2015 BMW 228i Convertible - Car and Driver (blog)
Some domestic cats regard parked convertibles as feline hammocks, a great place to nap while depositing furry evidence. Especially if the convertible has a nice fabric top like that on the BMW 228i tested here. Pet hair clings to this quality woven fabric more than it does to cheaper vinyl tops. Sleepy cats may be disappointed to learn that convertible sales are down 44 percent in the past decade, with only 1 in 100 U. S. buyers opting for folding roofs, per research firm IHS. Not even wider availability of the retractable-hardtop variant stemmed the global tide—from a 21st-century peak of more than 800,000 units in 2004, worldwide convertible production is down to 450,000 or so, a meager 0. 7-percent share of the market. Americans and Europeans have embraced crossovers ( the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet sadly failed to establish a beachhead for softtop crossovers) while buyers in the Middle East, India, and China have shown ostensibly zero interest in top-down... Whatever the reasons, mass-market standard-bearers like the Toyota Camry Solara and the Chrysler 200 (née Sebring) convertible have gone out of production. In the 1970s and ’80s, too, eulogies for the convertible were as common as black cat hairs on white linen trousers, so let us not rush to doomsaying. Source: www.caranddriver.com
