2024 Q1 Auto Sales: America's 3 best-selling convertibles are trucks and SUVs

Winter is a bad time for convertible sales; this is a fact we acknowledge openly in our (silly, but persistent) Mazda Miata sales tracking page. But that doesn't mean what it used to for America's convertible market. Why? Well, because most of the droptops being sold in 2024 are also equipped with four-wheel-drive. That's right, four, not all. And that's because America's three best-selling convertibles are trucks and SUVs… and it's not even close. 

Typically, when we think of convertibles, our thoughts turn to the classics — the Ford Mustang, the Chevy Camaro and Corvette, the aforementioned Mazda roadster — but those have not truly dominated the open-sky driving market in America for years. This is the age of the four-wheel-drive ragtop, and where America's going, we don't need road(sters). 

Jeep sold nearly as many Gladiators as Ford sold Mustangs, period, so we're pretty confident we don't need to reach out to Ford to confirm our guess here. Even if we assume a bumper crop of pony car droptops flew through showrooms in Q1, there simply weren't enough to catch up with Jeep's pickup truck. Yeah, pickup truck. Man, the Gladiator really is a weird automobile, huh?

The Bronco/Wrangler rivalry is in full swing, and with it, Ford may have an opportunity to claim the title of top convertible seller in the U.S. To do that, it'll need some more warm-weather help from Mustang. For now, Bronco's doing just fine carrying the torch. Granted, somebody else is doing a little bit better. 

If you'd told us in 2004 that Jeep would be the Red Bull to 2024's convertible sales podium, we'd have looked at you cross-eyed (for more than one reason, actually), but here we are. The gang from Auburn Hills holds the #1 and #3 slots on this list, and the former by a pretty comfortable margin. For a while, the Wrangler was outselling the Toyota Camry. Not so much these days, but it's still one of the most reliable models in the Stellantis portfolio.