Gone are the days when vehicle body types would fall into three or four major classifications. There seems to be a new type of vehicle filling a gap in the market, sprouting at least once a year. A once simple matter has now become increasingly complicated and, sometimes, strangely contradictory.
SUVs are large, powerful go-anywhere vehicles with a lot of space, but now we have compact SUVs that are economical and have almost zero off-road capability. Yet, they’re referred to as SUVs. And now we even have stranger vehicles like cross-sedans. But some terms have endured. Sedan still means what it used to. The same goes for the convertible. But can a sedan be a convertible?
The short answer is no. A sedan cannot be a convertible because the two are different body types. If a car has a soft-folding top or a retractable hardtop, it’s a convertible. Take a step beyond that, and a convertible can be a cabriolet or a roadster. What a convertible cannot be is a sedan.
However, convertibles can be made available in a sedan variation. And there can exist cabriolet or roadster versions of sedans. For example, you can buy a Mercedes-Benz C Class, which is a luxurious sedan. And you can also buy a Mercedes-Benz C Class Cabriolet. They may have the same name, and both may be very luxurious, but they are different body types.
What Then Is a Coupe?
A vehicle with two doors and a conventional trunk design is classified as a coupe. When you compare it to a sedan, you see that a sedan has four doors. Some coupes have roof panels that can be removed. But this does not make them convertibles. They’re just coupes with removable roof panels. Coupes also tend to have a sleeker, sportier look as compared to the more upright stance of a sedan.
This may make the coupe look more dynamic, but it loses out on practical aspects like rear headroom or cargo space. To make matters worse, you may have heard car manufacturers call certain models four-door coupes, but this category isn’t real. It only exists as a marketing gimmick. What that car is, is a sporty looking sedan.
