Sport coupé

This article is about the style of car body. For the champagne glass, see Champagne stemware.

A coupé or coupe (from the French past participle coupé, of the infinitive couper, to cut) is a closed two-door car body style with a permanently attached fixed roof. The precise definition of the term varies between manufacturers and over time.[1] The term was first applied to 19th century carriages, where the rear-facing seats had been eliminated, or cut out.[1]


In most English-speaking countries, the French spelling coupé and anglicized pronunciation /kˈp/ are used. The stress may be on either the first or second syllable; stressing the first syllable is the more anglicized variant. Most speakers of North American English spell the word without the acute accent and pronounce it as one syllable: /ˈkp/ . This was a gradual change occurring prior to World War II.[2] A North American example of usage is the hot rodders' term Deuce Coupe () used to refer to a 1932 Ford; this pronunciation is used in the Beach Boys' 1963 hit song, Little Deuce Coupe.


In the 19th century a coupé was a closed four-wheel horse-drawn carriage, cut (coupé) to eliminate the forward-mounted, rear-facing passenger seats,[1] with a single seat inside for two persons behind the driver, who sat on a box outside. If the driver had no roof over his head then it was a coupé de-ville. Commonly, a coupé had a fixed glass window in the front of the passenger compartment. The driver was protected from road dirt by a high curving dashboard. A landau is a coupé de-ville with a folding top. Where only the passenger compartment has a folding top but the driver remains covered, the style is known as a landaulet.


During the 1920s, the Society of Automobile Engineers suggested nomenclature for closed cars that included the following:[4]

Convertible coupé
A roadster with a removable coupé roof.


Definitions and descriptions



Manufacturers have used the term coupé in several varieties, including:

Club coupé
A coupé with a larger rear seat, which would today be called a two-door sedan.
Business coupé
Opéra coupé
A coupé de-ville 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 often had 'occasional' seats that folded for use by children or extra passengers, and allowed easy passage to the rear seats.[6][7] These cars most closely approximated a motorised version of the original horse-drawn coupé. Often, they would have solid rear-quarter panels, with small, circular windows, to enable the occupants to see out without being seen. These opera windows were revived on many U.S. automobiles during the 1970s and early 1980s.[8]
Sports coupé or berlinetta
Four-door coupé
A luxury sedan with classic coupé-like proportions. The low roof design reduces back seat passenger access and headroom.[9] The designation was first applied to a low-roof model of the Rover P5 from 1962 until 1973,[10] but was revived by the 1985 Toyota Carina ED, the 1992 Infiniti J30 and finally by the first model 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLS, which stands in Mercedes hierarchy between the E and S class, and has appearance of a classic coupe and sedan. The term was also used partly from marketing reasons. German press accepted concept of four-door coupe and adopted it to similar models from other manufacturers such as 2009 Jaguar XJ.[11][12][13][14] Also, other manufacturers accepted it, producing recent competing models like Volkswagen Passat CC, BMW F12 and even five-door coupe, Audi A7.[15] The organization ADAC on its website also adopted this concepts.[16] In Germany the definition of the coupe was finally divided into the classic coupe and 4-door coupe. This definition and concept of four-door coupe (instead of sedan) are evident in Germany, but they are not yet widely known in the rest of the world.
Quad coupé
Combi coupé
Combi coupé is a marketing term used by Saab for a car body similar to the liftback.[18]


Current usage

Today coupé has become more of a marketing term for automotive manufacturers, than a fact of the vehicle's design and technical makeup.[19] The term has been ascribed to vehicles with two, three, and now even four doors, for their perceived luxury or sporting appeal. This is because coupés in general are seen as more- streamlined and sportier overall lines than those of contemporary four-door sedans.[20] Hence a coupé would be marketed as a sportier vehicle than a two-door sedan.

While previous coupés were "simply line-extenders two-door variants of family sedans", some coupés have different sheet metal and styling than their four-door counterparts.[21] The AMC Matador coupe (1974-1978) had a unique design and styling sharing almost nothing with the 4-door versions.[22] Similarly, the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus coupes and sedans (late-1990 through 2000s) had little in common except their names, with the coupes engineered by Mitsubishi and built in Illinois, while the sedans were developed by Chrysler and built in Michigan.[23]

Even 2-door cars with a backseat are now being referred to as "sedans" in which the terms "coupe" and "sedan" are used interchangeably. Two-door sedans with front bench seating have phased out with the 1995-1999 Chevrolet Monte Carlo being the last model to offer it.

However, 2-door cars in general have fallen in popularity, with the popular exception of convertibles and 2-seat roadsters. Sedans, pickup trucks and SUVs/station wagons have had fewer 2-door models (especially ones with backseats) in recent years since the cost of 4-door cars has gone down along with engineering to ease access to the back seat area.

See also


External links

  • Coupé spelling by Cadillac 1
  • Coupé spelling by Cadillac 2
fr:Type de carrosserie#Coupé