According to Automotive News, the Volkswagen T-Roc has become Europe’s most frequently sold convertible in January-July 2023, showing a nearly 10% sales increase over the same period last year.
The unlikely cabrio-SUV proved more popular among buyers than the more conventional convertibles and cabriolets, selling 8,732 units in the first seven months of the year. It also sold nearly twice as many units as the second place holder, the Mazda MX-5. The latter sold nearly 1.5 times as well as in 2022, but the total only came up to 4,570 units. Alpine’s A110 convertible version rounded off the top-3 list.
Interestingly, the standard VW T-Roc with a fixed roof also reigned supreme in its own market niche (compact SUVs), selling a whopping 111,855 units and pulling far ahead of the Toyota Yaris Cross (second place) and Dacia Duster (third place). With the Range Rover Evoque convertible no longer in production, the T-Roc is the only open-top SUV remaining on the Old World market right now. However, the buyers apparently still prefer the standard car over the droptop.
It is worth pointing out that most studies distinguish premium and luxury convertible sales into a separate category, because droptops have historically performed much better on the luxury car market. There, the MINI Cooper reigned supreme in the first half of 2023 with 13,750 units sold and a year-on-year growth of 54.7 percent. The BMW 4-Series and the Porsche 911 landed on the second and the third place, respectively.