10 Fuel-Efficient Convertibles for Late-Summer Cruising

Convertibles become a little less impractical with low gas prices, but there are still only four of them that get 30 mpg or better
By Jason Notte ,

July 4th may be gone, but there's still a whole lot more convertible season for car lovers to enjoy.

We regularly marvel at the fact that, prior to the recession, buying a convertible meant sinking your cash into a Chrysler Sebring/200, a Jeep Wrangler or a higher-end luxury vehicle from BMW, Audi or Mercedes-Benz. The convertible is still more costly than its hard-top competitors, but gas prices that are below $2.50 a gallon and 45 cents lower per gallon than they were at this time last year are making convertibles worth even a frugal driver's consideration.

In 2014, TrueCar looked into convertible buying habits and found that drivers in California, Florida, Texas, New York, and New Jersey were the most likely to buy them. Not surprisingly, folks in Alaska, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana and Idaho who face short summer and cold winters are a bit less likely to take the plunge.

With vehicle sales up just 1.5% through June, according to MotorIntelligence, we aren't exactly surprised that folks would hold off on a convertible. Still, car buyers 35 to 54 years old and nearly 40% of the female car-buying public love the convertible and are forcing the industry to give them more options. However, there are just four convertibles on the road today that are capable of 30 miles per gallon or more -- and Tesla doesn't make any of them.

With U.S. fuel efficiency standards closing in on toward 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, as the Environmental Protection Agency has mandated, more fuel-efficient vehicles have become both more plentiful and less expensive. The average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the in August was 25.3 mpg, according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. That's still less than halfway to the EPA and Department of Transportation's goal that they set back in 2012, but it beats the roughly 19 miles per gallon that the Department of Transportation measured for the same pool of vehicles in 1995. It's also closing in on double the average mileage of the light-duty vehicles on U.S. roads in 1980. Here are just ten convertibles that are helping the category catch up:

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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