Car classifications

[phuongtran]

Can anyone tell me how to tell the difference between a four-door coupe and a sedan; a two-door sedan and a coupe??????

That's been driving me crazy for months!!!

[Clique]

dont worry this drives everyone mad...
its one of those questions that cant be answered many people have tried answering the question but have perished in their quest...
(dont mind the sarcasm...but your last sentance was funny)

[Coventrysucks]

There are no hard-and-fast rules for alloting cars into specific groups.

The Mazda RX8 would be classed as a 4 door coupe, as it is more coupe like in styling and packaging than a "hatchback" or "sedan".

The Mercedes CLS is supposedly a 4 door coupe aswell, but that is more a marketing manouver to add distinction between it and the E class.

The majority of it is down to marketing and styling rather than anything else

[nota]

Originally Posted by phuongtran

Can anyone tell me how to tell the difference between a four-door coupe and a sedan; a two-door sedan and a coupe??????

That's been driving me crazy for months!!!

Well I'm going to risk it ..

Coupe is derived from the old French word 'couper' which loosely means 'to cut'

As applied to vehicles, my interpretation of what defines a vehicle as belonging to the coupe genre would centre on it having a roofline that is 'cut' or 'close coupled' .. in other words, the cabin is notably and disproportionately lower and/or shorter in its relationship to the lower bodywork than a 2 or 4 door sedan version would otherwise naturally/normally be

In addition to the above markers (but not solely by itself) a coupe may also feature a roofline than has a rakish taper, ie: fastback

[NSXType-R]

Oh this is easy. A 4 door coupe is a sedan with four doors with the styling of a coupe (low roofline etc.). A sedan has the four doors without the styling.
I've never heard of a two door sedan, but I'm guessing that would be a grand tourer, which has two seats in the back of a coupe to seat a total of four people. A coupe is just a car that has two seats. However, automakers have been stretching that more and more now.

[PininfarinaPIMP]

Well why call em convertibles, ragtops, droptops, dropheads, spyders, cabriolets, ect., ect....

[henk4]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

I've never heard of a two door sedan, but I'm guessing that would be a grand tourer, which has two seats in the back of a coupe to seat a total of four people.

ever seen a BMW 2002??

[Esperante]

Why don't chicken coups have four doors?
























Because then they'd be chicken sedans.

Rimshot, please.

[PininfarinaPIMP]

Leno move over...

[Egg Nog]

Just to clarify before anyone else misinforms you, the Mercedes CLS is absolutely not a coupe, regardless of what their marketing department may want you to believe.

[nota]

Originally Posted by Egg Nog

Just to clarify before anyone else misinforms you, the Mercedes CLS is absolutely not a coupe, regardless of what their marketing department may want you to believe.

Please expand & explain why CLS should not be considered a coupe?

It certainly meets my definition ..

[PerfAdv]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coupe

The CLS is a Sedan with a Coupe profile. They can call it anything they want but it doesn't change the fact the car has 4 doors. Two doors is a necessity for it to be considered a coupe.

The confusion for me lies with the likes of the RX-8, since it has more than two doors but the extra doors are auxiliary. Auxiliary, because I'm 6 feet tall and was able to slide into the rear seat of the RX-8 w/o opening the rear suicide door. Just slid the front seat up and squeezed in as you would in any 2-door.

CLS: sedan
RX-8: coupe with auxiliary rear seat access

[phuongtran]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

A coupe is just a car that has two seats. However, automakers have been stretching that more and more now.

A 4-seater with 2 doors is also considered a coupe, isn't it? And what about a fastback? i heard some pple call a 2-seater coupe a fastback. And that leads to the combi coupe. Any idea what it is?

[nota]

The word Coupe comes not from Ameri-speak. As I previously stated it originates from the French language

http://fr.wordreference.com/fr/en/tr...asp?fren=coupe

See above link for literal translations into English. These definitions variously describe:

"break, cut, cutting, cut-away, cut-down, chopped-off, disrupted, haircut, flat-topped haircut, gashed, profile, section, severed, shortened, thinning, etc

Two doors is a necessity for it to be considered a coupe.

Note that nowhere in all those French definitions for their word Coupe is there any reference whatsoever to your supposed Two Door mandate

As an aside, there seems no mention either to back Wikipeda's claim that Coupe is/was French for semi-open vehicle - in my view that specific automotive bodystyle belongs to Town Car genre

The CLS is a Sedan with a Coupe profile.They can call it anything they want but it doesn't change the fact the car has 4 doors.

You admit it yourself! CLS wears a coupe profile. Therefore it is a Coupe. The number of doors does not define a Coupe. Profile does

Btw do you categorise Rover P5B Coupe as a coupe or conventional sedan?

[PerfAdv]

Originally Posted by nota

You admit it yourself! CLS wears a coupe profile. Therefore it is a Coupe. The number of doors does not define a Coupe. Profile does

Btw do you categorise Rover P5B Coupe as a coupe or conventional sedan?

You are right about one thing, that sometimes manufacturers market their sedans as coupes using the French definition. The P5B coupe had a lower roof line, otherwise it was identical to the saloon version, complete with 4 doors. Rover called it a coupe as it was a more stylish version of the saloon. Mercedes has done the same with the CLS. However, as the word is understood and used in the automotive industry it applies to 2-door cars.

Nissan marketed the Maxima as the 4-door sports car. Is the Maxima a sports car? If so, the M5 is also a sports car but no it’s a sports sedan. The 4-door coupe phenomenon is nothing new per P5B coupe. Infiniti marketed the J30 as having a coupe-like profile but didn’t go far enough to call it a coupe. The new Lexus GS in a recent R&T article is described as coupe-like. But for some reason Mercedes took an extra couple inches off of the CLS’ headroom and called it a proper coupe.

Mercedes has traditionally used the ‘C’ in its nomenclature to designate coupes. The SLC, hardtop versions of the W107 SL; SEC, 2-door version of the W126; CE, 2-door models of the W123 and W124 cars. But in marketing cars in the US the designations took on a life of their own. ‘E’, which stood for fuel injection came to describe the W124 and subsequent ‘midsize’ Mercedes cars. The E stood for einspirtzen (sp?) not mid-size but that’s how it came to be used. In French the word coupe may not mean having two doors but the way it has come to be used and understood when classifying cars is just that.

In a competitive environment Mercedes and other makers try to set themselves apart by calling attention to their products by calling them with alluring and catchy names. The CLS has a very distinctive shape that is unlike any 4-door car. Very few cars are in this category, maybe the Aston Martin Lagonda. Mercedes have already achieved the goal partially since people can’t stop debating about their 4-door 'coupe'.

So the question, how do you classify a car that nestles between two distinct classifications? What is the coupe litmus test? If I took an E-class sedan and customized it my taking a few inches off the glass canopy and lowering the roof, would it become a coupe? No, even though the ratio of cabin to body would have changed be more coupe-like. Does Mercedes have the right to call the CLS a coupe? Yes. They can call it anything they want: Super-Duper-Ultra-Expealladocious 500 or SDUE500. They have that right. However, in classifying anything you have to use the accepted terminology to best describe what a particular object is. Some classifications are tough, for example the Platypus. It lays eggs, has a bill, and webbed feet but it’s not a bird. It’s a mammal. As far as cars are concerned, 4-door cars are sedans, marketing spins aside.



See what others are saying about the coupe question:
http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews...rcedes_cls500/
1st paragraph