Friday Fun Thread: Summer Wheels...

I dropped the kids off at camp for the last time this summer. The program closes two weeks before school starts to allow time to turn the school grounds back into, well, a school from the summer program. And it dawned on me that I had been kicking around a Top Ten car list for summer time fun vehicles for a few weeks now, and that if I didn't hurry it up I was going to have to change it to cars to get through the snow...

For this list, I chose cars that are obtainable - certainly we'd all love to have a Lamborghini Murcielago convertible to drive to our secluded Italian villa, but for most of us it's something more utilitarian to haul the kiddies to the beach. With that in mind, here's ten cars - all drop tops - that the average person could pick up for a summer fling...

1. Mustang GT convertible. The new body style really hits a home run, with a combination of retro styling that harkens back to the late 1960's 'Stangs and new touches. Add in the convertible and the rumblin' V8 and you've got a winner and a half.

2. Jeep Wrangler. I like the four door version of the Wrangler for one simple reason: Put the half-doors on, take the top off, and you have a modern-day replica of the VW Thing. Put the hard doors and hard top back on and you've got a workhorse sport ute set for the winter; take everything off for summer. It's hard not to love such utility.

3. Toyota Solara. Toyota reliability. Seating for five. Sedate-yet-stylish. There's a lot of good things to be said about the Camry platform, most of which revolve around the reliability and longevity, but not so much about the fun. The Camry is a great car, but words like "fun" and "eye-catching" escaped it until now.

4. VW Eos. German styling and performance. Attainable pricetag. Fahrvergnugen (heh). The Eos is the successor to the VW Cabrio, a Golf-based drop top that had been around since the days of the VW Rabbit. The Eos is a stand-alone convertible, meaning it's not tied to the Golf/Rabbit platform but rather shares components with the larger Passat (athough it's the same size as the Golf & Jetta).

5. Honda S2000. One of the pricier entries, the S2000 offers true roadster performance in a car carrying the Honda badge - meaning that while you can drive it hard into the corners, you will be driving it hard into the corners for a long time. Seating for two limit the utility of the S2000, as those of us with small people to haul around will have to forgo it for now...

6. Chrysler Sebring. Because of the legendary depreciation of American cars, used Sebrings can be had for very little money for an inexpensive summer car. They've been around for 15 years now, so a lightly-used model should be easy to find. With the retractable hardtop, it's offering German-influenced amenities (hey, they learned something while owned by Daimler...) at American car prices.

7. Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. Another affordable offering from Tokyo, the Eclipse has been around in one form or another for 20 years. There's both a V6 and an I4 option for powerplants, with up to 265 HP available in the six. The Spyder option has been around since the late 1990s, so used models abound.

8. BMW M3 convertible. Another higher-end model, the M3 makes the list over the Z3 simply because of the extra row of seats (hey, I'm a dad, what can I say). With German engineering, used models are still quite viable and will have years of life left in them - especially as a summer fun vehicle.

9. Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice. While these GM twins suffer from twin problems - being out of production and only 2 seaters - they're still inexpensive options for a roadster lifestyle choice. With proper care and maintenance, these might even be a nice investment - especially the Sky, the only sports car offered by Saturn - to hold onto given the rarity of the models.

10. Mazda Miata. The car that revived the roadster concept has got to make the list! The Miata has been available for two decades now, so used variants should be easy to find for pretty much any pocketbook. There's even a folding hardtop option available!

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So there's my list of summer fun vehicles. I tried to keep the list to vehicles that we all might be able to afford (some more than others) should we decide that we want a drop top to tool around in. I've also tried to keep the list to relatively current offerings; sure, I'd love to have a 1970 Chevelle SS convertible, but finding one in driveable condition - and keeping it there - will prove challenging. I'm sure there are literally dozens if not hundreds of other options.

What's your fave drop top?

That is all.