Backseat Driver: Why Two-Doors Flew The Coupe

Guest Editorial From Jerry Flint, Forbes.Com 09.23.02

In case you are too young to remember, the two-door coupe once was the vehicle of choice of young singles and the livelier set. Older folks bought four-door sedans; young families opted for station wagons; and the young at heart, or reckless, bought convertibles.

Backs in the 1950s, '60s and early '70s, coupes were sleek and good-looking and made everything else--with the exception of convertibles--look dowdy. In those days almost every nameplate, whether compact, intermediate or full-size, offered one or more coupes.

The late, great Cadillac Eldorado

Why were coupes so popular? Price was one reason. In the 1930s, a four-door sedan might cost $800, the coupe $750. Fifty dollars was a lot of money back then.

Coupes of yesterday were quite attractive, especially when hardtops came along about 50 years ago. The hardtop eliminated the B pillar in the middle of the car. Hardtops covered with vinyl were sometimes called "hardtop convertibles," because they looked so much like ragtops. And as hardtops gained in popularity, the two-door sedans were often given the same dowdy styling as four-door sedans.

Then coupes nearly disappeared.

In the safety-conscious 1970s, manufacturers began replacing hardtops with models that had B pillars. Reason? The B pillar helps keep the roof up in rollovers.

And coupes became, well, inconvenient. Just try hooking a baby seat in the rear of a two-door and then belting the kid in. Cars got smaller as Americans got bigger, so that backseat became even tighter in a two-door.

The coupe market was also hurt as designers turned their attention to four-door sedans, and made them sleeker and more attractive than they had been in the past. And as product lines branched into minivans, sport utilities and the like, manufacturers cut costs by dropping lower-volume models.

The coupe versions of full-sized passenger cars, such as the Ford Crown Victoria, were discontinued years ago. Nameplates like Lincoln and Buick no longer offer coupes, and General Motors recently built its last Cadillac Eldorado, Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird coupes. In the 2001 model year, only 864,000 two-door coupes and sedans were built in the U.S., or 14% of the passenger car production.

Nevertheless, we are now seeing something of a coupe revival, and the foreign brands, once again, seem to be in the lead. The coming Nissan Infiniti G35 coupe (around $35,000) is a stunner. Volkswagen, apparently, has a Passat coupe in the works. Toyota sells the Camry Solara coupe, and Honda is rolling out its brand-new Accord coupe.

Coupes are not an afterthought at Mercedes-Benz, where about a quarter of its passenger car sales are coupes. Its entry-level coupe is the C230, the lowest-priced Mercedes here ($27,000). The bigger CLKs run between $45,000 and $55,000. The large CL coupes run from $90,000 to $120,000.

Most important to me is that the Mercedes CLKs and CLs are hardtops again, without the B pillar. Mercedes made their roofs and other pillars strong enough that these cars don't need a middle pillar.

Mercedes also has an advanced baby seat that can be used in the front seat instead of the rear. If Mercedes can do things like this, so can others.

What about Detroit?

Ford still has its Mustang, and DaimlerChrysler has the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus coupes, which are built off a Mitsubishi platform. Chevy has had some success with its Monte Carlo coupe. And Saturn will soon roll out its Ion "quad coupe," which has two additional small doors to make it easier to enter or exit the backseat.

OK, so where does the coupe market go from here? My guess is that coupes will never again be as popular as they were in the golden years. But manufacturers could do a few things to boost sales:

1. Coupes are fashion statements and fashion can fade fast. The four- or five-year design cycle for sedans doesn't work for coupes. It is no accident that the heyday of coupes coincides with the period of the annual model change.

2. Flashier designs are needed if coupes are to compete against today's attractive four-door models.

3. The industry has to follow Mercedes and make the front seat safe for babies and small children.

4. Designers need to figure out how to scoop out more room in the rear seat and improve access. The new Saturn Ion coupe is probably a step in the right direction. Even if the car companies make coupes flashier, roomier, safer for small passengers and more practical, I doubt they'll ever capture the magic of old-time coupes.

In my mind, nothing will ever match the Cadillac Coupe deVilles of the 1950s and 1960s.