Coupe

A coupe or coupé (/kuːˈpeɪ/, also US: /kuːp/) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors.

[5] There are two common pronunciations in English: A coupé is a fixed-roof car with a sloping rear roofline and one or two rows of seats.

[12] Similarly, in more recent times, when a model is sold in both coupé and sedan body styles, generally the coupe is sportier and more compact.

The 1977 version of International Standard ISO 3833—Road vehicles - Types - Terms and definitions—defines a coupe as having two doors (along with a fixed roof, usually with limited rear volume, at least two seats in at least one row and at least two side windows).

[17][18] Some manufacturers also blur the definition of a coupé by applying this description to models featuring a hatchback or a rear cargo area access door that opens upwards.

[19][20] Most often also featuring a fold-down back seat, the hatchback or liftback layout of these cars improves their practicality and cargo room.

[27] By the 1910s, the term had evolved to denote a two-door car with the driver and up to two passengers in an enclosure with a single bench seat.

Coupelet: A small car seating two or three with a folding top and full height doors with fully retractable windows.

[44][45] Safety regulations for roof structures to protect passengers in a rollover were proposed, limiting the development of new models.

[48] The 1921 and 1922 LaFayette models were available in a variety of open and closed body styles that included a close-coupled version featuring two center-opening doors on each side that was marketed as a Four-Door Coupe.

[50] More recently, the description has been applied by marketers to describe four-door cars with a coupe-like roofline at the rear.

Particularly popular in Europe, many cars are designed with coupe styling, but a three-door hatchback/liftback layout to improve practicality, including cars such as the Jaguar E-Type, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Datsun 240Z, Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, Alfa Romeo Brera,[57] Ford/Mercury Cougar[58] and Volkswagen Scirocco.

Features sometimes included a folding front seat next to the driver[60][61] or a compartment to store top hats.

In the United States, some coupes are "simply line-extenders two-door variants of family sedans", while others have significant differences from their four-door counterparts.