Coupe

A coupé is a car bodystyle defined by a low, sleek profile and an emphasis on style and sportiness over practicality, traditionally taking the form of a two-door model with a roofline that slopes down towards the tail. The word derives from the French for "cut", originally describing a shortened horse-drawn carriage, and the spirit of that origin survives: a coupé is in essence a car whose passenger compartment has been trimmed and lowered for the sake of elegance and dynamics rather than maximum room.

The characteristic shape is the heart of the matter. A coupé carries a roof that is lower and more steeply raked than the saloon or hatchback it may be based upon, sweeping down behind the front occupants. This gives the car a taut, athletic silhouette and, as a by-product, a cleaner path through the air, since the falling roofline and shallow rear glass help reduce aerodynamic drag. Classically the body has just two doors, and the rear seats — where fitted at all — are smaller and harder to reach than in a four-door equivalent.

The benefits go beyond appearance. Lowering the roof tends to lower the whole car and its centre of gravity, which sharpens handling by reducing body roll and lending a more planted, agile feel through corners. The stiffer two-door body shell can also be more rigid than a four-door one, further aiding the responsive character that buyers of coupés generally seek. In short, the bodystyle aligns its looks with a promise of driving enjoyment.

Those gains come at the expense of usefulness. The sloping roof eats into rear headroom, the two-door layout makes access to the back seats awkward, and many coupés offer only token rear accommodation suitable for children or short trips. Boot space and all-round visibility are often compromised by the styling, so the coupé is rarely the rational choice for a family or for carrying loads.

The term has broadened considerably over time. Once it implied strictly two doors, but manufacturers now apply "coupé" to four-door saloons given a lowered, fastback-style roofline — the so-called four-door coupé — and even to tall SUVs whose roofs slope towards the rear, the "coupé SUV". Purists object that these stretch the definition, but in marketing the word has come to signal a sleek, style-led variant of almost any body type.

Within the family of sporting and stylish body styles, the coupé sits alongside the convertible, which is frequently a roofless derivative of it; the grand tourer, a larger, more luxurious coupé built for fast long-distance travel; the fastback, whose unbroken sloping tail it often shares; and the roadster, the open two-seat counterpart that pursues the same sporting ideal without a fixed roof.