[NBF823]

"Longer hair on men and women became the trend and was hard to keep orderly in a convertible"

See, again those damn hippies ruining everything!

[MikeNoun]

Originally Posted by salem1912

Looks like a photo crop, besides who wants to see seven guys in a car?

Unfortunately, not a photo crop. People looked like that back then.

From what I recall, many Cadillac employees and VIP's had their picture taken in "the last one".

[fiedlerh]

The proposed federal rollover standards were never enacted. The reason cited by the December 1973 article in Road & Track look about right. Another couple of minor issues:
Convertibles where higher maintenance due to the soft top and they tended to leak water when they got old.
Petty crime in urban areas. All it took was a sharp knife to break into a convertible.

[red1975pacer]

1965 was the peak year for conv sales. somewhere around 4 percent of all cars sold. The federal rollover protection bill which was never passed , is the reason for the "rollbar" look on my AMC Pacer, which caused alot of weight to be added to the car and lead to poor gas mileage

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Unfortunately, not a photo crop. People looked like that back then.

From what I recall, many Cadillac employees and VIP's had their picture taken in "the last one".

Sidebar: you can see the body is on a cart and is about to make a turn, heading down the remainder of the "trim line".

Very good assembly plant photo giving some clues to the production process.

You can see the guy standing on the cart on the car in front of this one, going for a ride while doing whatever he gets paid to do. Supervisors standing around with neckties on and hands on hips watching the shenanigans. Scattered "man cooling fans" blowing all the hot air around, etc. Space saver spares line side awaiting installation into the trunks of vehicles.

K

[PonchoV8]

Originally Posted by craigs69

Wasn't it Ralph Nader that was pushing for legislation to ban convertibles during his time as a consumer advocate?

Yes, that's what I remember.

[einstein]

The joy of convertible cruising was diminished by the speeds attained on the interstates. Add the growing popularity of air conditioning for most folks and the weight penalty for muscle cars, these took a toll on drop top sales. Even top up noise at 75 was tiresome.

[John V.]

Being from a convertible family, I followed the demise of the convertible closely.

The proposed and never enacted roll over legislation was given as one reason, but if the convertible was still wildly popular, it still would have been worth producing them even if the proposed legislation WAS enacted.

The fact was, people had stopped buying them.

The Corvette convertible survived thru '75, as did the other full size GM converts.

The GM A body converts were gone after '72 and the F body convert died after '69.

The '76 Eldorado convert continued but GM was not going to have any convert with the downsized '77 model. So they "celebrated" with those final Bicentennial edition Eldos.

My Dad would have loved one in trade for his '72 Impala convertible but while I recall his Impala had stickered for about $4800, the Eldo convert was over $6K and IIRC, they were going for about twice the sticker.

Many guys bought them expecting quick appreciation and stored them, that is why so many low mile examples can still be found.

Truth be told, I think it was many years before you could expect to recoup your investment if you had paid twice sticker.

I didn't recall the attempted lawsuit, but doesn't surprise me.

It wasn't really that many years before Chrysler revived the convertible.

Most if not all were produced as conversions, so the premium was high as compared to what it cost when GM & others were producing them on the same line with coupes and sedans.

Attached is a pic I've posted before of my low mile '98 Sunfire 5 spd convert from '03. My oldest son and his buddy crawled out of it with hardly a scratch. I replaced it with a '99 Sunfire GT convert, also 5 spd but much higher miles. That's the one in the 2nd pic. Since sold, but enjoyed them for what they were.

[fiedlerh]

The Sunfire convert looks good. I wonder how many survive?

[MikeNoun]

I also seemed to recall a lot of fanfare when Chrysler (under Lee Iacocca) brought back the American convertible in 1982 under the LeBaron nameplate. I think the relative success of the 1982 LeBaron, and especially all the attention it received, was the catalyst for GM to bring back the convertible on the J-car with the 1983 Sunbird.

As a side note to this discussion about hardtops being cheaper, that's not always the case. For instance, the 1969 Corvette was actually cheaper as a convertible than as a hardtop (base price $4,438 for the convertible, and $4,781 for the coupe) because the coupe version came standard with t-tops.

[65blackplate]

I worked at the place that did the K car convertible (cars & concepts) we just cut the roof off the car with a saws all welded up a w/s header and a few other reinforcements and put a top on it
I am surprised that any are on the road still

[zeebo]

asc Maclaren did the sunbird convertible conversions in the 80s, hurst did the t tops for awhile, then in the mid 90s, the only car that you could get a factory installed moonroof was the caddy Fleetwood big car. the roadmaster and cars like my impy ss were farmed out to another company for the conversion. I have the paperwork for my impy (not in front of me) but the moonroof conversion was done in brighton mi.

[PonchoV8]

The speed limit was set at 55 mph in 1974. I don't think that was much of a contributing factor to declining convertible sales. AC? Probably was.

[2002Z4CSS]

Originally Posted by 67GTONUT

They thought they were going to ban them...... total scare that never happened.....
Late 70's ...... What made the 77 Eldorado Convertible worth silly money for a few years....

I beleive 1976 was the last year for the Eldorado convertible.

[400 4spd.]

Can you imagine the horror of the owner of the last Caddy convertible in that picture? The guy who owns the last convertible "that's never been sat in"?
400 butts before the tires went on it.

[salem1912]

Originally Posted by 400 4spd.

Can you imagine the horror of the owner of the last Caddy convertible in that picture? The guy who owns the last convertible "that's never been sat in"?
400 butts before the tires went on it.

Nothing beats that new car smell.

[Blue'69]

Convertibles were truly missed and lots of folks with T-tops that leaked were cussing them every day. Also it was along in the late 70's that new cars made that big jump from $7,000-7500 to all of the sudden hardly any below $10,000 bucks. I forgot what the carmakers blamed it on but it was very hard for some to spend 5 figures on a new car.

[John V.]

Inflation was double digit at the end of Carter's term, so that was the reason. Base and option prices were jumping, though I think the biggest jumps occurred in the early '80s, not the late '70s.

In '78/'79, the most popular cars were still being sold for well under $10K.

The Tenth Anniversary TA base sticker was over $10K, but the regular '79 TA base price was just over $6K. The '79 Corvette also broke the $10K base sticker mark. But it was hardly a basic transportation car.

My wife's '78 Cougar XR-7 302/auto sticker was $6649 including destination. Didn't have A/C and not much besides the XR-7 Décor Group but was a nice car for a young lady. With tax, she bought it for about $6K.

The very popular '78/'79 Cutlasses were selling for around $6K. Same for the Chrysler Cordoba.

A lot of '79 cars were still selling in the nominal $5K range. Honda Accord comes to mind.

My '80 Phoenix SJ 2 dr. base price was just under $5500, mine had over $3000 in options on a 2 page Window Sticker, totaled just under $8800 including destination. I forget the interest rate, but like inflation, rates were also high. I financed it for about $200/month for 48 months. But I loaded it far beyond the norm.

You could still get a lot of nice cars in '79 well equipped for less than $7000.

The only big jump in pricing that I remember was specifically for the Corvette. Before buying the Phoenix, I thought about the Corvette, it still seemed reasonable.

By the time the all new '84 came out, the Corvette had gone from being a somewhat affordable $10K in '79 to $20K in '84. I remember that being eye-popping, but I didn't realize the Corvette base price had been jumping by thousands every year.

[importsmasher]

I for one am very glad they stopped making convertibles in the 70s. My parents bought my 66 GTO new, and by the mid/late 70s it was just a used car, kind of getting beat up (my parents weren't the greatest at maintaining vehicles), and obviously a major gas guzzler. Several of my uncles (as well as others) were trying to buy it, and my dad was considering selling it. My mom wouldn't let him sell it because, "they don't make convertibles anymore." So the car sat in their garage until I was old enough to buy it (I knew I wanted it since kindergarten) in 1986. I have thanked my mom MANY times for not letting my dad sell it!

Importsmasher

[Greg Reid]

John V., you are about right on your timing for price jumps. I paid $11K for a new 1985 Buick Century with a 4 cylinder...White with beige interior. Worst piece of crap worthless car I've ever owned and the last new car I've ever bought.
5 years later I almost kissed a guy on the mouth for giving me $800 bucks for it. That's how glad I was to get rid of it.