Does taking your top off make you sexy? Living with convertibles. WRAP UP: Peugeot 308cc, VW Eos, Lexus IS250c

When we set out there were just a couple of tiny little objectives. We wanted to know if you could live with a roofless car and could you use it every day and what is it like to drive a convertible.

Would it surprise you to learn that there is not a single solitary reason why you should not own one. With the roof up it is exactly the same as being in a coupe. People complain about the long doors and how hard it is to get out in tight spaces or when you’ve parked next to a high gutter. For gawd’s sake people use your brains. If you don’t want a droptop then don’t have one, but please don’t spend precious time trying to think of lame reasons why your particular case is different, because it just isn’t.

I could go on and on about the wonderful wind in-your-hair feeling bested only by the freedom of a fast bike on the open road. In fact having the roof and the windows down feels just like flying without the plane. Imagine you have set your lounge chairs up on a carpet that was once owned by Ali Baba. With a few deft waves of the wrist you could be magically transported through the countryside. You could do it all while sipping a coffee and listening to Bach on a ridiculously  expensive stereo, and best of all you could bring a friend with you.

u You can do all that but unlike being on Ali Baba’s carpet, you have heating, and cooling and a magic roof to cover you when nature turns septic. We have SAAB to thank for the re-igniting the modern love affair with open top motoring and Mazda to thank for bringing the MX5 to the people as an instant classic 20 years ago. That same car is still loved today. It ignited something in us we didn’t know existed. We grabbed it with both hands and hung on and now there are more convertibles to chose from than ever. Some, like the Holden Tigra, Ford Focus and the rather silly Daihatsu Copen didn’t last. Mind you, if that awful Copen had lasted, I’d have shot it myself. Designed for midgets, normal people like us needed one for each foot and that is what killed it deader than a dodo.

Copen                                                                        Focus cab

Tigra

But I digress, you’ve been hoping, nay wishing, for me to say the cars were awful and that no one could live with them. You were thinking we would say one was best and you should buy it, but the honest truth is that any one of them would be mighty nice nestled against the curb at your joint. It might even make you look interesting, you never know! Each had qualities that made you swoon just a bit and each was a wrench to return when our week was done. Id have had any of them. The Eos with it’s stunning roof and frugal habits, the Peugeot because it sips fuel has a fireplace built right into the headrest and makes winters cosy, and the Lexus with its stunningly luxurious finish. All have shown admiral attention to detail so the real question is not “can I live with a convertible,” but rather “why am I not living with a convertible?” We’ve no ankle biters and usually only one boyfriend or girlfriend on board at a time. And if we need to carry more than we can stuff in, then we can either phone a friend or ask for two to be removed, but frankly get the damned things delivered. Even small department stores have vans!

So that’s it then. You’re all sorted out aren’t you? You’ll be heading off to do a spot of test driving, and remember what I always say, make it a really long one.