Remember the old Beach Boy's song, "Little Deuce Coupe"? Well it referred to a '32 Ford coupe like in the pic above. According to the dictionary, a coupe is a "closed 2 door car" and it always had been until about 6 years ago when Mercedes-Benz confused things by calling their then new CLS a four door coupe. Wait a minute, isn't a coupe a 2 door and isn't a 4 door a sedan, so what makes a sedan a coupe? I'm confused. According to M-B a very swoopy sedan was now a coupe and here is their proof.........
.......an absolutely gorgeous car, but hey, it's not a coupe. To my mind a coupe denotes a 2 door body style, no matter how coupe-like a 4 door sedan is. Confusing, but it sure has caught on with the German manufacturers.
Following Benz' lead, VW introduced their Passat CC with the same sort of "coupe" styling........
.......and then Audi kind of followed their lead with the A7, although it looks more like a big hatchback. Now BMW has finally taken the bait with their 6 series Gran Coupe.........
To my eyes this looks more sedan like than any of the others, although it is a beautiful car whatever one calls it.
Back to my original point.........why call these cars coupes when they are great looking sedans? Does the "coupe" designation add that much to their sales bottom line? Does it add anything? Would "Little Deuce Sedan" sound as good in a song? Questions to ponder over a beautiful almost Summer weekend.
Until next time.......
Isn't the answer obvious? Branding.
ReplyDeleteCoupes are for the young and free.
Sedans are for old men (think mid-1990s Buick).
It's the same reason that "wagons" are now "crossovers."
Until now, you had to ditch the "coupe" and get a ball-and-chain "sedan" (or even worse, a "wagon") as soon as a baby's car seat enters the picture.
Now you get to keep the coupe. At least in name.
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