We do indeed need something different. One undeniable fact is that there are a lot of four door crossovers out there. Looking out the window now, this type of car fills virtually every space at my office.
source: The Bishop What is worse is that it is increasingly difficult to tell a Maserati crossover from an Alfa crossover from a Genesis from even less expensive examples. At some point, if a manufacturer offered something that stood out, it might be at least a minor success. Let’s take a look at coupes. Here’s a body style that was everywhere in the seventies, particularly ‘personal luxury’ coupes like Cutlasses and Monte Carlos. These were just run-of-the-mill sedans with two less doors and slightly flashier styling, but they sold like crazy. Practicality was compromised a bit with the longer doors, but not horribly so.
source: Mecum, Consumer Guide, GM Authority Eventually with changing tastes the market for two doors slowly evaporated until it was almost gone by around the year 2000. If you’re driving a new closed coupe today, it’s likely a luxury brand:
source: Bentley and Car & Driver Could this body style pick up on some of those brand’s glamor by adding a ‘halo’ vehicle to a more pedestrian car model? It could be worth a shot. The fact is that many buyers rarely use the back seat of their car. This is especially true if you don’t have a family to cart around, or if said family has a separate SUV at home. Forty years ago, a four door sedan (or wagon, which is really what crossovers are) would be considered a mom-and-the-kids car and not something an even halfway hip single person or young couple would mess with. I mean, if coupes aren’t cool, then why did so many manufacturers create these rather unconvincing ‘fake coupes’ with the ‘hidden’ rear door handles? Nobody is fooled! The proportions are laughably off.
source: Edmunds and Toyota Both manufacturers and buyers used to like closed coupes since, unlike convertibles, they really didn’t cost much more to build or purchase than a sedan; flash for little extra cash. How could this work? Here’s an example. Let’s take a popular current crossover, the Mazda CX-9.
source: Mazda We’ll make it a two door. If any manufacturer had the guts to do this they would likely go with fixed rear quarter windows but for fun I did go full-on old school fabulous with a pillarless configuration. Other than missing one set of doors, a slightly thicker C pillar, and a reduction of the rear window frame-and-duck-bill-spoiler to give the impression of more of a fastback, this thing is identical to the original four door (again, the hatch is the same just a different window surround). But roll down all four windows, open the panoramic sunroof and let the sun shine on the leather seats and you have something that seems ready for the country club, not Chuck E Cheese’s.
source: Mazda and The Bishop With crossovers, a few have tried convertibles other than Range Rover and the much-derided Murano, but they look rather silly, kind of like people sitting in a big ride-on toy. Not many manufacturers have tried coupes, other than the ‘coupe’ name being used for the crossovers with a low roof or fastback, and still four doors, so it really isn’t a coupe at all. [Editor’s Note: I’m wondering how two-door SUVs in the past fit into the concept of a crossover coupé? Like, would the two-door variants of, say, Jeep Cherokees be considered coupé versions of the four-door ones?
Those long windows do feel divergent enough from the four-door design that I’d think these were, essentially coupé SUVs. Just thinking. – JT]
Could the two-door coupe make a comeback, but in the form of a crossovers? Is it a quick path to creating something new from an old idea, or something that should stay relegated to the disco days?
Those pics that DT posted of Cherokees really drive home the point. Once you see the two door, the four doors just look like something someone under fifty and/or with no kids would not be seen in.
That said, I personally would love this. At 6’2″ with a backbone that is about as flexible as a glass rod, an extra 6″ in door length would ease entry and exit tremendously. I constantly hit the b-pillar door jamb getting out of my sedan.
If only it weren’t unnecessarily impossible for anybody but the original manufacturer to certify a car for the US market….
The reason we don’t have two door versions and non-xUV options is because the law is designed to enable market manipulation. Why undercut yourself by bringing your hatchback to the US market if you can simply choose not to and sell Americans the “SUV” version (which in some cases is the same car with some cladding and stupid wheels) for a lot more money?
Oooh – two doors and two seats! Then you can run a stiffener/bulkhead behind the seats, have more cargo room, and four opening windows!
They’d sell… dozens. Rats. Ok, maybe not.
I don’t think that’s true, else four door trucks wouldn’t be such a thing.
It’s much about image. I don’t believe that everyone that buys pickups (or Jeeps) really needs them, but they compromise what they really need because they like the image.
The rear doors also help on the truck since there is no standard ‘trunk’ and you throw a lot in the back seat
I do like the look of a true coupe, and no you silly Germans, calling a 4 door a gran coupe does not make it a coupe, and now that my son is on the verge of fledging and leaving the nest, my next car may be some form of coupe such as a Challenger.
Right when I graduated college, I was surprised to see that all of my peers were buying what I called “default sedans”. These were cars that weren’t particularly exciting — just “some car” — Altimas and Malibus, and Sonatas, and Accords and such. With everyone being childless and most single, the rear doors rarely saw any use, but sedans were still the default. Then, as they started families, everyone seemed to trade up to an SUV or crossover… y’know… because they needed “something bigger” to fit a child seat, even though child seats have been fitting in sedans for decades.
At the other end of the age spectrum, I see retirees buying SUVs not because they need the space for passengers or cargo but because they’re so much easier to get in and out of [you know]. The back doors are still rarely used, but this demographic goes for the SUV body style because nobody makes anything that’s both tall and small. Your SUV coupe would be ideal for a driver in this situation.
True, my wife may be taller than most women, but this was my experience.
Now, in the luxury market we do see crossovers trying to look sexy. The whole “coupe SUV” concept is basically just a crossover with a swoopier roof. You’ll note though that nobody actually deletes the rear doors, because that would make the car less usable. Nobody really cares about the four-door look anyway, just the silhouette.
That said, I think the market is pretty content for now with the fake coupe (four door with a stupid roofline) crossover.
Modern CAD and sheet metal forming has already solved the problem in a much better way.
Rear doors integrated into the rear quarter panel is the solution that will almost always be worth the effort and almost fully negates the desire for a two door SUV.
But if we can’t have coupe crossovers, I find just lowering the overall height a little makes a world of difference for me. Squashing the crossover as it were.
Crossovers still largely have SUV proportions and while I hear all the time “it’s great to sit up high”, I don’t think that’s the big reason why they sell…I think it’s the space and ease of using it. A squashed crossover gives most of that with a vastly more appealing silhouette.
Good piece of evidence is the Chinese-market Ford Evos. Not as low as a sedan but not as tall as a crossover (that white space thing Ford keeps talking about). The more I look at it, the more I like it – come on Ford, Fusion Active it already!!
Now let’s talk about smaller cars and their goofy tiny four doors. I think once you get down to a certain size 2 doors are much more useful, better visibility and better design looks. Would be curious to see what the smaller SUVs would look like as coupes, like the former CX-3.
