• USA Today , Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:15 AM

Nissan's Infiniti has announced a new drop-top version of its G37 sports coupe. General Motors will deliver the Camaro convertible by June 2010. And Toyota's Lexus will unveil an open-air version of its sporty IS. All of them are targeted to empty nesters hitting their peak buying-power years and craving a little reward.

"It's one of those urban myths that's not a myth," says Jack Nerad, analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "There's a romance associated with them." The median buyer's age of one of the most popular convertibles, the Ford Mustang, is 44.

About 2% of car buyers will buy a convertible, says Tom Libby of Power Information Network. "It's small, but it's stable," he says of the market. And affluent. That's one reason some of the most prominent convertibles these days come from luxury brands, such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac. Most convertibles are variants of performance or specialty models.

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