Talk:Coupé

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Can anybody include a photo of a coupe???. Regards.

"However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists only "kupe" as a pronunciation and only "coupé" as a spelling, so both the accentless spelling and the two-syllable pronunciation might be considered recent variant forms."

This is, I think, incorrect. My OED gives the word "coupe" (no accent) as meaning "shallow glass or dish; ice cream served in a glass". The pronunciation given using IPA is "koop". For "coupé" (accented), it gives the IPA pronuncation as "koo'pa", though also notes that in American English the accent isn't used and the pronunciation is "koop". Therefore think the only conclusion that can be drawn is what was originally written in this article - that UK and European speakers use the two syllable form and American speakers use the single syllable form - recent variations don't come into it. GRAHAMUK 23:19, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Whatever the OED says, any American will tell you that "koop" is the universal pronounciation and "coupe" is the universal spelling in the US. The article takes a rather derogatory tone towards Americans for no good reason. Neither pronunciation is "correct" and claiming that Americans are incapable of "understanding" the accent is just flat-out offensive. The Washington Times uses "coupe" [1], as does Chevrolet [2]. 75.15.117.51 18:08, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Technically speaking, it should be spelt coupé and pronounced with two syllables, as it's a French loanword and this follows the French. It just comes down to how close you want to stay to the word's French roots. Normally though, in the US words are anglicized more. Morrad 22:08, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
The French words coupe and coupé mean two completely different things, the first is indeed a shallow glass or bowl (as in 'cup'), the second is the past tense of the verb couper, to cut. Since the car body style refers to the 'cut' meaning as explained in fr:coupé, the right term for the body style is 'coupé'. Calling it "koop" is just ignorance. MH (talk) 21:04, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Quad Coupe — 4-door coupe?

The 2004/5 Saturn ION Quad Coupe has two doors and two suicide doors. According to some sites, including some blue book directories, the Quad Coupe is defined as a 4-door coupe; however, according to Princeton University's WordNet 2.0, a coupe is "a car with two doors and front seats and a luggage compartment". What is the precise terminology for this body style? Thanks. Adraeus

Good point. Strictly speaking, "coupe" does NOT mean "2-door". Historically, there have been MANY 2-door sedans and four-door coupes. The Saturn is a great modern example of the latter. Most automotive journalists use coupe to mean a car which has very little or no back seat, while a sedan offers full-sized seats in the rear. I've also seen specific volume numbers to differentiate the two. Actually, the best differentiator is in the manufacturer's eyes. A Cadillac Coupe de Ville is a sedan, strictly speaking, but if Cadillac wants to call it a coupe, who's to tell them otherwise? We should ammend the description on the page. Thoughts? --SFoskett 01:49, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
Here's a newer example, the Mercedes-Benz 2006 CLS500 Coupe with a four-door design. The media [3] has trouble believing that coupes can actually have four-door designs, so they mention "four-door design" once and then persist in incorrectly describing the vehicle as a sedan. Adraeus 20:10, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A BUICK???!!!

Can we get a better example photo? I mean, really, there's not much cool about a Buick Rivera--coupe or not.

Let's have a Rover P5B Coupé. The most evil looking four door coupe ever..

In your opinion. The Riviera pic is fine where it is. --ApolloBoy 02:24, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mazda RX8

This car is a coupe too. The most unusual thing about it is the rear doors you can open in the 'opposite' usual way....

[edit] My definition of a coupe

1. It must always have no more than two real doors (quadcoupes don't count).

2. It must not have a hatch. If so, it is a hatchback. 67.188.172.165 00:46, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article unclear

Maybe I'm just dumb, but I can't figure out by reading this article and the sedan article what the difference is between one and the other (interior rear volume is mentioned). IS there a difference? Coupés look like Sedans to me... at least the photos look alike. I imagine the lines must be blurred, but is there any intuitive distinction? Maybe a coupé is a SMALL closed car with a trunk and a sedan is a LARGE closed car with a trunk? (I insist: I don't know what either is right now).

The above mention that coupés are not HATCHBACKS would also help... I assume those are what in my national market are called "monovolumes"...

BTW, maybe some mention of international marketing terminology, or reference to an article with that information, would be of help. I just read below that hatchbacks are called squarebacks in Germany, for example. It's all a bit confusing.

You are not the only one. Sedan specifically relates to a "saloon" in British English (the article says so), which is a car with a trunk/bootlid that does not raise the rear window (ie you couldn't touch the person's head sitting on the back seat if you lifted a saloon's bootlid). Many coupes (including my own Hyundai Coupe/Tiburon) lift the glass like a hatchback. It does have frameless front windows, but I the B-pillar is structural (the seat belts are mounted from it) although the glass is styled to disguise this from the outside. But how would that make it a "sedan / saloon" as it doesn't affect the boot! So is a Hyundai "Coupe" a coupe, sedan, 2-door hatchback or something else?! (It's certainly NOT a "saloon" in British English terms.) I think the primary distinction at the start based on rear seating being non-existent or for occasional passengers only is also a bit unclear, as there are "coupes" from BMW and others where the seats are full size (the Hyundai is really a 2+2 though). Halsteadk (talk) 11:36, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
I think we have to accept that the term is abused by manufacturers in order to market their cars as more sporty. Also, there is overlap in many car body style terms; 2+2, liftback, hatchback, saloon, and coupé are not mutually exclusive in my understanding. (Although "hatchback" and "saloon" used to be, before notchbacks were so common as they are now.) Strictly, they describe a bunch of different things (seats, rear doors, etc.) and are applied to cars to give a bit more information than the conventional "car class" names which just describe size really (supermini, compact, small family car, etc.) My first car, for example, was based on the estate-version chassis of a "medium family saloon" design but was described as a "fastback coupé" — and was a 2+2 into the bargain! ;-)
I believe the article shouldn't try to define the term, merely to describe this ambiguity. – Kieran T (talk) 12:02, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Excessive Euroiron?

Do all the the pictures need to be of European coupes? How about a little more diversity? RivGuySC 02:57, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

There are two DaimlerChryslers (the Mercs) and a Ford (the Volvo)... ;-) – Kieran T (talk) 08:50, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

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Huh, and I was just going to give my old car as a good example of how you can see all three common terms in one model range, at the same time being twisted a good deal to suit the manufacturer's marketing intents :) The old (80s/early 90s) VW Polo... mine was a 'hatchback' (or squareback, to make a direct translation from German 'steilheck' as in the user handbook), essentially a small-volume (but still surprisingly capacious) 3 door estate/station wagon with the steepest tailgate you ever saw outside of a Smart or a Fiat Cinq (but still with what appears to be a nod towards the Kamm method of aerodynamics improvement - a knee halfway down where it becomes completely vertical til it meets the bumper); also available were the 'saloon' (notchback sedan) and the 'coupe' - actually a more generic type of hatchback with about a 45-degree tailgate that hinged much further forwards on the body - though you could well argue that this reduced the interior volume significantly enough to qualify. All three sharing the same main floorpan and forward body panels, but different bodywork rear of the doors (especially the notch having the sealed window and luggage box seemingly cut-and-shut welded to the rear of a perfectly good supermini hatchback), and different engines/transmissions/trim levels available as fitting to their perceived market segments - meek engines with short gearboxes and ghetto trim for the hatch, to make it an efficient shopping cart but still able to squirt into gaps in city traffic, barely more powerful ones with long gears and plush interiors for the saloon (a comfortable but economic long-range cruiser), and a full range from underpowered poverty spec through comfortable GT to supercharged hot hatch setups for the coupe (cool kids' cheap first cars to boy racers). As well as just a(n often terminologically abused) physical shape distinction, it seems also to often be a marketing ploy or a metaphor for a driver's state of mind and attitude.
PS I didn't really notice much bias to the article, it seemed fairly well balanced, or at least, gave the information that was needed and any imbalance would really be quite irrelevant. I even feel a bit amused at the american backlash - consider the deluge of content the average euro puts up with that is strongly or completely US-oriented/biased in the course of researching and learning things... and i'm sorry to say our perception of many of your countrymen can be of someone who is... aheh... a bit simple. Probably the effect of the last few presidents (however intelligent they may actually be, their media presence suggests otherwise) and the swathe of fuddle-headed tourists who have nothing better to do with their money than go on a cliched european tour. But I digress... :) - Tahrey, 13/1/07
Yeah, I always thought that Polo was a fascinating bit of marketing. Complicated further by the way the "coupé" was the same shape as the original "standard" hatchback, before they brought out the "squareback" one and made it seem like the standard model. Curious that you mention the term "squareback" being in the owner's manual. With the older VW Type 3, the official name for the estate shape was "Variant", but lots of people call it squareback. Presumably something is getting lost a bit in translation and steilheck is a common(ish) term in German?
As for the bias, I agree, I don't think it should have cars from every continent just for the sake of it - the current examples are a good mix, and crucially, most of them (if not all) are sold in the Americas so the readership there will recognise them. Let's for heaven's sake not let political correctness stretch so far as cars! (I feel the need for another ;-) here!) – Kieran T (talk) 23:03, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More 4-door coupés

Wouldn't the following cars qualify for a mention in the section about four-door coupés?

The Seventh Taylor (talk) 21:44, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Including ever more "examples" of 4-door cars would be promoting the manufactures' marketing efforts to make their sedans seem more "sexy" and appealing to customers! After all, the "traditional" coupé automobile has 2-doors with either two seats or perhaps as a 2+2 arrangement for an occasional passenger in the rear seat. All of the examples provided above are regular sedans featuring very steeply raked rear windows and high trunk lids to increase cargo space capacity. The problem is that new aerodynamic vehicle designs are helping automakers blur the traditional design distinctions and marketer's try to exploit the definitions of design names, such as coupé and fastback help to make their models more "sporty" than simply the 4-door sedans that they are! — CZmarlin (talk) 02:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)