Drop-Top Convertible Rental in Los Angeles

Why the roof stays down here

In most cities a convertible is a flourish. In Los Angeles it is the right tool for a specific job. It rains on something like three dozen days a year, the marine layer usually burns off by late morning, and the evenings hold their warmth into October. For most of the calendar there is no particular reason to put the roof up.

The job is the Pacific Coast Highway. From Santa Monica it runs the length of Malibu and on past Point Mugu — about two hours out and back with stops, the ocean on your left the whole way north. Inland, Mulholland Drive crosses the ridge above the city and the Angeles Crest climbs out of La Cañada into the San Gabriels. All three are better with nothing above you, and none of them care what badge is on the bonnet.

The objections — sun, wind, noise — matter less than people expect. Traffic on the 405 is no louder with the roof down than with it up, the roofs fold in seconds, and the share of the drive you actually see roughly doubles.

The open cars we hold

The cars above divide cleanly. Two seats and a low roofline: the Porsche Boxster, the BMW Z4 and the mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette. Four seats and a boot worth using: the BMW 430i and the Ford Mustang. Then the Mini Cooper Convertible, which is the one to take on a day that ends with finding a space on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

Pick by the road rather than the badge. The Boxster is the canyon car and the one to book for Mulholland. The Corvette and the Mustang are coast cars, happier on a long run north than on a hairpin. The 430i still works on Monday morning with two colleagues in the back. The Z4 is a two-seat roadster with room for one weekend bag, which is the correct amount of luggage for Santa Barbara.

If the brief is a luxury convertible rather than a sports car — a Rolls-Royce Dawn, a Lamborghini Huracán Spider — those sit with the sports cars, where the open-top exotics are grouped. Same booking, same delivery.

Cabrio, drop-top, roadster

Nobody agrees on what to call these cars. The trade says convertible, Germany says cabriolet and shortens it to cabrio, America says drop-top, and a strict two-seater is a roadster — or a spider, if it is Italian. We do not mind which word you use: a search for a cabrio rental in Los Angeles and a search for a drop top car end at the same short list of keys.

A large part of Los Angeles does its business in Spanish, and a fair share of the people who ask us about open cars ask in Spanish. This site is in English and we are not going to pretend otherwise, but the inbox is not. Si busca renta de carros convertibles en Los Ángeles, escríbanos en español: le contestamos el mismo día. Entregamos en hoteles, casas y oficinas de Los Ángeles, y también en LAX.

Booking a convertible in LA

You can rent a convertible in LA for a single day or for a month. Each car’s page carries its daily rate, with the five-day and twenty-one-day figures where that car has them — the Dawn and the Huracán Spyders do not, and hold one rate at any length — and the rates page carries the same, and a refundable security deposit is held against the car until it comes back.

Delivery goes to a hotel, an office, or a house you are renting — a short let or an Airbnb is an ordinary handover here, not a special case — and the Westside is the short half of the map: Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey and Playa Vista are routine, as is Malibu when the week is a beach week. It costs nothing at our four partner hotels in Beverly Hills — the Beverly Wilshire, the Four Seasons at Doheny, L’Ermitage and the Maybourne — or if you collect the car from the Robertson Boulevard lot; any other address is quoted with the car before you pay. Convertible car hire at LAX is the one that is priced rather than quoted, in two tiers and per direction: $75 each way leaves the car in the airport parking structure for you to collect off the free shuttle, and $150 each way brings it to the terminal. Send the flight number either way and it is timed to when the aircraft lands rather than when it was meant to. We collect it at the end, so there is no counter to find.

Drivers must be 21 or over with two years of licence history. Between 21 and 25 a young-driver fee applies, and on every open car on this page it is the lower of the two figures we charge — $50 a day, not the $175 the exotics carry. The higher fee is tied to a security deposit of $1,500 or more, and nothing on this shelf is near that line, so the exotic figure never lands on a convertible booked here. Twenty-one is the floor rather than the twenty-five most of this market insists on, and it is twenty-one on the exotics too: a twenty-four-year-old can take any of these cars. You will need your own full-coverage insurance, and the fee, the deposit and the cover are all in the quote at book now before anything is paid — as is the complimentary delivery to the three Beverly Hills hotels above, with the car at the address at the hour you name.

Every rental carries a daily mileage allowance, and the mechanic matters as much as the figure: it is quoted per day, multiplied by the days you have booked, and settled once when the car comes back rather than policed at midnight. Two hundred miles a day is the most generous band on the site and it belongs to the saloons and the SUVs; the exotics carry less, set per car rather than across a shelf. The drive this page is about is nowhere near either — Santa Monica out past Point Mugu and home is about ninety-five miles. Big Sur is another matter: Bixby Bridge is roughly three hundred miles one way and six hundred there and back, which is more than three days of even the generous band. So on a four-day run north, name the destination when you enquire and the allowance for the car you want is quoted with it; anything past it is charged per mile at a figure printed on the agreement before you sign. The mileage article works every drive out of Los Angeles against the number. Nevada and Arizona are possible on part of the fleet with notice, so a run past the state line is a conversation rather than a refusal; the rest is on the FAQ.

Same-day is often possible. Two or three days’ notice is what makes a particular car in a particular colour likely rather than lucky, and on a summer weekend it is what makes it available at all.

Will you bring a convertible to a house we are renting in Venice?

Yes, and it is an ordinary booking rather than a favour. Venice, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista and Santa Monica sit inside the Westside run the cars go out on every day, and a short-let house or an Airbnb is a handover like any other — the only real difference from a hotel forecourt is that somebody named on the rental has to be at the address to receive the car. We collect it from the same address at the end.

The money, exactly. A Venice address is not one of the four points where delivery costs nothing — those are our Robertson Boulevard lot and the four Beverly Hills partner hotels, the Beverly Wilshire, the Four Seasons at Doheny, L’Ermitage and the Maybourne. Any other address, Venice included, carries a delivery fee, and it is quoted with the car and shown in the total before anything is paid.

Six open models can come to the door: the Mini Cooper Convertible, the Ford Mustang, the BMW 430i, the BMW Z4, the Porsche Boxster and the Chevrolet Corvette Convertible. The daily rate for each is on its card at the top of this page and on the rates page. For a week in a Venice house the Mini is the one that parks on Abbot Kinney; the Mustang and the Corvette are the ones for the run north.

Can I take a convertible from Los Angeles up to Big Sur for four days?

Yes, and the thing to settle before you go is the mileage rather than the car. Bixby Bridge is roughly three hundred miles one way — about six hundred there and back. The allowance here is quoted per day, multiplied by the days you have booked, and settled once when the car comes back rather than policed at midnight. Two hundred miles a day is the most generous band on the site and it belongs to the saloons and the SUVs; the open cars are set per car rather than across the shelf. So name Big Sur when you enquire and the allowance for the car you want is quoted with it, together with the per-mile figure for anything past it — printed on the agreement before you sign, not discovered afterwards. The mileage article works every drive out of Los Angeles against the number.

I am 24 — will you rent me a convertible in Los Angeles?

Yes. Twenty-one is the floor here rather than twenty-five, with a licence held two years, so a twenty-four-year-old can take any car on this page. Between 21 and 25 a young-driver fee applies, and on every open car here it is the lower of the two figures we charge: $50 a day, not the $175 the exotics carry. That higher fee is tied to a security deposit of $1,500 or more, and nothing on this shelf is near that line, so the exotic figure never lands on a convertible booked here. The fee, the refundable deposit and the mandatory damage-and-liability cover are all in the quote at book now before anything is paid.

Will you bring a convertible to a house we are renting in Venice?

Yes, and it is an ordinary booking rather than a favour. Venice, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista and Santa Monica sit inside the Westside run the cars go out on every day, and a short-let house or an Airbnb is a handover like any other — the only real difference from a hotel forecourt is that somebody named on the rental has to be at the address to receive the car. We collect it from the same address at the end. On the money, exactly: a Venice address is not one of the four points where delivery costs nothing — those are our Robertson Boulevard lot and the four Beverly Hills partner hotels — so it carries a delivery fee, $150 in the online quote, itemised beside the rate, the cover and the deposit before anything is charged. What each point costs is set out on the delivery page.