I’m no longer in reality partial to convertibles. I don’t just like the wind messing up my hair, the solar burning my face, out of doors smells stinking up my cabin, and aggravating noises drowning out my tune. I lately personal an R129 SL that I’ve by no means taken the hardtop off of, and I hardly ever even pressure with the home windows down. However what I irrationally love are convertible SUVs. I’m no longer speaking about Wranglers and Broncos — I imply such things as the Vary Rover Evoque Convertible and Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet.

Unfortunately, Volkswagen has introduced that it hates amusing, through which I imply it is going to be discontinuing the T-Roc Cabriolet after the present era of the compact crossover runs its direction. That’s a rattling disgrace, because the droptop T-Roc is the one crossover convertible you’ll be able to lately purchase international, let on my own in Europe the place the T-Roc is offered.

VW emblem building boss Kai Grunitz showed the T-Roc Cabriolet’s loss of life to Automobile Information Europe when discussing main points of the next-gen T-Roc at at CES:

Volkswagen won’t change the T-Roc Cabriolet when the logo launches the brand new model of the small SUV subsequent yr.

The present T-Roc shall be changed subsequent yr by means of a brand new type the use of the MBQ Evo platform that still underpins the Golfing’s upcoming face-lift, in addition to the brand new Passat and Tiguan.

The brand new T-Roc shall be VW’s ultimate combustion-engine variant, VW emblem’s building boss Kai Grunitz advised newshounds at the sidelines of the 2024 CES tech tournament in Las Vegas.

Grunitz added that “there may be just a in reality small buyer workforce for cabrios” as reasoning for the T-Roc convertible being discontinued. Regardless of that, final yr the T-Roc cabrio used to be the second one best-selling convertible in Europe after the Mini droptop, promoting 11,693 gadgets in 2023, and at one level it even made up greater than 1 / 4 of all T-Rocs offered. (In 2023 the T-Roc used to be the 3rd best-selling automotive in Europe on the whole, with 191,015 automobiles registered.) It’s no longer a nasty price, both. In Germany the T-Roc convertible is just a few thousand Euro dearer than the similar common T-Roc, and it’s priced between the highest trims of the Mini Cooper and Cooper S convertibles.

The T-Roc used to be first unveiled in 2017 because the smallest crossover in VW’s lineup (till the T-Go got here a yr later). In 2020 the T-Roc Cabriolet got here out, necessarily taking where of the Beetle convertible that exited manufacturing a yr previous. It featured a material roof which may be opened in simply 9 seconds at speeds of as much as 18 mph, and in contrast to the traditional T-Roc, the convertible handiest had two doorways however nonetheless retained 4 seats. VW facelifted the T-Roc lineup a pair years later, however unfortunately the convertible by no means were given the 296-horsepower motor from the sporty T-Roc R.

It’s an actual disgrace to look but every other area of interest frame taste chew the mud, particularly when convertible gross sales on the whole are at the decline, representing lower than one p.c of auto gross sales within the U.S. in 2022. However I nonetheless have hope in my center. The proliferation of bespoke electrical automotive platforms will have to aid you create and federalize lower-volume fashions — simply take a look at how wagons are beginning to have a resurgence in reputation — so perhaps we’ll see convertibles, particularly SUVs, make a comeback at some point.