The American love affair with the pickup truck is legendary. Yet, by the late 1980s, the era of excess began to blur the lines of automotive purpose. Manufacturers noticed that not every truck bed was hauling hay. Many were carting around surfboards, and other decidedly non-workplace accessories. The pickup had undergone a seismic shift: it was now a lifestyle vehicle.
Instead of resisting this new wave of conspicuous consumption, Dodge decided to strap on a Hawaiian shirt and jump right in. The mission: create a mid-size pickup that would drag people to look at the Dodge Dakota lineup.
According to the brand’s product planning chief, Bruce Benedic, the core idea came from Chrysler’s CFO, Jerry York. Sales of the standard Dakota were sliding from 100,000 units in 1987 to a disappointing 90,000 by 1989, making the need for a headline-grabbing vehicle critical. In this way the Dodge Dakota Convertible was born, the first factory convertible pickup truck on Earth.
Dodge realized that while many Californian custom shops were already butchering trucks by crudely hacking off the roof, they could produce a genuine factory model with the fit and finish of a regular Dakota. The base was the capable mid-size Dakota Sport, featuring engine options ranging from a four-cylinder up to a V8 Shelby edition. The crucial step was outsourcing the decapitation to the experts at ASC (American Sunroof Company), who had vast experience converting everything from a Saab 900 to a Toyota Celica concept into convertibles.
Early reviews were surprisingly positive, suggesting the loss of structural rigidity was barely noticeable. It retained all the core pickup functionalities, including the ability to carry a sheet of plywood, manage light off-road duties with the optional 4×4 drivetrain. Power came from a 3.9-liter V6 delivering a blistering 125 horsepower. Dodge thought it had created a whole new segment.
Reality was less accommodating. The public buying the Dodge Dakota apparently preferred having a roof. In the 1989 launch year, only 2,842 Convertible Sport models were sold. By 1990, despite adding a four-cylinder option, sales plummeted further to just 909 units. The final production year, 1991, (rumors say) has seen only eight models built. Dodge quickly killed it, possibly creating one of the rarest topless trucks of all time.
