A Summer Drive For the Forever Young

Decades ago, they were made by cutting the top off a car and were largely inexpensive, fun cars. In the late 1960s, after auto safety regulations began, manufacturers stopped making convertibles, and people thought they would vanish. But they started coming back in the 1980s and have moved significantly up the food chain.

Research shows that today's convertible drivers are usually older, more educated and wealthier than most. Convertibles tend to be more expensive than the typical car -- "by at least $1,000," according to National Automobile Dealers Association economist Paul Taylor -- and make up only 2 percent of all new car sales.

Today, the convertible market has a lot of upscale models. Some say that suits buttoned-up Washington, where even an icon of play can be taken only so far.

"Convertibles are taken seriously on the East Coast," said Warren Brown, The Washington Post's veteran auto writer. "In D.C., you'll find women and also men driving convertibles with the top down but the windows up because they don't want the air messing them up. It's an abomination."

Ken Gross, a longtime auto writer for Playboy who lives in Loudoun County, says some manufacturers have wrestled with the new trend of hardtops that fold up. "It needs to look the same as a regular convertible when the top is down," he said.

But not every convertible owner fits the stereotype. Mingling Saturday night at Bubba's was Robert Taylor, who despite his shock of white-blond hair, tropical shirt and cream-colored 1966 Pontiac Bonneville (a boat, basically), said he tends to drive with the top up.

"It messes with your hair," he said. "And I don't like people looking at me. I'm very shy."