Shock horror – The Coupe is dead!!
Now let me explain:
With other models, such as hatchback, saloon, MPV etc., the design of the car is pretty much the same. If someone said to you that they have an estate, you have a pretty good idea what the car looks like. The Coupe models however are different, they are split into categories. Right at the top of the pecking order are the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Aston Martin. These aren’t Coupes, they are just automotive porn for a handful to have and the rest of us to drool over.
Next up in the Coupe categories are your track day cars: Lotus Elise/Exige, Ginetta, Caterham and the Aerial Atom. Great cars to throw around a track, but not really fitting for real life driving.
Then there’s the ‘Controversial Coupe,’ the car that the manufacturers class as a Coupe but the rest of us would say is a 3 door version of either the 4 or 5 door model, just like the BMW 3 Series. BMW call their 3 door version a Coupe and have done for years but look at it next to the 4 door variant and its defiantly a BMW 3 Series 3 door. VW have done the same really, but been a bit cleverer with it: the Scirocco is basically a Golf with a very pretty dress on. Also in this category are the Coupes which are 5 doors – WHAT!? For example, the VW Passat CC, (not to be confused with a cabriolet,) is a really nice car, but surely this is a Passat 5 door?
I’m not a big fan of this section but it seems to be very popular: the electric folding hard-top roof Coupe Cabriolets. All tend to be aptly called nearly the same: CC, C+C, CLC, CZC and Twin Top. These don’t seem to work very well as a Coupe and equally don’t seem to work very well as a Cabriolet either – pointless!
This seems to be the way the Coupe is being formed now, either by a 3 door variant of a good car or making a stupidly complicated and complex folding roof system that will always leak and when out of warranty will cost more than CAP’s valuation in winter months to fix every year.
Think back a good few years, there were loads of proper Coupes. Japan tended to produce the most – Toyota had 4! Paseo, MR2, Celica and Supra. Honda produced the CRX and Prelude and later the brilliant Integra. Nissan chucked a few in the pot too: 100NX, 200SX and 300ZX. A bit closer to home, Vauxhall had the Tigra and then the Calibra, (technically a Cavalier though.) Ford had the superb Puma and then the not so superb Probe which was closely followed by the Cougar. Renualt had its strangely styled Alpine. Even Hyundai had its own Coupe.
So discounting the Exoctic Porn Coupe, the hair-raising thrill-seeking Coupe, the Coupe that really isn’t a Coupe and the Cabriolet versions, what have we got left? I’m sat here now racking my brains to think of Coupes that are truly a Coupe and for the real world. All I can come up with is the Toyota GT86 (and of course Subaru’s version of the same car,) and the Audi TT. I may have missed a few but this shows that manufacturers are not investing money into this category anymore which is a real shame and that the true Coupe has now been laid to rest. Sad times.
You may be wondering why this is. I know the answer and even though I am saddened by the death of the Coupe, I am overjoyed with the reason for it.
The real killer of the Coupe is: The Hot Hatch!!!! (And yes, you have guessed it – there will be a post about it soon.)
Used Car Salesman 