History & Spec

VW Golf Cabrio Mk1 (400,871)
The Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet is an unlikely entry at the upper end of this chart, but it underlines the enduring appeal of the Mk1 Golf. Introduced in 1979 as an addition to the standard range, it soon gained a GTI badge and all the power that went with that hot hatch.

When VW moved on to the Mk2 Golf, it proved too expensive to develop a convertible version. As a result, the Mk1 Convertible marched on and did the same again for a short period even when the Mk3 arrived in 1993. When it was finally replaced by the Mk3-based Convertible, the original Cabrio had notched up an impressive 400,871 sales.

Chevrolet Corvette (465,819)
Taken as a single model within the ever-evolving Corvette line-up, the Convertible accounts for 465,819 sales between 1953 and 2020. From 1953 until 1962, an open-top was the only choice for this American sports car, though many were ordered with a removable factory hard-top as an option.

After the introduction of the Corvette in 1953 when a mere 300 cars were built, the leanest year for convertible sales was 1955 with just 700 sold. The best year was 1969 when a total of 18,630 convertible versions were sold, which was almost double the number of coupé models that found buyers that year.

MGB Roadster (513,276)
For a long time, the MGB Roadster was the world’s best-selling open-top sports car until the Mazda MX-5 that so ably copied the formula stole its crown. Even so, more than half a million Roadsters shows just what a huge success this simple British car was when on sale between 1962 and 1980.

Roadster sales outstripped the coupé GT model’s, helped by the open-top car being on sale for three years before the GT was launched in 1965. The basic design didn’t change much in 18 years, which eventually is what saw the MGB die off as tastes moved to hot hatches and it looked like US legislation would outlaw open-top cars, as already mentioned.

BMW 3 Series Convertible (523,446)
The BMW 3 Series has always been a car to covet, so creating a soft-top version of this small exec was only going to add to its allure. BMW initially turned to German coachbuilder Baur to do this work and 19,021 of the first generation E21 3 Series were converted. This was not a full drop-top, but a Targa roof design. It was the same with the early second gen E30 Convertibles before BMW launched its in-house full convertible.

From that point, sales rocketed and BMW sold 143,425 E30 Convertibles, followed by around 165,000 of the third generation E36 model. Sales peaked with the following fourth gen E46 at around 196,000 during its production life. However, BMW then replaced this car with a folding hard-top for the E93 model in 2006.

Mazda MX-5 (1.05 million)
And the winner is… not quite the Mazda MX-5 that you probably expected. It’s certainly the best-selling soft-top roadster or sports car, but the Japanese car has to settle for second spot here. Still, sales of more than 1 million and counting mean the MX-5 is unlikely ever to be beaten by any two-seat rivals.

On sales alone, the Mk1 MX-5 would feature high up in this chart as it notched up an impressive 421,107 sales in eight years. It proves how right Mazda were with this car from the get-go, delivering MG-style fun but with Japanese dependability. It followed up with around 350,000 sales of the Mk2, and the Mk4 launched in 2015 carried the MX-5 over the million mark on 22 April 2016.

Citroën 2CV (3,872,583)
An astonishingly long life helped the Citroën 2CV chalk up almost 4 million sales of the standard car in its 42-year life. All came with the folding canvas roof that was intrinsic to the success of this car, designed to appeal to anyone who wanted budget motoring. The simplicity of the roof design meant you could enjoy fresh air driving in mere seconds. In 1953 Autocar acclaimed it as the most ingenious car design since the Ford Model T.

As well as the 3,872,583 2CVs made between 1948 and 1990, you could add the 1,443,583 slightly posher Dyane models with the same soft-top roof style. The Dyane was based on the 2CVs chassis and running gears, so was essentially a variation on the theme rather than the replacement model it was supposed to be.