Buy/Drive/Burn: Luxury Convertibles From 2010

by Corey Lewis

Published: December 31st, 2018

buy drive burn luxury convertibles from 2010

Three luxurious convertibles of six-cylinder and rear-drive persuasion. Which one is worth over 40,000 of your hard-earned dollars?

Infiniti G37

Infiniti followed up its very popular third-generation G sedan and coupe with a fourth version in 2007. The car was larger, the engine was larger, and new corporate styling modernized its appearance over the old model. The two-style lineup was expanded for 2009, when Infiniti introduced its first convertible since the Leopard-based M30 of 1990. Convertible G37s were all prepared the same way in 2010: 3.7-liter VQ V6 up front, 325 horsepower to the rear wheels, and no all-wheel drive option. We forego the manual transmission today, opting instead for the seven-speed automatic. $44,350.

Mercedes-Benz SLK300

Mercedes introduced its SLK model in 1996, whereupon it was quickly ignored by most every car enthusiast. Things got sharper when the second generation debuted for 2004. It was larger, more serious, more safe, and sported a nose mimicking the AMG SLR supercar. The new SLK maintained its basic initial characteristics of being a two-seat, metal-roof cabriolet. For our money, we’re in the base model SLK300 in its last year of production. The 3.0-liter V6 produces 228 horsepower, transferred to the rear wheels through the seven-speed G-TRONIC. $46,900.

Lexus IS 350C

Lexus debuted its new sub-ES model as the IS back in 1998. A badge job on a Japanese-market Toyota Altezza, it found fans among tuners and stance bro types alike. Lexus fixed their delight in 2006 with a second generation that was not JDM in any way. Gone were the inline-six Supra engines and sports wagon options. In their place was a single sedan, with an inline-four or V6 mill. In 2010 Lexus expanded the lineup to include a convertible, with engine options of 2.5 or 3.5 liters of displacement. The more expensive 350C is today’s choice. With a Lexus-exclusive V6 (in North America), 306 horsepower travel to the rear via the six-speed automatic. $44,890.

Which tin top convertible gets your money?

[Images: Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Infiniti]

#Buy/Drive/Burn #Cabriolets #Convertibles #Coupes #Germany #Imports #Infiniti #InfinitiG37 #Japan #Lexus #UsedCars #Mercedes-Benz #NewCars #LuxuryCars #LexusIS #NewsBlog #Mercedes-benzSlk

Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

More by Corey Lewis

Comments

Join the conversation

5 of 29 comments

Lightspeed on Jan 01, 2019

Buy them all, don't drive any of them. put them in a barn because they're all going to be worth a lot of coin one day. Burn the barn.

Like Reply
JimC2 on Jan 01, 2019

No love for the oft-forgotten Solara, which was out of production by 2010 and never a luxury car during any of its production.

Like Reply
- See 2 previous
- Random1 on Jan 02, 2019
  
  If we're talking non-luxury: I had a base EOS for 10 years. 200hp, decent enough pep, manual, power hardtop. Seated 4 comfortably. I only added an aftermarket Pioneer stereo. I looked at basically all the convertibles on the market, the two-seaters were ruled out immediately, and found it really hard to justify paying more than I did for the base EOS. I believe the msrp was around $27k, or maybe that's what I paid? Was a long time ago...
  
  Like
- JimC2 on Jan 02, 2019
  
  @random1 You know, the true 4 seater convertible market is a pretty small segment and most of the customers are outliers. Honestly, I'd forgotten about the Eos convertible until you mentioned it just now. Similarly, I'm pretty sure a lot of the TTAC B&B has forgotten about the Solara convertible. I think most of the convertible market is satisfied by a 2+2, with a tiny trunk, that are a second or even third car in the household- when they need more seats or a real trunk then they already have a primary vehicle to use for that. I bet your base Eos came with 16" wheels instead of 17-18-19 or worse. That's another benefit to the base model and something I enjoy every time I have to buy new tires, and of that matter every time I hit a sharp bump. Glad you enjoyed your car for so long!
  
  Like
- JimC2 on Jan 02, 2019
  
  @random1 "Glad you enjoyed your car for so long!" I meant to correct that to read, I'm glad you enjoyed your outlier car for so long!
  
  Like

Recent Comments

Varezhka I have still yet to see a Malibu on the road that didn't have a rental sticker. So yeah, GM probably lost money on every one they sold but kept it to boost their CAFE numbers.I'm personally happy that I no longer have to dread being "upgraded" to a Maxima or a Malibu anymore. And thankfully Altima is also on its way out.
Tassos Under incompetent, affirmative action hire Mary Barra, GM has been shooting itself in the foot on a daily basis.Whether the Malibu cancellation has been one of these shootings is NOT obvious at all.GM should be run as a PROFITABLE BUSINESS and NOT as an outfit that satisfies everybody and his mother in law's pet preferences.IF the Malibu was UNPROFITABLE, it SHOULD be canceled.More generally, if its SEGMENT is Unprofitable, and HALF the makers cancel their midsize sedans, not only will it lead to the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ones, but the survivors will obviously be more profitable if the LOSERS were kept being produced and the SMALL PIE of midsize sedans would yield slim pickings for every participant.SO NO, I APPROVE of the demise of the unprofitable Malibu, and hope Nissan does the same to the Altima, Hyundai with the SOnata, Mazda with the Mazda 6, and as many others as it takes to make the REMAINING players, like the Excellent, sporty Accord and the Bulletproof Reliable, cheap to maintain CAMRY, more profitable and affordable.
GregLocock Car companies can only really sell cars that people who are new car buyers will pay a profitable price for. As it turns out fewer and fewer new car buyers want sedans. Large sedans can be nice to drive, certainly, but the number of new car buyers (the only ones that matter in this discussion) are prepared to sacrifice steering and handling for more obvious things like passenger and cargo space, or even some attempt at off roading. We know US new car buyers don't really care about handling because they fell for FWD in large cars.
Slavuta Why is everybody sweating? Like sedans? - go buy one. Better - 2. Let CRV/RAV rust on the dealer lot. I have 3 sedans on the driveway. My neighbor - 2. Neighbors on each of our other side - 8 SUVs.
Theflyersfan With sedans, especially, I wonder how many of those sales are to rental fleets. With the exception of the Civic and Accord, there are still rows of sedans mixed in with the RAV4s at every airport rental lot. I doubt the breakdown in sales is publicly published, so who knows... GM isn't out of the sedan business - Cadillac exists and I can't believe I'm typing this but they are actually decent - and I think they are making a huge mistake, especially if there's an extended oil price hike (cough...Iran...cough) and people want smaller and hybrids. But if one is only tied to the quarterly shareholder reports and not trends and the big picture, bad decisions like this get made.