There’s only one way that the Fiat 124 Spider should be driven. And that is with the top down! I was hoping for that to be the case during my early-spring week with the 124 Spider but the weather didn’t cooperate. Top-up driving is one of those necessities to keep the rain out and the heat in, and that’s what I needed. Or, on a really hot and muggy summer day, the cooled and conditioned air keeps your hair from frizzing.

The trade off to have open-air driving is the reality that a fabric-top convertible is typically a bit noisy in the cockpit --- unless it happens to be a Rolls-Royce. The audio system, in my view, is good for listening to the news or spoken word, but you really can’t enjoy any music. In the case of the 124 Spider, I listened to the exhaust note and the sound of the engine revving.