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The Curious Bag
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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.
Background
The coupé is derived from the single-seat two-passenger horse-drawn carriage. The 19th century hansom cab is considered a coupé.
Past and Present
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.
Early Definitions
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.
Opera Coupé
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.
Berlinetta
Contemporary coupés are sometimes identified as the berlinetta with the roofline sloping towards the rear, such as the fastback Ford Mustangs.
Four-Door Coupé
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.
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