1942 Dodge Custom Club Coupe. Photo from www.barrett-jackson.com.

Previously we have covered Club coupes and Business coupes in Car Body Styles: What is a Club Coupe? and Car Body Styles: What Is  A Business Coupe?. Realizing that the coupe family extended through many different sub-styles, we decided to cover all the branches of the coupe tree in one brief article. Obviously we will bypass the Club coupes and Business coupes as they have previously published articles in their own right.

1941 Chrysler Business Coupe. Photo from www.autogeekonline.net.

Generally speaking, a coupe is a closed-body, two-door car that is smaller and viewed as “sportier” than sedans. Coupes have two or four seats and usually designed to only hold four occupants. They are usually smaller than the four-door in the same model line and not to be confused with two-door sedans.

Modern car manufacturers define a coupe as a hardtop, two-door car with less than 33 cubic feet in the rear. Car with over 33 cubic feet and only two-doors are considered simply two-door sedans. In addition, many car manufacturers had called convertibles with retractable hardtops as “convertible coupes,” which muddies up the coupe definition.

Other marketing terms applied to coupes with our definitions:

Business Coupe – See: Body Styles: What Is  A Business Coupe?

Club Coupe – See: Body Styles: What is a Club Coupe?

1915 Ford Coupelet. Photo from www.rmsouthebys.com.

Coupelet – A Ford marketing term used to describe a Model T convertible with a cabriolet top starting in 1915. The term coupelet was a mash-up of coupe and cabriolet.

Five-Window Coupe – A typical two-door coupe with five windows behind the windshield. One window on each door, one quarter window and a rear window.

1936 Ford Five-Window Coupe. Photo from www.hemmings.com.

 Hatchback Coupe – A modern era coupe that is designed with a larger luggage compartment that borders the passenger compartment. This luggage compartment is accessed by a hatchback liftgate.

Opera Coupe – A two-door car with a permanent front bench seat with a passenger compartment behind with “occasional” or jump seats for extra passengers. With a high roof in the rear passenger compartment and small oval or circular windows in the rear that allowed the occupants to see out without being seen. These opera windows have been popular in many different designs throughout the years, most recently in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

1929 Ford Model A Opera Window Coupe. Photo from www.mecum.com.

Sedanet – The term Sedanet and Sedanette have been used to describe a club coupe with a fastback design. While they may identify as Coupes, these are technically sedans because of the passenger space but are often called Sedanets or Aero Coupes.

Sports Coupe – These smaller coupes have no B-pillar and usually have a sloping back, or fastback style rear. Older models were equipped with a rumble seat in the rear deck for additional passengers.

1933 Ford 3-Window Coupe. Photo from www.hemmings.com.

Three-Window Coupe – A fixed top, two-door coupe with three windows behind the windshield. One window on each door and one rear window. There are no quarter windows in this model.

No, we aren’t going to entertain the terms “four-door coupe”, “drophead coupe”, or “fixed -head coupe”. Stay tuned for the next article in our “Body Styles” series.