January 4, 2005

London, England - About one-third of all convertibles sold privately in the UK are bought in rainy old London, which goes to show style counts whatever the weather.

And more ragtops change hands in the even chillier and decidedly less affluent north of the British Isles (Yorkshire and Scotland, with 8.5 and 3.7 percent vs. three percent) than in the comparatively balmy and sunny West Country.

The figures come from the used-car database managed by Cardata.

UK registrations of convertibles are expected to increase by 21 percent this year to make the open-top market there bigger than those of the sunshine nations of Spain, France and Italy.

Cardata revealed another anomaly: 4x4s are most common in the crowded streets of London with more than 20 percent of all UK sales going to buyers trapped inside the capital city's clogged M25 ring road.

"You would expect more vehicles to be up for sale where there are more drivers," said Cardata's marketing manager Andrew Sobell, "but a huge number of 4x4’s are on sale in city centres and urban areas, where they are unlikely to ever see mud or go off-road."