OT Your opinion? Giving someone a ride.

If you, and others, thought of that, I guess it might well be what she thought of. Convertibles are only about 15% more money than other new cars, iirc, and by the time I buy the car several years old, that's not a lot of money. So I've never thought of it as a way to impress anyone**, but my older brother, who had two of them for maybe 8 years total told me stories of girls who didn't like them, because of their hair and the wind, so that's what I was trying to call attention to, and that's what I thought she heard.

My first convertible was a loan, then a gift, from my brother when he was in the army in Viet Nam. It had ongoing mechanical problems which the dealer (soon to be out of business) coudln't fix, and so he bought another new convertible when he got back from Viet Nam, which worked fine. So I didnt' even pick out the first car and I liked it mostly because it was only 2 years old, compared to my previous car that was

15 y.o. It took me a whole year to really get hooked on having the top down. And this is all part of why I don't think of a convertible as a way to impress anyone. For me it's about the vista and the breeze and the relaxation. It still suprpises me but even if everything I'm looking at would be visible through the windows of a hardtop, it looks so much better with the top down.

I wish I had.

**I don't think of the car as a way to impress people, though whem the top is down, I've gotten unsolicited compliments, even once by a 65-year old man when I stopped at a yard sale and hadn't said a word about my car, and the car was 15 years old. With the top down, Chryslers and some others have a very sleek line that even hard top sports cars may not have. But the soft top is a pain in the neck.

Thanks and thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Reply to
mm
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"mm" wrote

My first convertible was a '64 Karmann Ghia that I paid $15 for. Took another $150 to rebuild the engine. Lots of rust, dull paint, etc. One sunny day I was driving with the top down and my wife, who was wearing a rather summery outfit was next to me. I pulled up along side a big Mercedes driven by a guy about 60. He just looked and looked. I bet I could have swapped places with him and taken his car home.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Yeah, but you probably would have missed the wife. Doubt it was the KG he was looking at- they were quite common back then.

Reply to
aemeijers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agreed. "I have a convertible - will that be a problem for you? I always ride with the top down, no matter if my passengers have allergies, skin cancer issues, etc." Those extra words would have conveyed the conditions of the ride. Just saying "I have a convertible" communicates little more that vanity. As if it would KILL someone to ride with the top up just once to be gallant. Sheesh. Chivalry IS dead. And so will many convertible owners be, long before their time from skin cancer.

No wonder the OP is going to singles events. Marriage, like politics, is a series of compromises. Nothing communicates "I'm not a good choice for a mate" more than the inability to "suffer" through something as horrible as a single top-up ride in a convertible. Sheesh. It literally says "my comfort is more important than your discomfort." Ask any woman how attactive that sounds.

As for melanoma, it's moving up fast as one of the top killer cancers in the country. As a convertible owner, the OP is far more likely to die of melanoma than a hardtop driver. As an intransigent convertible owner, that death is also more likely to occur without a significant other to care. Was she supposed to hold her hat (if she had one) on her head throughout the whole ride? Or shampoo in sunblock?

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-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

One of the first things I learned as a young adult was ALWAYS take YOUR car. That way if the situation went into a ditch, you had wheels, and were king of the universe.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

And don't forget rain, another common killer. :)

Reply to
Metspitzer

"Robert Green" wrote

Not true. In my house, I'm the Supreme Commander and what I say goes. See below:

Hi, This is Ed's wife. Yes, we obey him and our goal in life is to make him happy. Sincerely, Ed's wife.

See, I'd not lie about that. She just went back to reading her book now so don't bother asking her for details.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:rOOdnYNJK_Ah9prTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Good one. You made Afina giggle. Or maybe it was the way I read it to my sweetie.

Reply to
Han

he didn't say anything about putting it up and I wouldn't have either. If i had a convertible, it would be down or not driven.

Reply to
Steve Barker

Wouldn't BUY a convertible if he didn't want the top down. hELLO!!

Reply to
Steve Barker

AND POP TARTS

and used motor oil

and eggs

and

and

and

and

It's amazing that mankind was able to make it 6000 years working in the sun.

Reply to
Steve Barker

A good price.

Where would your wife fit into this trade? :)

Reply to
mm

  1. More than 6000 years. Not sure what the current best estimate is, but lots higher than that.
  2. Until 100 years or so ago, only a small percentage of population made it past 60. And of the ones that did, few were field workers. Sadly, due to sloth and bad dietary choices and lack of exercise, we are headed that direction again. We got a temporary spike from modern medicine and sanitation and large-scale farming making food cheap, but most people can't be bothered to even learn how to maintain their own bodies as well as they do their cars.
Reply to
aemeijers

You could share decisions.

My ex-wife made all the minor decisions, like where we should live, what school the kids would attend, and whether I should ask for a raise.

I, on the other hand, made the major decisions: whether Red China should be admitted to the U.N., whether Nixon should resign, and if the U.S. should join the International Monetary Fund.

Reply to
HeyBub

70?? If you were just going 70 they'd be scraping you out of the ditch (just back from a 3000mi vacation). ;-)
Reply to
krw

Tell her that you're going topless and that if she wants to come along, she has to go topless too!

SWMBO wants a convertible. A little wind isn't going to save me any money. ;-)

Reply to
krw

That's only fair. You wouldn't want her to make such a big mistake. Besides, it's for the children.

Reply to
krw

Years ago, I went camping in the mountains of North Carolina with a friend, his girlfriend, and her 10-year old daughter. On the last morning, the mother was delirious and delusional and had a temperature of 102.5 and her daugher 103.5.

My friend said it would go away and he wanted to drive straight back to Baltimore, get his car and go back to Westchester, NY (a 9 or 10 hour drive) so he could get to work Monday on time. The hospital was an hour from the campground, but on the way home. He wanted to skip the hospital.

I insisted they go to the hospital, and I was glad it was MY car.

We were there an hour or two, and the doctor didn't really do anything, so my "friend" argued that he was right, all the way back to Baltimore. You'd think a lawyer would know better. And he was mad at me because since she was HIS girlfriend, he thought that meant he was in charge of decisions about her.

He'd done other obnoxious things on occasion over the years, but this was by far the worst and was the end of our friendship.

Reply to
mm

If it's any consolation, I don't take care of my car either.

Reply to
mm

But was it the end of his relationship with the lady and her kid? Hope so. Sick girlfriend and sick kid trump getting to work on time, IMHO. I would have insisted on the hospital stop as well, no matter who owned the car. What was he doing cutting a weekend trip so close on timing, any way? If you are gonna be more than a couple hours away, you should always build in a fudge factor.

Reply to
aemeijers

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