- Baby it's cold outside

Grab a Cheap Convertible & (Maybe) Make Some Money This Summer

Yes, it's cold and miserable outside. So grab a convertible while they're cheap. And maybe sell them for profit..

1y ago
5.6K

Spring will soon be here which means that DriveTribe will soon be full of reviews of the latest convertibles for you to drool over, and possibly drop some cash on over the summer. There will also be lists of the prettiest Italian drop tops, articles asking you to choose between cabriolet and targa versions of Porsches, Ferraris, Bentleys and Maseratis.

And then there will be the lists of cars under a grand (that’s £1000 for the non Brits among us), carefully curated from AutoTrader and eBay, promising the joys of wind in your (well not in my case) hair. Indeed, Top Gear has recently tried to convince us that the best convertible you can buy for under £600 (from a list that also included a 1998 Mercedes SLK and a Chrysler Lebaron) is a 1996 Ford Escort. (Spoiler: they're wrong, despite the fact it can drive in the sea; I'd take both the Merc and the Lebaron over the Escort)

There are certainly a lot of options out there for those who want a budget convertible and many of them have doubtlessly been covered elsewhere on DriveTribe. So why have I written this article? Well, these are cars I’ve actually owned, either for a while or that I bought to make minor improvements to before selling on over the last few years, including some usual, and some unusual, suspects, and I thought I'd share them with you.

I should note, all of these cars were bought with at least 3 months MOT (except the penultimate one) and could be driven away requiring for the most part minimal cosmetic and minor mechanical work, if any, and I owned the majority of them while I had a part time traders insurance policy that cost me £900 a year.

I'm definitely not suggesting that they're the best convertibles out there, but some of them are much better than you'd expect..

Toyota MR2 2.0 GTi-16 SW20 - £700

I bought my second MR2 (a REV1) in 2011 for the princely sum of £700. For less than a grand you'll be looking at a REV1 or a REV2 version rather than more desirable and less wayard REV3s and up.

It was my first convertible, and I bought it to drive it, keeping it for over a year. My first MR2 was a sunroof version of the AW11, so not included here. And let’s get this out of the way, the SW20 is not as good. If your budget can stretch to a T Bar AW11 and you want a mid-engined car, buy the AW11. It's slower than the SW20, but, thanks to being lighter, an engine that revs to at least 7,500 rpm and less wayward handling, it's more fun to drive and thus the better buy, even if's a bit slower.

However, the SW20 is a fine-looking car that, treated with a degree of respect, is very fun to drive and plenty fast enough, even in non-turbo form, to have some fun. Including, if you're very brave (thanks to a propensity for snap oversteer), some sideways action, especially on roundabouts.

It's roomier than the AW11 and (you would most definitely want to avoid the eyes of the law for this) thanks to seat backs that move to preposterous angles, will carry 4 people in some discomfort; I had two passengers in the cabin (one on and one behind the seat) and another (who was 4'9) in the boot. Light up the rear end turning out of a junction and you'll be able to hear your most rearward passenger's protestations above the shriek of the engine that sits between you, even at 6,500 RPM.

The T-Bar roof isn't really the easiest to remove, especially if you want to put the panels (in the now rare as hens teeth covers), but if you're on your own they can be removed and stored behind the passenger seat at a set of lights without getting out of the car.

Ultimately, I sold the car for £300 after it failed it's second MOT with me, needing shock absorbers, a new catalytic converter and a rear brake disc, but it was a car I'd bought to drive rather than make money on.

Oh, and they look awesome covered in snow. Just saying! (But I don't recommend driving them in it!)

Ford StreetKa 1.6 - £350

Yes, OK, we're in the "hairdresser" arena here. But let me make the case for the StreetKa, which I bought to flip.

Leather seats come with bum warmers as standard and the Winter Edition should also include a hard top (though many owners will have sold them separately), but I don't know why you'd bother with one of those - they just stop you putting the roof down, which unfortunately in the StreetKa requires you get out of the car to do as although the release for the cover is electric, the mechanism is manual.

Before I sold it I did an audio upgrade and fixed the broken door handle and heater control valve, which are common problems across the Ka and Fiesta ranges, but cost less than £20 each to fix if you can do them yourself.

Despite some jibes from friends, the StreetKa is a fun car to drive with go kart-esque handling and it's reasonably quick, benefitting from the 1.6l engine also found in the SportKa, Fiesta and MK1 Focus, which is why rather than sell it on immediately I kept it for 6 months, eventually selling it in October (which is the really the wrong time to be selling a convertible) for £550. If I'd been sensible and sold it at the start of the summer, I'd probably have hit nearer £800.

Renault Megane MK1 1.6 - £125 (Yes, £125!)

Having owned a couple of two seater drop tops for my commute to work, I thought I'd try and convince my rather sceptical family that convertibles would work as family cars too. Given the scepticism, I didn't want to buy something expensive only to find out it would be hated so, enter this Renault Megane..

This is far and away the cheapest car on this list and if you've looked at the pictures you'll see why. Recorded as a CAT D insurance write off thanks to what was really quite minor damage to the driver's wing, I picked this up from a salvage yard for chump change. The roof wasn't working, but that turned out just to be a microswitch that had a broken retaining clip and was repaired in less than 5 minutes with electrical tape. And if you loosen the handbrake cable slightly so that's not applied on one click you can even put the roof up and down at low speeds.

Although the colour match on the front wing wasn't perfect, considering it only cost £25 posted and took an hour and half to replace, it was fun for a couple of weeks before I auctioned it on eBay and got £425 back for my trouble.

Certainly not the most inspiring car to drive (the three-door coupe version is much more rigid and it really shows in the corners) it did at least finally convince the family that a four seater convertible was a sensible car choice.

Volkswagen Beetle 1.6 - £375

Now I know a lot of people don't like the New Beetle. I happen to, though I'm the first to admit that with the roof down they look a bit like a pram. That said, the hard tops handle pretty well and with a 2.0 (one of which I ownstill ) or the sportier 1.8 turbo or 2.3 V5 under the hood they're reasonably quick too. So of course I went out and bought myself a 1.6 manual convertible as my first Bug!

So why did I buy a 1.6 Convertible I imagine you asking? Well, as you can see, it was cheap. This was another salvage yard buy, having been involved in a minor collision that dented one of the sills.

Ignoring that damage (because it was, as I said, minor) the car was a steal at £375 and (having removed much detritous from the mechanism including a large broken up candle and many empty plastic drinks bottles, crisp packets and sweet wrappers built up doubtlessly after years of doing the school run) the roof worked and it had plenty of MOT. The check engine light was on but having ascertained that it was showing a problem on an O2 sensor, this was quickly solved by running some fuel cleaner through it.

Running costs are also quite low on the 1.6 unless you thrash it (which you won't, because that's really not the point of these cars) and they're remarkably cheap to insure, even for new drivers).

After sorted the roof (free) and the O2 sensor issue (£5), swapping the stock radio out for a second hand Sony Bluetooth head unit (£25 on eBay) and replacing the wheels with a nice set of alloys with good tyres (£80) from the same scrap yard, I sold it (late in April) on after 2 months enjoyment for £800.

Vauxhall Tigra 1.4 - £810

Now, the Vauxhall Tigra probably isn't the fist car that springs to mind when looking for a convertible, especially for blokes. But hear me out. I picked up this rather smart looking 1.4l with minor rear bumper damage (which cost £80 to repair) from a salvage yard.

It's the most fuel-efficient convertible on this list despite weighing a whole lot more (thanks to the folding hardtop roof) than the StreetKa and is even cheaper than the Beetle to insure. While you certainly won't be winning any drag races or beating an MX5 on country lanes, it was reasonably good fun to drive and the quietest here with the roof up. I'd recommend finding a 1.8l if you're going to keep it, although this will make the insurance a LOT higher. It's probably one of the safest cars on this list being equipped with at least 4 airbags.

Unfortunately, thanks to having picked up a speeding ticket in it, I thought (wrongly it turned out) that I had to register the car in my name (it was showing as "in trade" at the time) and thanks to either the Post Office or DVLA losing the paperwork this meant that I ended up keeping the car for longer than I intended, resulting in my selling it at the end of the September rather than in mid-July, meaning I ended up losing £190 on the sale.

Mazda MX5 1.8 NB (MK2.5) - £550

Let’s be honest, no list of cheap convertibles would be complete without an MX5. Much has been made of the cutesy looks and the pure driving experience that results from simple but elegant design providing excellent handling. Getting your foot down on a twisty B road in an MX5 is one of those motoring delights everyone should experience; flicking it into bends and wringing every ounce of (admittedly fairly limited as standard) power as you make your way through the short-shift gearbox never fails to bring out a smile.

Now this was my second MX5 (I didn't bother with the first one as it was virtually identical to this one, which I regretted selling almost instantly and needed this one to scratch the itch) and it was an absolute bargain, having covered just 52,000 miles and being 13 years old when I bought it. It had some very minor rust on both rear wings and a scrape on the front bumper that were sorted for £300 and it went through the MOT only requiring the handbrake adjusting (very common on the MX5) and I added the 20th Anniversary leather seats for just £120 from eBay.

I kept it for 2 years until the MX5 itch was thoroughly scratched and managed to get £1,700 for it when I (rather sensibly) sold it at the ideal time to part with a convertible, on the May day bank holiday.

Saab 9-3 SE 2.0 Turbo - £675

I've been a fan of Saabs since my next-door neighbour took me out in his Saab 9000 Griffin in the mid-nineties. Having owned my own 9000 some years later I thought, having established my family thought that 4-seater convertibles were a good idea, that a 9-3 would good way to go.

The 150bhp 2.0 turbo I bought blind on eBay turned out to be a bit of bargain. The roof cover would stick sometimes when opening, but cutting down the rubber bump strips (much cheaper than replacing the offending universal joint and pins in the mechanism, which cost £150 for the kit and apparently take a specialist 4 hours to change) fixed that, and the only other issue on purchase was that the information display needed replacing. I managed to do that myself using parts from eBay costing £30, though it was very fiddly to do.

It handled well and was surprisingly quick, especially from 40-70mph but if you're looking for outright performance, I'd highly recommend the 2.3t, which is an excellent engine (my 9000 had it and it never missed a beat) offering up 230bhp. These do come with the risk of fractured bulkheads though, so be sure to inspect them carefully.

The things you should absolutely look out for are evidence of regular oil changes and, failing that, listen very carefully for any rattles from the engine bay which may indicate top end oil starvation caused by blockages in the oil pick up pipe, which are common on the 2.0 petrol engines. I'd owned the car for about 18 months before finding out about that the hard way, and I ended up weighing the car in for £140 at the local scrap yard minus it's wheels which I sold for £150 and the aforementioned information display which sold after a couple of months on eBay for £95, which at least minimised my losses.

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Comments (13)

  • I kept my MX5 for 7 years! Brilliant car! Of those, I'd be tempted to try a Saab Turbo for a bit, but the one I always wanted was the Toyota MR2. I almost bought a mint condition Mk1 a few years ago. The one I'd really like is the rare Mk1 Supercharged, but they are insanely rare. Jap import only. I wish I understood all the codenames you rattle off in the MR2 section! :(

      1 year ago
    • AW11 is the wedge shaped MK1; The SW20 is the MK2 pictured. There were a few revisions of the SW20 that had slightly different suspension setups and are particularly noticeable by the different rear lights and trim panel just below the boot...

      Read more
        1 year ago
    • I’d quite like mk2 turbo too

        1 year ago
  • MK2.5 MX5 is always a winner

      1 year ago
  • I may have to disagree on the LeBaron. They were a deeply tragic automobile. As was any early 90’s Chrysler.

      1 year ago
  • Brilliant post Alan! 😁

      1 year ago
  • @Tribe what's your favourite convertible?

      1 year ago
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