Car and Motorcycle

Some domestic cats regard parked convertibles as feline hammocks, a great place to nap while depositing furry evidence. Pro detailing tip:
Stash one of those sticky lint rollers in the glove box alongside the sunblock, bandana, and hairbrush. Especially if the convertible has a nice fabric top like that on the BMW 228i tested here. Pet hair clings to this quality woven fabric more than it does to cheaper vinyl tops.

Sleepy cats may be disappointed to learn that convertible sales are down 44 percent in the past decade, with only 1 in 100 U.S. buyers opting for folding roofs, per research firm IHS. Not even wider availability of the retractable-hardtop variant stemmed the global tide—from a 21st-century peak of more than 800,000 units in 2004, worldwide convertible production is down to 450,000 or so, a meager 0.7-percent share of the market. Americans and Europeans have embraced crossovers (the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet sadly failed to establish a beachhead for softtop crossovers) while buyers in the Middle East, India, and China have shown ostensibly zero interest in top-down motoring. Fears of sun-induced melanomas and breathing urban air that hasn’t first passed through a charcoal filter probably contribute to the shift in preferences. Whatever the reasons, mass-market standard-bearers like the Toyota Camry Solara and the Chrysler 200 (née Sebring) convertible have gone out of production.

In the 1970s and ’80s, too, eulogies for the convertible were as common as black cat hairs on white linen trousers, so let us not rush to doomsaying. Sales could well rebound as those who remember the ’70s move into retirement age. Droptops make us think about being young, single, and free, but in reality most buyers are empty-nesters and retirees from cold-weather states now living in the Sunbelt. That windblown hair? It’s probably gray.

Long gray locks would look good behind the wheel of this BMW, handsomely turned out with Glacier Silver paint ($550) and a Coral Red Dakota leather interior highlighted with brushed-aluminum and gloss-black trim. Prices start at $38,895 and even this heavily optioned example’s $53,870 sticker barely breaks into the price zone of a larger 428i convertible with the same turbocharged four-cylinder/eight-speed automatic powertrain (starting price: $49,745). Those figures are for 2015 models like the tested car, although BMW has already adjusted content and revised stickers upward on both 2-series and 4-series models for 2016.