A coupé or coupe (from the French verb couper, to cut) is a closed car body style, the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time. Coupés are often hardtopped sports cars or sporty variants of sedan (also known as saloon; see American and British English spelling differences) body styles, with doors commonly reduced from 4 to 2, and a close-coupled interior (i.e. the rear seat placed further forward than in a standard sedan) offering either two seats or 2+2 seating (space for two passengers in the front and two occasional passengers or children in the rear). Before the days of motorized vehicles, the word referred to the front or after compartment of a Continental stagecoach.

Pronunciation

In Europe (including the United Kingdom), the original French spelling, coupé, and a modified French pronunciation (English koo-pay IPAEng: kuːpeɪ), are used. The stress may be on either the first or second syllable; stressing the first syllable is the more Anglicized variant. Most speakers of North American English, at this time, pronounce coupé as "coop" (/kuːp/) and spell it without the acute accent (coupe). This was a gradual change from the original French pronunciation occurring prior to World War II. A very North American example of usage is the hot-rodders' term Deuce Coupe ("doose coop") used to refer to a 1932 Ford.

History

In the 19th century a coupé was a closed four-wheel horse-drawn carriage, cut (coupé) to eliminate the forward, rear-facing passenger seats, with a single seat inside for two persons behind the driver, who sat on a box outside (see royal carriage illustration, right). Commonly, a coupé had a fixed glass window in the front of the body, protected from road dirt by a high curving dashboard. A landau is a coupé with a folding top.

Through the 1950s opening-roof convertible automobiles were sometimes called convertible coupés, but since the 1960s the term coupé has generally been applied exclusively to fixed-roof models. Coupés generally, but not necessarily, have two doors, although automobile makers have offered four-door coupés and three- and five-door hatchback coupés, as well. Modern coupés often have the styling feature of frameless doors, with the window glass sealing directly against a weather-strip on the main body.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) distinguishes a coupé from a sedan primarily by interior volume; SAE standard J1100 defines a coupé as a fixed-roof automobile with less than of rear interior volume. A car with a greater interior volume is technically a two-door sedan, not a coupé, even if it has only two doors. By this standard, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, and Mercedes-Benz CL-Class coupés are all two-door sedans. Only a few sources, however (including the magazine Car and Driver), use the two-door sedan label in this manner. Some car manufacturers may nonetheless choose to use the word coupé (or coupe) to describe such a model, e.g., the Cadillac Coupe de Ville.