CONVERTIBLE ASSETS

摘要

The obituary for the convertible is dated April 21, 1976. That's the day Cadillac general manager Edward Kennard drove the last 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible off the assembly line at GM's Clark Avenue plant in Detroit. "Like runningboards and rumble seats," Kennard said, "the convertible is an item that history has passed by." Of course, there were still a handful of manufacturers overseas that continued to build convertibles, but in 1976, when General Motors proclaimed it was the end of an era, it was the end of an era. Convertibles, GM insisted, had been done in by a variety of concerns: the higher speeds we were driving, safety issues, better stereos that we couldn't hear properly with the top down. It wasn't the end of convertibles, of course. Lee Iacocca rolled out the Chrysler LeBaron convertible six years later and found a" ready market. Ford resumed building Mustang convertibles in 1983, and since then convertibles remain a staple on our automotive menu.