Buy/Drive/Burn: The Cheapest Convertibles in America for 2021

by Corey Lewis

Published: March 10th, 2021

buy drive burn the cheapest convertibles in america for 2021

Buy/Drive/Burn continues its cheapest of series today, as convertibles follow up the vans, trucks, and sedans we’ve covered already.

When it’s time for ragtop fun on the lowest possible budget, which of these three gets the Buy?

Mazda MX-5 Miata

Our cheapest of the trio today was a toss-up with its twin, the Fiat 124. We chose the Mazda version because it had a $10 lower base price than the Fiat this year, and is the car more people actually purchase. Prices range from $26,830 for the Sport, step to $30,290 for the Club, and $31,770 for the Grand Touring. The base Sport has no hard top option, but shares the same 2.0-liter inline-four as the other trims, good for 181 horsepower. A six-speed manual is included at no additional charge. No-cost colors include white or black, and a black cloth interior is mandatory. Final cost after the $995 destination fee is $27,825.

MINI Cooper

MINI still makes a Cooper cabriolet, which your author had forgotten entirely. If you’d asked, I’d have said it faded away circa 2016. But no! It’s available as a 2021 in three trim levels, from base Cooper at $27,400, S at $31,900, and tops out at John Cooper Works for $38,400. There are sub-trims within the trims, and the base convertible includes Classic, Signature, and Iconic. MINI does not believe in convertible power equality, and horsepower varies by model trim at 134, 189, and 229, respectively. A six-speed manual is the standard transmission here, and those 134 horses are generated by a 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine. Free paint colors are limited to red or silver, and interiors are made of black faux leather. Final cost is $28,250, but the terrible MINI website won’t break that down without contacting a dealer. Said website also thinks you’re using a phone if you resize the window on your PC, and greys out all information until you expand it back. Boo.

Chevrolet Camaro

For true American Freedom Convertible action, today’s most expensive offering is the Camaro. Available in a dizzying seven trim levels (which seems like too many), prices range from $32,495 for the base 1LT, through $69,995 for the top-tier ZL1. For our Ace of Base money, power on offer arrives via 2.0-liter turbocharged four. It produces a respectable 275 horses, routed through the standard six-speed manual. Chevy offers six paint colors at no additional charge, which include red and blue, among grays and white. You get to pick the color of your top as well, and can choose black, blue, or mocha-y (shown). Interiors at this level are black, and cloth. After a $995 destination fee, the Camaro asks $32,490.

These convertibles are as cheap as they come in 2021. Which one do you purchase with your own bitcoins?

[Images: GM, MINI, Mazda]

#2021 #Buy/Drive/Burn #Cabriolets #Camaro #CheapCars #Chevrolet #ChevroletCamaro #Chevy #ChevyCamaro #Convertibles #GM #Mazda #NewCars #GeneralMotors #MINI #Editorials #Cooper #MazdaMiata #MINICOOPER #MazdaMx-5Miata

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.

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Mopar4wd on Mar 11, 2021

Buy Camaro yeah gin slit windows are annoying but they really are great driving cars. Drive Mini I guess Burn Miata over hyped and very uncomfortable for taller people like me. But the real answer here is a base wrangler

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Zerog on Mar 11, 2021

Mini

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Recent Comments

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.
Wjtinfwb Not proud of what Stellantis is rolling out?
Wjtinfwb Absolutely. But not incredibly high-tech, AWD, mega performance sedans with amazing styling and outrageous price tags. GM needs a new Impala and LeSabre. 6 passenger, comfortable, conservative, dead nuts reliable and inexpensive enough for a family guy making 70k a year or less to be able to afford. Ford should bring back the Fusion, modernized, maybe a bit bigger and give us that Hybrid option again. An updated Taurus, harkening back to the Gen 1 and updated version that easily hold 6, offer a huge trunk, elevated handling and ride and modest power that offers great fuel economy. Like the GM have a version that a working mom can afford. The last decade car makers have focused on building cars that American's want, but eliminated what they need. When a Ford Escape of Chevy Blazer can be optioned up to 50k, you've lost the plot.
Willie If both nations were actually free market economies I would be totally opposed. The US is closer to being one, but China does a lot to prop up the sectors they want to dominate allowing them to sell WAY below cost, functionally dumping their goods in our market to destroy competition. I have seen this in my area recently with shrimp farmed by Chinese comglomerates being sold super cheap to push local producers (who have to live at US prices and obey US laws) out of business.China also has VERY lax safety and environmental laws which reduce costs greatly. It isn't an equal playing field, they don't play fair.