I'm not sure exactly when it happened but at some point in the last few years, convertibles stopped being fun and grew up.
I suspect the process began with the original Mercedes SLK which reintroduced the long-forgotten concept of a folding metal roof and turned ragtops back into tintops.

This of course is a good thing if you happen to live in one of our towns or cities, which according to the home secretary are home to gangs of drug and alcohol crazed teenaged thugs roaming the streets like latter day velociraptors, making any car with a soft canvas skin apotential target. There is an ever burgeoning list of these so called coupe convertibles; I haven't counted them up but I suspect they now outnumber their traditional cloth-roofed counterparts by some margin.

The problem however is that these cars shift the emphasis from the convertible to the coupe and this is how many of them spend their lives; as rather ungainly tin-tops. In an old school convertible there was little point in keeping the hood up because it made so little difference. Traditional canvas hoods leaked like a government department and deafened you like an X-Factor reject and this was all for the good, it encouraged owners to drive topless, as it were. Today the temptation is to keep the metal top in place and crank up the heated seats. So which one will we warm to?



C70:
Engine
2.4-litre 5-cyl turbodiesel
Power (bhp)

178
Torque (lb/ft)

295
0-62mph (secs)
8.8
Top speed (mph)
140
Combined MPG
38.7
CO2 (g/km)/tax (%)
196/28
List price

from £33,130

Eos:
Engine
2.0-litre, four-cylinder
Power (bhp)
138
Torque (lb/ft)
236
0-62mph (secs)
10.4
Top speed (mph)
127
Combined MPG
47.1
CO2 (g/km)/tax (%)
158/23
List price
£22,647






Twin test: VW Eos v Volvo C70Â -Â Twin-tests of new cars | MSN Cars UK