to reminisce at some brand new brake discs I still have for it!
PD
Shamefully, I missed TVR when we were discussing £30k sports cars (and made a very bad choice instead) - not to be repeated this time!
While £15k is a pretty modest budget for Blackpool’s greatest export (the rock is better in Brighton, anyway) it does open up one or two options for wind-in-the-hair V8 nirvana. A wedge is in budget but doesn’t really do it for me; a Chimaera, on the other hand, very much does, as it approaches 30 years old. Imagine paying £10,000 and returning home with something that looks, sounds and goes like this - it’s paying for a half and getting the whole keg in return.
This isn’t just any old 1996 Chimaera either. Over the years the TVR has been sympathetically upgraded with better front brakes, polybushes, coilovers, a hotter cam a Toyo tyres. That’s in addition to an extensive history, 13 years with the previous owner and a recent service. From here it looks excellent in Brooklands Green, and with the money left in the kitty a new exhaust could free up the Rover V8 even further (K&N’s finest doing that job up front).
Because that’s what a convertible is all about, isn’t it? Embracing the experience, hearing an engine all around, being at one with the drive and your surroundings. And I’ll hear no argument on this: there isn’t a powertrain more evocative for the money than a V8. There will be more agile and dynamic sports cars in this selection, no doubt, but for sheer enjoyment - the joy that comes just from the process of driving with the roof down - I think you’ll struggle to beat a £10,995 Chimaera. See you in the beer garden.
MB
My first taste of MX-5 ownership wasn’t a good one. I’d been hankering after a budget NB for some cheap summer fun and Sam Liggett was quick to point out a fine-looking example for sale in the classifieds. Naturally, I bought the first car I saw and neglected to spend an appropriate amount of time researching the damn thing compared to how much time I’d spend driving it - which is unlike me.
Low and behold, a month into ownership I discovered the sills had been stuffed with cardboard and covered in filler, albeit quite convincingly. I spent a lot of money fixing it, none of which I recovered in the resale. But I wasn’t left with a bitter aftertaste because, put simply, the MX-5 transformed how I drove; it’s a car for enjoying at a slower pace, taking in the countryside around you rather than trying to make quick progress. Every journey felt special.
A late facelift NC has been on my shortlist for a few years now and is where my money would be going. All of the 2.0 models came with a limited-slip differential as standard and the folding hardtop would be good for year-round use. The leftover budget could be spent on a quality coat of underseal, as even the third generation of MX-5 has been unable to escape the dreaded tin worm…
BL
Unusually, I'm going to side with Matt Bird on this one. While there is obvious appeal to zapping round the countryside in something with only four cylinders and very little mass, it isn't the only path to open-top enlightenment. Quite often the feel of the breeze on your face and a V8 in your ears is all you really need. Especially if said V8 is on the large side and unencumbered with turbochargers. And shoehorned into something of modest scale.
I am of course referring to the SLK55 AMG, a car endowed with a 5.4-litre engine and not a huge amount of chassis talent. But that's beside the point - if you want handling finesse, buy the Elise - the SLK is about rocket sledging down lonely straights and then easing inconspicuously through town. It doesn't have the look or the presence of the Chimaera, but nor will it require an inordinate amount of TLC to keep it roadworthy. Follow the service schedule (as this one claims to have done) and the 5.4 is solid.
The mounts it's attached to are famously less robust - in fact, the weight of the V8 is hard on everything ahead of the A pillar - but this one has only covered 49,000 miles in 15 years so let's assume it's in fine fettle. Metallic Cubanite Silver might not be to everyone's taste (the SLK cuts a much finer figure in black) and millennial Mercedes' interiors don't date particularly well. But you're mostly buying it for the V8 anyway. And automated access to the sky.
NC
The drop-top variant of a car is almost always the heavier and bendier option. But in some cases, being topless aids performance. Take the S1 Lotus Elise, which thanks to the absence of a hard top and pretty much anything else not deemed necessary, weighs 755kg. That figure was mad in 1996, but in 2020? Battery packs weigh more. So the S1 gets my vote here, being the purest offering in the segment. Plus, admittedly, later Elises don’t scrape under the £15k mark...
The S1 is really very special, though, having re-launched the Lotus way. With a mid-mounted 120hp 1.8-litre K-series driving the rears through a tight five-speed manual gearbox atop a bonded aluminium chassis, it’s as rigid and light as they came this side of a carbon fibre tub, delivering a 5.5 second 0-60mph time Caterham levels of engagement through the bends.
I also think S1s are getting prettier with every passing year and this one particularly so, bringing appreciating value potential with it. Not that I’d be keeping it as a garage queen. Nope, I’d be out every sunny evening with the roof off, soaking up Hethel’s wonderful two-seater. Nothing else comes close in that regard.
SS
I've recently gone through this buying criteria in real life, albeit with a far more modest budget. My task was to source a four-seater convertible Shed with Isofix, so I'm now the proud owner of a 2005, 80k-mile 1.8T Saab 9-3, purchased for £900, which I think is tough to beat for the money.
Now with £14,100 more in Monopoly money it's all the more complicated; as this list demonstrates there's a lot you can get at the price point. For authenticity I again restricted my choice to a four-seater drop-top (if I pulled up at home with a two-seater roadster nowadays I'd likely have to sleep in the thing).
Initially reluctant to choose a BMW for the second week running, it was impossible to resist this M3; a two-owner car with a full BMW service history and just 67,000 miles isn’t to be sniffed at, especially as one of the cheaper E93s out there. M3 ownership is still a box I need to tick, and although my preference would be for a manual coupe this still retains 90 per cent of the E92’s look with the roof up; unlike the 911 equivalent, which looks more like a bathtub with a one-man tent balanced on top.
I’d happily live with the scuttle shake and the added weight because this M3 wouldn't be a track toy requiring razor sharp handling - instead, like most convertibles, it would be used as a second car, a countryside cruiser with plenty enough power to overtake the Hampshire tractors and a deliver a 'roof down enhanced' 8,000rpm V8 soundtrack to its occupants. All of that for £15k? A bit of a bargain, I’m sure you’ll agree…
SL
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