As I write this, a gentle fog has descended on the world outside my window. The leaves are brown and mostly now on the ground, crunching underfoot. Temperatures are well on their way to plunging to the frosty lows of winter and, at night, the pungent whiff of wood smoke carries on the breeze.
With barbecues and beach days a distant memory, the idea of buying a convertible will be miles away from most people’s minds at this time of year. But savvy buyers will know that that’s exactly why now is the perfect time to go shopping for a drop-top.
Many owners who’ve spent the sunnier months enjoying their cars will now be looking to get rid; with relatively few buyers in the market, that normally results in a surfeit of supply, just when demand is drying up.
That usually results in prices starting to slide around now, before they then bounce back the following year as the trend reverses. So, if you’ve been thinking about buying a convertible, now’s the time.
You don’t even need to spend all that much. Just £2,000 is enough to get you a sporty little two-seat roadster these days; an MG TF should be just the ticket. This much underrated successor to the MG F was prized for its balanced handling and rev-happy 1.8-litre engine, so for this money, it represents an absolute bargain.
Of course, there’s a catch: like the F, the TF’s engine was prone to head gasket failure. But many examples have had their gaskets replaced with strengthened items that do away with the issue, and the cars that have survived are usually pretty robust. I found a 2005 TF 135 with just 62,000 miles on the clock going for bang on the £2,000 mark on CarGurus.
With a £5,000 budget, your options ramp up somewhat further. How about a practical four-seat convertible in which the whole family can enjoy some top-down fun? That’s what the Volvo C70 delivers. And with the 2.3-litre T5 engine, it offers pretty gutsy performance, too.
The C70 isn’t a particularly agile car, but it is comfortable: a grand tourer, rather than an out-and-out sports car. And in SE Lux form with equipment splashed around its lavish cockpit, a luxurious one at that.
So a 2010 example with 87,000 miles and a full history going for £4,111 feels like a bargain: and according to the CarGurus deal rating, it is, coming in at £2,035 below its Instant Market Value (IMV).
Up the budget a bit more, and you can find yourself in truly glamorous environs. A BMW 640i SE Convertible would have set you back more than £65,000 when it was new in 2011; now, you can pick up the same car for £8,450, with a very reasonable 77,000 miles on the clock, and a full service history. That’s a £2,287 saving on its CarGurus IMV!
Yet the 640i still delivers the sort of barrel-chested, long-legged driving experience it would have delivered when new; creamy-smooth performance from its turbocharged 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine, a luxurious interior dripping with toys, and agile handling that belies its size.
But if it’s agility you’re after, you simply won’t get much better in the sort of package you can use every day than a fourth-generation Mazda MX-5.
Tidy examples of the MX-5 start at less than £10,000 these days. But stretch your budget a little further and you can equip yourself with the all-weather protection of a folding hard-top roof by choosing an RF model, like the 2017 example I’ve unearthed.
It’s done just 13,000 miles, and with a full service history, it’s backed up with the promise of on-time maintenance regardless of that low mileage. Yet it’ll set you back just £13,888. Proof positive that you don’t have to be roofless to get a bargain convertible at this time of year. (Badum-tsch; I’m here all week.)