Summer sampler: Ups and downs of convertibles

The car: The Continental delivers awesome thrust from a 552-horsepower, 12-cylinder engine. It also has a a luscious hand-built interior and it delivers the sort of buttery ride and just-right road feel you expect at this sort of price.

The cost: About $200,000

The top: As you might expect, Bentley designers and engineers spent an enormous amount of time making the cloth top on the Continental just so. When the power-operated roof is up, there's not a rib or ripple in sight. When in motion, no metal parts ever show. From inside, it's hard to tell the cloth top from a hard roof. Again, there are no ribs or creases and there's even a light in the back.

With the top down and the windows raised, the Continental GTC can be driven at high speeds with barely any wind noise.