According to VWVortex, 1,461 Etienne Aigner Edition 1991 Golf Cabrios were sold in North America. I found one in a Northern California junkyard last year, and now here’s another. You’d think such an exclusive, one-year-only Golf would have legions of collectors driving the values well above scrap price, but the junkyard evidence shows otherwise. (Read More…)

Opel green lighted their new convertible. It is based on the current Astra and will be built in their Polish plant in Gliwice , Automobilwoche [sub]. In Gliwice, the car can be built alongside of other Astra models. According to Opel, the car should go on sale in 2013.

Foundation for the new ragtop is Opel’s compact car architecture, which underpins the Astra, the Astra Sports Tourer and the future Astra GTC.  The new convertible take te place of the Astra Twin Top with its foldable hard top.

Also scheduled for 2013: A new sub-subcompact.  And a homegrown version for the Agila, which currently is a rebadged Suzuki. Volkswagen wants Suzuki for itself.

I see a fair number of total beater 1960s Detroit convertibles on the street, and nicely restored examples show up from time to time, but I’m not sure what to make of this clean-but-nowhere-near-show-quality Impala SS parked on a freezing night in downtown Denver. (Read More…)

Volkswagen’s budget knows no bounds lately. With sales on a roll and VW picking up Porsche for a song, they decided to cast off their normal “nobody” booth babes for Heidi Klum to flog the lightly redesigned EOS convertible. This seems like an odd choice to me since the EOS has long been known as the hairdresser’s convertible, so bringing in a german model and fashionista isn’t really butching up the place. Still, the new EOS will continue to thrill the ladies with the same 2.0T engine now mated to a DSG gearbox. For those out there that can’t figure out how to park in normal perpendicular parking spots, the new EOS will do that for you. How’s that for butch?

Nothing makes news at GM like revealing poorly kept rumors. And so it is today at the first day of the LA Auto Show. GM took the sheet off of a very dirty Chevy Volt that had driven across country from Detroit to LA (yawn) and presented it as it this was some modern miracle. Almost left as an afterthought was the real gem of the morning for Chevrolet: the Camaro Convertible. Finally revealed, the chop top seems to do justice to the highly styled form, interior components are unchanged as is the drivetrain. Expect to see these popping up in your local Chevy store soon as well as discount rental car counters at an airport near you.

Mad cars are what make this industry fun. The second generation Renault Megane had a polarising effect; people either hated it (me) or loved it (the others). And people did love it. Very much. Then there was the Fiat 600 Abarth, where they tweaked the engine (which was in the boot) so much, it could only stay cool with the boot lid open. When they found out the car could go faster with the boot lid open, Fiat sold the car with the boot lid permanently open! Then we come to Nissan. While quite not in the same league as the Abarth, Nissan has had some pretty wild cars. The Cube and the Juke certainly stay seared in one’s mind. And it looks like they’ll be doing it again. (Read More…)

There are certain phrases that, when heard in the proper context, signal that one has truly arrived in life. Phrases like “your table is waiting,” and “would you like a drink before we take off?” clearly belong in this comforting category. Strangely, however, the phrase “welcome to Beverly Hills, here are the keys to your Lexus IS250C,” does not.

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Welcome to yellow convertible week at CC. Intimations of summer are in the air, and what better way to immerse oneself into its mood-enhancing, Vitamin-D generating goodness than in a convertible, especially in a yellow one? We’re going to sample a highly diverse lot, starting with the smallest and ending with the biggest. And for true top-down motoring, its hard to be in something with four much smaller than this Metro. (Read More…)

John Steel, 42. Resident Nurburgring hotlapper, amateur race driver and menace of all slow moving objects. On weekends, he likes thrashing his Porsche 997 Mark II GT3-RS around the local track. Karen Levy, 25. Professional mall stormer, party queen and dedicated student. Enjoys a fine café-latte by the Mediterranean Sea and the gentle spring breeze while driving her Fiat 500C.

Two people, two separate sides of the automotive equilibrium. This time, driving around the peaceful and slow moving streets of southern Tel Aviv, amongst buzzing restaurants and overcrowded coffee shops, I get to explore the latter. Meet the Fiat 500C: the open-air sibling of the 500 retro car, and an inevitable win of form over function.
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After much back-and-forth, it seems that the Camaro convertible is a sure thing after all, as this picture has surfaced at the Camaro’s Facebook page. Would you friend it?

After early versions of the 2010 Mustang Convertible were caught crushing crash dummy heads, Ford re-worked its retro cruiser for a less “mind-blowing” crash test performance. If you’ve got a 2010 ‘stangvertible in mind, you might want to make sure it was built after December of last year.

Unless all the reviews you’ve read about the 2010 Ford Mustang appear in publications like Mustang Monthly, you probably know that the car is (a) an evolutionary improvement of the hold-over SN197 chassis and (b) still far from perfect. After a conflicting afternoon with a beautiful Red Candy Metallic 2010 Mustang GT Convertible [not pictured], I feel compelled to say something about how the Ford Mustang is currently situated in both the market and in our minds.
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The old Saab was virtually perfect. 1988 900 model. Turbo. Convertible. It was as if the vehicle had been taken through a 21 year time warp right to my lot. The prior owner had become tired of frequent $85/hr fixes and now needed a four door instead of two (in Orwellian speak). He traded it straight up for a 1990 Volvo 240 that had also been cared for so that part of my work was done. But what next? This beautiful red Saab had only 150k original miles and had plenty of life left thanks to a healthy maintenance regimen and the use of OEM parts. The owner was downright wonderful and it was now my responsibility to make sure this level of care carried forward to the new owner… and hopefully beyond.
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