Convertible Review

Finding the best (and worst) convertibles

Some car owners keep convertibles as second vehicles, ready to pull them out of the garage and put the top down in the summer months, inevitably putting their drop-tops away for the winter season. However, with the growing availability of all-weather retractable hardtop convertibles, more car buyers are choosing a drop-top as their primary year-round vehicle. This report focuses on convertibles that are not necessarily high-performance sports cars. However, you'll find that some of the models in our companion report on sports cars come in convertible versions too.

Overall, we found the best reviews for convertibles at Edmunds.com, where editors test most cars on the market. Reviews here are pleasantly devoid of the kind of flowery elation found in some other car reviews. Instead, the reviews are balanced and practical. Edmunds.com has a specific category for convertibles -- another plus.

ConsumerReports.org's convertible reviews are comprehensive and unbiased, providing a host of useful information such as historical reliability data and owner satisfaction. We also found thoughtful reviews at established car magazines (Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Automobile Magazine, Road & Track) and newer automotive websites (TheTruthAboutCars.com, Autoblog.com, LeftLaneNews.com, Jalopnik.com). We turned to government and nonprofit groups -- the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) -- for tests of fuel economy and safety.

Budget-minded convertible buyers might be tempted by the cheap, fuel-efficient Smart ForTwo Cabriolet (*Est. $16,990 to $20,990), but crash tests show that North America's tiniest car can't protect its occupants as well as normal-size cars. For example, in a frontal crash test against a midsize Mercedes, the 8-foot-10-inch-long 2009 Smart coupe "went airborne and turned around 450 degrees," the IIHS reports.

Although the Smart convertible makes several reviewers' lists of top fuel-efficient convertibles, reputable sources say it just isn't a very good car in general. Its automatic transmission jerks around so much that it actually jolts testers and hurts their necks. Critics say the Smart car accelerates painfully sluggishly from a dead stop, and it's easily buffeted by any gust of wind or even by passing 18-wheelers. If you're in the market for a tiny, fuel-efficient drop-top, the Mini Cooper convertible (*Est. $23,900 to $34,300) "is vastly more entertaining and higher in quality," Edmunds.com says.

A usable backseat is a rarity in convertibles at any price point, so shoppers may be drawn toward two retractable-hardtop models: the Pontiac G6 convertible (*Est. $31,870 to $32,300) and the Chrysler Sebring convertible (*Est. $27,790 to $35,125), both of which can accommodate two adults in the backseat without folding them into origami shapes, testers say.

However, that's one of the very few nice things most reviews have to say about these two cars. Not only is the Sebring convertible "monumentally boring," Edmunds.com says, but it's also unreliable. The Pontiac G6 fares just about as badly, and it falls short in some crash tests (it's now in its final year, dying with the Pontiac brand). Some reviews recommend the relatively roomy and crashworthy Volkswagen Eos (*Est. $31,615 to $35,200) instead, but it too gets low marks for reliability. Unfortunately, reviews say other four-seat convertibles suffer from very tight backseats, until you step up to the premium segment.