<VV> hardtops--further educating the masses

[Wrsssatty@aol.com]

Well, since we're on the subject...

The first "hardtops" were marketed by GM.  How it happened is that a GM 
executive noticed that his wife always ordered a new convertible every year but she 
never put the top down.  Finally, he asked her why this was and she explained 
that she liked the open, uncluttered appearance of the car's profile when she 
rolled the windows down all the way.  He then figured that she wasn't the 
only one and that there might be interest in a vehicle that looked like a 
convertible but offered a fixed roof.  These models were first called "hardtop 
convertibles" because they looked like convertibles but had tops that were "hard."  
I'm writing this from my office and don't have access to my back issues of 
Collectible Automobile, etc. but my recollection is that the first such models 
debuted around '48 and were high end models such as Cadillacs.  Of course 4-door 
hardtops appeared much later, in mid-year '55 on the Oldsmobiles, Buicks and 
Cadillacs.  The popularity of the models and their ability to command higher 
prices prompted other  makers to jump on the band wagon and, as has been 
discussed here before, by the late '50s even 4-door station wagons were available as 
B-pillarless hardtops.  Manufacturers began phasing out the pillarless models 
in the late '60s-early '70s as concern mounted with the advent of federal 
safety regulations that rollover standards would soon be going into effect.  This 
coincided with that era's abandonment of true convertibles.  GM's last 
hardtops appeared for model year '76 with the interesting addition of an "opera 
window" in the C pillar of the 4-door hardtops.  Those models of Olds 88s, 98s, 
Buick LeSabres, etc. were retired for the new down-sized '77s which were not 
fielded as hardtops or convertibles.   To the best of my knowledge, the only true 
hardtop currently available on the U.S. market is a quite pricey 2-door from 
Mercedes.

Bill Stanley