Death of the Convertible BBC

General Discussion Forums Car Talk
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On the BBC news this morning.

On i-Player

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Irrelevant political comment removed.

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Nice to see one of our OC groups featured!

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I saw that report and thought that it was extremely biased. It gave the impression that only older convertibles are on the road, and absolutely zero mention of the ND and its popularity, also zero mention of the MX-5 club and its enthusiastic members.

I really wanted to email a comment, but am in a hospital room with sporadic connection.

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I agree that no mention of the MX5OC was a foolish admission or the strength of the members on here.

However the SMTT sales figures were quite staggering in their drop of available models and UK sales, but again no mention of how many were of the UKs biggest selling sports car

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ā€œGets meā€ driving gloves thatā€™s flip flops and socks :joy:

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Eh- it was a general interest story, with no more reason to mention this ownerā€™s club than any other, such as the Lotus Seven Club and the sundry Porsche clubs etc. The only people I see in drop tops now are fifty plus , who can remember when convertibles were much more common and desirable . Society has changed too - people spend more time at home thanks to TV streaming and home deliveries - and hence pubs , restaraunts and other common spaces have declined in use. In a convertible you are on public view and that has reducing appeal for many. Furthermore, convertibles were often seen as fast, potent cars in the Sixties (think Cobra, TR4 series, Elan and E-Type dhcs) but few convertibles are especially fast now , and are often seen as effete paper tigers. Stuff changed when an RS2000 would annihilate an MGB and the Peugeot /Golf GTis just about anything on the road at the time.

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Yes I agree with all that but they could have shown the ND and included something likeā€¦ā€œThe Mazda MX-5 however, is the most popular convertible and is still being produced with more than a million sold to date, and with a new model on the horizon, it looks like the convertible car is not finished yet.ā€

That at least would have been more "balanced " :thinking:

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Itā€™s an awful article. Like you mentioned, ā€˜balanceā€™ might have been a good thing.

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It just struck me as a bit of a non-story. Iā€™m just waiting for the news piece to come out about how the roads are full of oversized & uninteresting plastic boxes on wheels that will be in the bin within 5-10 years. But I donā€™t think that will happen :wink:

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It was part of a breakfast news programme. Say no more! :stuck_out_tongue:

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I disagree - out of 2 million cars sold in the UK in 2025 , 1600 were MX-5s. 0.08 %-not sure how you ā€˜balanceā€™ that . Looks like the decline of drop tops to me ā€¦ but who cares ? Nowt wrong with exclusivity :grinning_face:

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Sounds painful!

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Weā€™ve just bought a Saab convertible for my wife as sheā€™s always wanted one. We will be a 2 convertible family as of Saturday!

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I thought the same thing - Sporadic Connection sounds nasty. :smiley:

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Saw this live yesterday and concur with the majority of the posts above :handshake:

My thought at the time wasā€¦

'Yippee .the fewer that know about the magic of the MX-5 the betterā€¦dedicated owners only please :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: ā€™

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Hope your sparodic connection clears up :smiling_face_with_sunglasses::wink::face_with_head_bandage:

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Do i detect a note of sarcasm? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Anyway, Stage one of the sporadic connection appears to have gone into remission and we are out of the hospital. Stage two starting next week. :crossed_fingers:

Our thanks to all for your concern. :heart:

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Eh- it was a general interest story

Agreed, just a novelty item.

A slightly more in depth treatment might be interesting. Iā€™m surprised at the volume of sales as recently as 2005 - but there was a bit of a fashion for convertibles based on hatchbacks and saloons like the 206, 306, Ka, Beetle, Saab 900, MINI, Audi A4 which seems to have died out.

MX-5 sales have fallen slightly less but there has been a fairly sustained downward trend from nearly 10,000 registrations in 2007 to 1,600 in 2024. About 30,000 Mk 4ā€™s have been sold in the UK, so about 3,000 a year average.

Convertibles are a luxury and a lot changed after the financial crisis. Then later, Covid had a big impact which has not left us. Itā€™s not a phenomenon that exists in isolation.

As far as changes in the car industry go, I think weā€™ll see much bigger changes very soon. Our grandchildren will not experience the ā€˜golden ageā€™ of motoring as we have.

Iā€™m keeping my MX-5 for as long as they let me drive and I can get in and out of it. *
*

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I love those cars.