Is Your Car a Coupe or a Sedan?

Ask anyone who owns a car if it has two or four doors and there’s no doubt that they wouldn’t have to think about it before giving you an answer. Now, ask them if it is a Coupe or Sedan and it may take them a little longer to answer. So what is the deal with these terms anyway? If your car is a 2-door model is it necessarily a coupe? What about a 4-door hatchback? Is it a sedan, a wagon or just a hatchback? Although these questions may seem to be redundant to some they present real problems for anyone who is interested in modifying their vehicle’s appearance. Whether you want to install a vinyl dash kit, apply a pre-cut window tint kit or smoke out your taillights it is important that you know exactly how your vehicle is classified by the manufacturer and the various aftermarket accessory companies out there. In this brief guide we will try to simplify the confusion caused by the different naming conventions and help you get the exact product you need to make enhance the appearance of your vehicle.

Is It a Sedan?

The term sedan is used to describe any passenger car (which is why you never hear the term sedan pick-up) with a so-called three-box configuration. In other words there are 3 separate compartments for the engine, passengers and cargo. Yet, the defining characteristic of a sedan is the fact that the passenger compartment contains two rows of seats capable of accommodating adults. Sedans typically situate the cargo compartment in the rear with the notable exception of some rear-engine models.

Is it a coupe or a two-door sedan?

According the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines a coupe as any two-door model with rear accommodation greater than or equal to 33 cubic feet. This definition means nothing to me personally but if it makes sense to you more power to you. In essence, a two-door sedan is a rare beast and is just an exceptionally large vehicle that has only two doors.

I Think It’s a Coupe

A true coupe is generally a hard-top sports car or a sportier version of a sedan. As such the doors are generally reduced from 4 to 2 on coupe models. A convenient way to differentiate between a coupe and a sedan is he lack of a B-pillar to support the roof. Still, there is no general agreement amongst manufacturers as to what constitutes a coupe. Here is a quick reference guide to the different types of coupe you’ll find on the market:

• Club coupe: A coupe with a larger rear seat, which would today be called a two-door sedan.
• Business coupe: A coupe with no rear seat or a removable rear seat intended for traveling salespeople.
• Opera coupe: A coupe with a high roofed passenger compartment such that the owners could be driven to the opera without the need to remove their large hats. These opera windows were revived on many U.S. automobiles during the 1970s and early 1980s.
• Sports coupe or berlinetta: A body with a sloping roof, sometimes sloping downward gradually in the rear in the manner known as fastback.
• Four-door coupe: A sedan with classic coupe-like proportions.
• Quad coupe: Quad coupe is a marketing name for cars with one or two small rear doors with no B-pillar.
• Combi coupe: A term used by Saab for a car body similar to the liftback.

As you can see, there is no easy way to determine the difference between a coupe and a sedan but a good rule of thumb is to make your decision based upon the number of doors the vehicle has in absence of any other information. Fortunately, most mid-market cars don’t try to push the envelope and will abide by the 4-door/sedan and 2-door/coupe model.