Five convertibles to buy instead of a summer holiday

From £400 As our very own Charlie Turner recently discovered, £400 will get you an ’02, 149,500 miler MX-5. Best to pay more for one with a little less rust, though, unless you know a friendly MoT test tester… 

From £1,000 Yes, you really can pick up this Italian thoroughbred for this budget. You’ll have to settle for the 2.0-litre Twin Spark, and you’ll almost certainly break down, but it’s an Alfa so that’s to be expected. 

From £1,400 Now here’s a timeless roadster that’s aged well. You’re probably looking at a 20-year-old, 100,000-plus miles model here, but it never rains in England, anyway, so who cares if the roof won’t close?

From £1,895 Yes, you could settle for a good condition Z3, but where’s the fun in that? If it were our money, we’d aim for a ropey Z4 instead. It’ll probably suffer electric gremlins, but half the fun is fixing them, right? 

From £2,000 Can you really buy a Boxster for £2,000? Yes – a late Nineties, high miler, anyway. Should you? Probably not, unless you enjoy hard shoulders, but any Porsche at this price is a steal.