26 ~ North Shore News — Friday, July 28, 2000

Ragtops reclaim

Doug Williamson
Contributing Writer
THE time: August
1968.

The place: Sauble “Beach,
Ont. A dashboard radio is
blasting our 50,000 watts of
Motown = frony Windsor,
Ont.’s CKLW-AM radio.

And the car: Dad's 1964
Mercury Meteor convertible,
black with red interior — blis-
tering hot under the sun, but
who cares? — with dual
exhausts and a 390-cubic-inch
V8 under the hood.

A 16-year-old driver with
that car on that beach was in

“heaven. If you have similar

memories, you probably
mourned the death of the
convertible in the 1970s,
when concerns about safety of
open-top cars reduced sales
and that big old gas-cating
Merc went the way of the
Brontosaurus.

But the ragtop is back.

More and more carmakers

are offering open-top cars
from convertibles to coupes, as
baby boomers try to return to
their youth and have fun
behind the wheel.

Cal Marcoux of Eastway
Toyota in Windsor says most
convertible buyers are “30-
plus.”

“The first (one) I sold, all
the lady had to do was look at
the picture,” he chuckled,
recalling the Solara convertible
that so quickly captivated the
customer.

“The convertible buyer
now is not really the younger
person,” he added. “They
have to massage their ego a lit-
de.”

From compact to ultra lux-
urious, there’s always been an
appeal for open cars, whether
the fabled English sports cars
of the ‘60s or the zood old
domestics which captured the
spirit of youthful generations
for several decades.

You. can spend about
$25,000 on a Mustang or

Ragtops by the numbers

~ Preduction rate of 1998
 U.S./Canada convertibles (total
model production)

Chevrolet Cavalier: 5,804
238,861)

Chevrolet Camaro: 3,858
(89, 219)

hevrolet Corvette: 12,090

: 29,810)

ontiac Sunfire: 6,104 (90,622)
Pontiac Firebird: 2,119 (32,157)
“Ford Mustang: 35, 447 (143,972)
Chrysler Sebring: 50,814
» (85,924) °
Dodge Viper: 74 (922)
~ Volkswagen Cabrio: 12, 048

M2 248)

MW 23: 22,790 (22, 790) .

~ Perceniag 8 of convertibles!
“caupes by model i in 1999 (GS. )

Mazda Miata: 100%
Mercedes SL: 100%
Mercedes SLK: 100%
Porsche Boxter: 100% :
Plymouth Prowier: 100%
Volkswagen Cabrio: 100%
Jaguar XK: 97.5%
Chrysler Sebring: 63%
Porsche 911: 57.2%
Toyota Celica: 50.7%
Dodge Viper: 47.6%
Mercedes CLK: 45.2%
BMW 23: 39%

Saab 9-3: 34%

Chevrolet Corvette: 33.5%
Ford Mustang: 27.1%
Pontiac Frebird: 10.4%
Chevrolet Camaro: 7.8%
Pontiac Sunfire: 4.8%

_ Chevrolet Cavalier: 2.8%

Source: Ward's 1999 Yearbook

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TALKING
YELLOW PAGES

3" Pomberton, North Van. (5 biks South of Marine Drive)

LOCATON ATE

ne ihel

$530,000 on Rolls-Royce, but
the appeal i is all the same.

“You get everyone from
the teenage years right up te
the empty-nester,” said Rose

City Ford sales manager Jerry
Hartford. “The majority of the
buyers are the baby-boomers.”

“P can’t keep convertibles
in stock, I can’t keep them on

the ground.”

If his large Windsor dealer-
ship gets five or six a week
from the manufacturer, he sells
them within days.

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OT

i spot on the road

Last year he was swamped
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Ford dealers looking for rag-
tops, but “we | won't give 2
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The alt eet ix spost sadn, 3800 VS supercharged engine, leather sport hackct ,
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