Updated: Top Ten Affordable Convertibles

A couple of days ago, BJ Killeen called with her usual cryptic message: "Come over here, there's something you gotta drive." BJ's house is about a five-minute drive from mine; I made it in two. There in the driveway was a MINI Cooper S convertible, a car I've only had a wee bit of seat time in. "Want to borrow it?" BJ asked. I gave her my answer by grabbing the keys, hopping in the car and driving away. (I left her with the Mercedes E350 I'd been test-driving -- seemed like a fair trade at the time, but in retrospect I think I got the better end of the deal.) After a day of open-top driving in the MINI, after which my face ached from smiling so much, I decided this thing deserved a place in our list of the top ten affordable softtops. I hear the weather's turning nice back East -- maybe it's time for you to take your own test drive, don't you think? -- Aaron Gold