March 7: VW Arteon - coupe or sedan

Definition: coupe - a car with a fixed roof and two doors

Just like that lovely 4 Series Bimmer in the pic above, a coupe had always been a two door car. This had been the case for years and years and years, but all that changed a few short years ago, when Mercedes introduced their very swoopy CLS........

.....and decided that the hell with it, this four door was going to be a coupe. Well, that was just plain wrong. Kinda like calling a square a circle, because it suited your marketing department. No matter how good looking the CLS was and man, was it ever good looking, this automobile was a sedan. Just because they called it a coupe, didn't make it thus.

Well good ol' Barry, your car guy, is spitting into the wind with this argument, because others have followed suit, since it suits them and they can't let Mercedes have the only four door two door (if you get my drift) car on the block. The other two big German luxury brands quickly stepped up to the plate. BMW followed with their 6 Series Gran Coupe.......

......followed by their smaller 4 Series Gran Coupe.........

........and Audi with their A5 Sportback........

Heck, even VW brought out their strangely named CC.......

With the possible exception of the VW CC, all were terrific looking, but why call them coupes, when they were sedans? Wonder what the Oxford dictionary's coupe defintion reads like these days?

So, your blogger is no longer going against the flow.......to an certain extent. I love and embrace these new designs, but will call them what I see fit. Anyway, when was the last time you saw a CC? There are a few around, but I'm sure it never lived up to VW's hopes and dream's sales in North America. That might change now, that the CC's replacement has been introduced today at the Geneva auto show's press preview. Of course, this depends, as always, on price and apparently this may hit our shores as a premium VW..

Behold, the new Arteon........

Now, there is a name that rolls off the tongue, second only to Nissan's Qashqai as unusually unusual names. No matter, this is one great looking coupe, oops, sedan, whatever. Right up there with the efforts of Benz and BMW, in my ever so humble opinion.

So as the coupe trend grows marginally (think of anyone else with a sedan coupe or coupe sedan?), I keep going back to their misnomer. I'll always wonder why Mercedes tried to re-invent or redefine a definition?Why did it take a renaming to start another niche in the car business? Questions for the ages.

Now, I wonder what other treats will spring forth from the Generva auto show?

Until next time.......