Saturday 16 April 2016

Our constant fascination with convertibles

Summertime. Hot weather, ice creams, beaches and swimming in the sea, shorts and sandals... at least, that's the case if you live somewhere like Mauritius or Florida. Here in the UK, we do get summer weather, but only for about 3 days (give or take). So with that said, why are we as a nation so fascinated with convertible cars?

I used to love rollercoasters as a kid, but my parents would only take me on rainy days so that we wouldn't have to spend most of our time in the theme park queueing. It's the memory of rain lashing at my face like thousands of tiny daggers as the ride roared around the track that has convinced me that in such a wet country, a convertible really isn't the product for me. Looking at the figures, however, it seems a large portion of the country disagrees with me. We actually buy more convertible cars in the UK than Spain, Italy and France.  In fact, we only lose out on the top spot to our German friends over in the land of BMW and Audi.

There are 2 main reasons why Brits love a top-down car. The first one is the statement. When Audi conducted a poll of their convertible drivers, 46% of them admitted to being more interested in the style of it, than actually driving with the top down and the sights and smells that come with it. Looks like we're quite vain Britain! But that's not the only reason. When we get 3 proper sweltering days of true sunshine, we do 3 things. We get the shorts out of the box on top of our cupboards. We wrestle the BBQ out of the shed. And we get the roof down on our convertibles. It's important as a brit to ensure that we squeeze every last drop of British summer out that we can until we gallivant off to Spain in September-time.

I'm not a convertible convert yet, but I'm beginning to see the appeal. So what do you think? Are convertible cars a fancy addition to a collection worth having for the sunny days to really experience the drive and make it more exciting? Or do they have no place in a country where sunny days are as frequent as shooting stars? Let us know!


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