Word: ragtops
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...course. There is enough room in its midget trunk for two tennis rackets and one can of balls. Is it a yupmobile? A delicate question, but the answer is not really. Yuppies lack a sense of nonsense. They buy BMW or Saab Turbo convertibles, ragtop versions of sedans that are irreproachably expensive and slightly stodgy. If you must pick up your elderly aunt, her Doberman and her scuba gear at the airport, you can manage it in one of these. In the Miata...
...Raton in his custom-made number, but nearly all were prohibitively expensive imports that served mainly as playthings for the rich and as auto-show mouth waterers. The principal exception was Volkswagen's Rabbit, introduced to replace the Beetle in 1980. Crafted by Karmann, 12,114 of the ragtop Rabbits were sold in 1981 (price: $10,000) at a handsome profit. In addition, small customizing companies in states like Florida, California and Michigan have been cutting the steel tops off cars since the late '70s and turning them into convertibles for 20,000 to 25,000 fanatical owners...
Chrysler has no strong line of muscle cars, but Iacocca has come up with a similar stroke of marketing savvy-the return of the convertible. When he decided to revive the ragtop last October, he expected annual sales of 4,500. Convertible versions of the Chrysler Le-Baron and Dodge 400 are now selling at a yearly rate of 50,000, despite price tags as high as $15,255. "We haven't been able to keep them in stock," says Thomas Pappert, Chrysler's vice president for sales. GM and Ford are rushing to catch up, with their...
...least that we are all caught in the planetary claustrum and interconnection. National Geographic specials take us farther, more vividly, than we would have the courage or knowledge to go if we were traveling in body, not just in mind. The television anchorman Dan Rather turns up in ragtop native drag in Afghanistan, the surrogate of our culture with his camera crew, intrepid as Sir Richard Burton sneaking into Mecca...