1960 Daimler Dart retractable hard top - GIF

[old kodger]

Total necessity for UK cars from the mid-sixties 'til late seventies - as demanded by the quality, craftsmanship and reliability of their products:
Most of the ingoing parts needed to be serviced or changed, a little too often to many's taste.
OTOH: They also rusted pretty easily and well, so not many lasted ten years anyhow.

Their "Bobbies" back then had some cool rides just to show off and prove their absolute authority, the PANDA cars:



“A decision was made to take economical cars like the Ford Anglia and BMC Mini and give them a distinctive white band on both the front doors and the roof. As black was the first basic colour used they looked like Panda bears. For this reason we came up with the acronym “Patrol And Neighbourhood Deployment Area” Cars, although when Ford offered a substantial discount on their Anglia range we could only get them in pale blue and white."

It gets worse: 1970 Mini Cooper Police car at an auction: https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25450/lot/22/

Whilst I don't know how much they sold their mini cooper S for, the Bracknell police (Berkshire UK )boasted that when they sold it it had done some 300000 miles and earned a pound a mile in service.

[Moldyjim]

It's also been done much better over the years.
https://drivemag.com/red-calipers/a-...p-convertibles

And the ones out now are even slicker.
https://www.autobytel.com/convertibl...tibles-116340/


If I had the money, I'd buy my wife one of the new Miata hardtop convertibles to go with her 1999 Miata. It's her baby. We bought a hardtop for it, but it's a two person job to take it off and on.

[WmRMeyers]

It's also been done much better over the years.
https://drivemag.com/red-calipers/a-...p-convertibles

And the ones out now are even slicker.
https://www.autobytel.com/convertibl...tibles-116340/


If I had the money, I'd buy my wife one of the new Miata hardtop convertibles to go with her 1999 Miata. It's her baby. We bought a hardtop for it, but it's a two person job to take it off and on.

SWMBO wants a 1955 Mercedes 300SL with the gull wing doors. Last time I priced one was when we were new-wed, and I found one with only 100K miles. It was also $100K. In 1982.

[Moldyjim]

If only you could find one for that price in todays market...

[Frank S]

I've owned a total of 4 convertibles through the years the first was a 66 SS396 Impala in 1972 the next was a 72 Vete in 1973 the next was an 88 Olds 88 the last was a 78 Toyota Land cruiser in 1996 all were fun to own except for the vete to this day I still can't rationalize what possessed me to buy that thing it was just like the Bass masters classic bass boat I bought in 1985 I had 2 very happy days with both of them the day I bought either one and the day I conned someone else into owning them

[Moldyjim]

I forgot to mention, a couple of months after I traded the GTO in, I saw the guy who bought it from the dealership.
He said he blew the engine two weeks after he got it. so there is that...

[Moldyjim]

My wife's Miata is my second ragtop, My first was a 1967 Pontiac GTO, 400 Cid, 3 speed automatic with all the options.
Traded it in on a Toyota Celica, nice reliable car.

Like a fool I sold it back in the early eighties. If I had kept the GTO, I could have paid for thirty years of storage for it, and still came out with money ahead.
But I got tired of working on it after moving to Oregon from California. It seemed like there was always something that needed to be fixed. Mostly minor stuff, but some things I couldn't afford to fix at the time. Plus the roof leaked, and it was difficult to find a place to keep it inside or to work on it. Apartment living isn't very conducive to DIY automotive maintenance.

Rain wasn't a problem in Orange county, hell the windshield wipers didn't work and I never needed them until I moved to Oregon.

The only thing that makes it okay, is my older brother has it worse. He sold his 1957 Thunderbird for $1000 because he couldn't keep it running.
The guy who bought it, replaced the secret fuel pump inside the gas tank and it ran perfectly a day after he bought it.
My brother didn't know the second fuel pump was there and was causing all the issues.

He's really kicking himself for that one.

[DIYSwede]

Ahem:



Bavarian police seems to have had Mini Coopers for a few years now too...
https://www.bmwblog.com/2018/02/06/m...all-car-fleet/