Coupé de ville

[2] As speed and distances travelled increased, windshields were added to protect the driver from dirt from the unpaved roads and dung from draught animals.

[citation needed] Early roofs for the driver's area were made of a single skin of leather without any structural support, and were held in place between the passenger compartment and the windshield by poppers to allow for easy removal or rollback when the weather allowed.

[5] From the late 1920s onward designs used a metal two-skin roof which retracted into a void above the passenger compartment, either manually or electrically.

[6] Due to its use as a chauffeured vehicle, the passenger compartment was normally luxurious,[5] clad in the best materials, with seating for between two and most often up to six or occasionally eight persons, made of the finest cotton or silk adorned with brocade.

The same material was also most often used to provide complete curtain coverage for the compartment, and was matched by substantial carpet and fine inlaid woodwork.

[citation needed] In the United States, a coupé de ville with rear doors for the passenger area, no roof or sides for the driver's area, and a partition between the passengers and the driver[7] was referred to as a "town car" or "town brougham".

In strict terms, a brougham would have a sharply squared rear end of the roof and a forward-curving body line at the base of the front of the passenger enclosure.

[17] Due to its high-end luxurious form, bespoke commissioning and resultant design nature, and final high cost, coupés de ville of both types were hand-built in small numbers.

Due to its historic and luxurious connections, the term town car found early favour amongst many North America automobile manufacturers.

In 1922, Edsel Ford had a Lincoln built with a town car body for his father's personal use.

[20] Seeking publicity and building on his work with Studebaker, Raymond Loewy had two Lincoln Continentals altered to coupés de ville in 1946 using a removable plexiglas cover over the chauffeur.

[25] In 1940 and 1941, a limited edition model of the Cadillac Sixty Special carried the Town Car name.