1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible

A dying breed: Chrysler built its last convertible in 1971; Ford in 1973. GM held on longer, building about 25,000 copies per year of the car pictured through 1975. It was sold as the Chevy Caprice, Olds 88, Pontiac Grand Ville and Buick Le Sabre. The Cadillac Eldorado convertible held on until '76.

Imported convertibles faded away too. MG and Triumph went of out business. Fiat gave up on the US. Regulation killed the VW Beetle convertible. The only imported convertibles to hang on in significant numbers were the VW Rabbit and Alfra Romeo Spider.

By the mid-80s, American convertibles were back in the form of the Chrysler LeBaron and Ford Mustang. Unfortunately, those cars were built as coupes and then sent to third-party builders who cut off the tops and transformed them into open-top models. In other words, they were pretty much junk despite costing about twice as much as their hardtop brothers.

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