Where Have All the Convertibles Gone?

Few automotive experiences are more satisfying than a convertible cruise — yet fewer and fewer droptop options are available on the market every year.

This year alone, we’ll see a handful disappear from the market: the BMW Z4 and Lexus LC are already out of production, and BMW’s 4 Series convertible is likely to roll off into the sunset soon. Enthusiasts like to decry the lack of manual transmissions in the new car market, but a fabric roof is rarer: there are just three choices under $50,000 today: the Ford Mustang, Mazda MX-5, and Mini Cooper Convertible.

Cars Are the Exception Now

This wasn’t always the case. In the 1990s, convertibles were everywhere: even something as humble as the Pontiac Firefly offered an open-air experience. For every size of car, there were at least a few convertible options.

Nowadays, Canadians don’t even have that full range of car sizes, droptop or otherwise. The rise of the crossover SUV has shrunk the market share of cars: in June 2026, Canadians bought 26,106 new cars out of 190,167 total vehicle sales, or just 13.7 per cent of the total. That’s a drop from 14.3 per cent a year ago; go back a further decade, and cars had 37.5 per cent of the market; in 2005, it was a little over half.

(Yes, you can get something like a Jeep Wrangler or Ford Bronco and still have an open-air experience. No, it’s not the same.)

It’s no shock that SUVs have dominated the sales charts of the 2020s. It’s part of a wider shift in mindset across the whole industry: commodification.

Commodification of Cars

“The car market has evolved to be the least emotional new car marketplace it has ever been,” says Daniel Ross, director of strategic market insights at Canadian Black Book. Ross cites rising car prices and reduced affordability as two primary culprits, factors that shouldn’t surprise anybody who has walked into a dealership in the past few years. It’s why money matters are the first and second considerations we suggest when new-car shopping.

As vehicle payments have become a higher proportion of household expenses, we’ve seen cars become more appliance-like. Ross specifically cites the Tesla Model 3 as one such example — the number of white-painted rideshare examples in any major city is a testament to that — but it’s an industry-wide shift. Buyers want one car to do most tasks well, and we know how the back half of the “jack of all trades” quote goes. While some people use “appliance” as a pejorative, it doesn’t have to be a bad word. Folks who recognize their cars as straightforward tools are just being honest, and we appreciate that.

But it doesn’t leave much room for more emotional purchases, and convertibles are definite heart-over-head propositions. “Inherently these vehicles are the least equipped for inclement weather (meaning they can't be driven as often), they are usually at the top rung of price for any platform they are shared with, and they continuously lose out to their coupe-styled relatives,” explains Ross. In a country that spends a significant portion of the year under threat of snow, a convertible is the equivalent of tying one hand behind your back.

It gets worse. Building cars is pricier than before, and convertibles compound that. Ross points to the added safety and testing requirements of convertibles over their coupe siblings, and notes that even dedicated convertible-only models, like Mazda’s MX-5 — the most affordable convertible on the market — are unlikely to be profit drivers. This is the case even though droptops command price premiums, and not just at purchase time, either.

Drop the Tops and the Value

Convertible ownership costs everyone involved. The manufacturer spends more on development, which is passed on in the form of those inflated sticker prices. The team at CBB have seen that convertibles retain a lower percentage of their value on the used market compared to coupes, so buyers pay for the privilege of open-air motoring.

“This is what we call a lose-lose proposition,” says Ross.

Convertibles are in what could best be described as a negative feedback loop, too. Robby DeGraff, manager of product and consumer insights at AutoPacific, shared data from the company’s latest Future Attribute Demand Study, which polled nearly 20,000 new-car shoppers who plan on buying a vehicle in the next three years. When considering all brands, sizes, and powertrains, and adding in sports car convertibles, 27 per cent of those polled said they would consider a convertible. However, once consumers start narrowing down the hypotheticals to the vehicles they would intend to buy, convertibles drop to just 3.2 per cent.

Maybe it’s because a quick look at the market shows just how few options there are. These intenders expect to spend, on average, roughly $56,000 (USD; $77,811 CAD at current exchange rates). That still leaves them with the three Ms: Mustang, Mini, MX-5. All very different from one another and quite good too, but in their own very specific ways, leaving big gaps in the market. Fewer folks actually buying convertibles means fewer automakers building convertibles, which means… you get the idea.

Not All Doom and Gloom

If this is sounding a little dire, there are (small) comforts to be had. For starters, if you’re willing to look at lightly used options, there are thousands of droptop choices on AutoTrader. The same reasons that make convertibles a challenge to first owners make them excellent deals for second owners. Those who do stick to new will find much more refinement from modern cloth tops than anything from the ‘90s.

Millennials are accused of killing a lot of things: sex, drugs, democracy itself. But of that admittedly small AutoPacific intender group (the 3.2 per cent), a full 44 per cent are those born between 1981 and 1996.

There’s an admittedly more hypothetical solution, too: the promise of electric vehicles is a scalable foundational architecture (the “skateboard”) with the ability to easily drop different bodies on top. As EVs pick up market share, we could see more than the one electric convertible currently on the market (the Maserati GranCabrio Folgore).

Whatever the solution, it’s still obvious that convertibles are big fun. Droptop vehicles tickle the senses in ways no other cars can. They aren’t cheap nor or they the rational, efficient choice, but in an age where rational efficiency is homogenizing what we watch, what we listen to, and even how we think, there’s appeal in something a little left-field.