A coupé car, properly pronounced "coo-pay," is generally a two-door automobile with or without a pillar behind the doors. The definition has expanded to include four-door vehicles in the past decade. The coupé is derived from the single-seat two-passenger horse-drawn carriage. The 19th century hansom cab is considered a coupé. The term coupé has loosened over the decades to include a variety of cars, but in the pre-World War II era, coupés were broken down to include the club, business, opera and sports models. The club featured a large rear seat, which is now considered a two-door sedan, while the business coupé had a removable rear seat to accommodate storage of a salesman's products. Although used on a limited scale today, the opera coupé features small windows on the rear quarter panels behind the pillar on such luxury cars as two-door Cadillacs and Lincolns. Contemporary coupés are sometimes identified as the berlinetta with the roofline sloping towards the rear, such as the fastback Ford Mustangs. Less common but becoming more popular are the four-door or quad pillarless models such as the low-roof Mercedes-Benz CLS, Saab and Rover.Background
Past and Present
Early Definitions
Opera Coupé
Berlinetta
Four-Door Coupé
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