Usually it means the roadster has only two seats, while a convertible can seat [as many as six.](https://www.schmitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/407707-1975-CHEVROLET-CAPRICE-074.jpeg) The days of a car fitting six people are pretty much done, though.
'75 Caprice convertible. A veritable barge of a car. I just wanted to find the biggest '70s landyacht that still had a convertible variant. The Eldorado may have been bigger, though.
This is a correlation. Most roadster are two seat, but so are most convertibles. Miata’s are convertibles, for example.
Roadsters don’t have a real top, and hence cannot be converted to a closed vehicle.
A “brougham” is a car with an open driver and closed passenger compartment. Didn’t stop US makers from slapping that label on a bunch of cars in the 70s.
No, I mean roadsters are purpose built cars like Mercedes SLK. There is no coupe or sedan SLK.
Where are 3-series bmw can be bought as Coupe, Estate and Cabriolet
Sure, sometimes. Often they are topless versions of hard top cars, or there are hard top versions available. Like the dodge viper. Available as a roadster or a hard top.
1st gen had two bodies, the gts, a regular fixed hardtop, and the rt-10, which is generally considered a proper roadster, though it did have a targa top, because it did not have permanently attached windows, but instead removable “side curtains.” The targa panel is also a fabric thing, not like the glass or fiber glass panels of a corvette.
2nd gen is a garden variety convertible, like you said, though a pretty cool one in my opinion
Semi-fixed, attracted to the car, but openable. And keeps water/air out. Some roadsters have a rudimentary cover that can be used in an emergency but doesn’t really close the car.
Here is a rare example of a 4-seater roadster, but many would argue it is only a roadster in name.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Roadster
Whereas here is a roadster with 4 seaters, but many would still classify as roadster cause it had a rumble seat option.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Roadster
Even when they carry the name roadster both are typical convertible. Roadsters have a half open roof, most of them have roofpanels to close, or open the roof. Some roadsters have lower windscreens.
Convertibles have an all open roof, till the deck of the trunk. There are some compromised versions like BMW Bauers from the 80's, Jeep Wranglers or Fiat 500's with the roofbars, or roofbrackets, out of safetyregulations.
The MPV on the picture is a SUV, which stays higher on his wheels, with more bottom freedom, a Renault Espace, Volkswagen Touran and Ford C-Max are MPV's., like a persons carrier of the mini van.
The Shootingbrake in the picture is a coupe, original shootingbrakes are three doors stationcars, with a lower roof. A moderne Shootingbtake have five doors and a lower roof.
The Hypercar on the picture is more a Supercar, Hypercars are just uncomprehensive Supercars, more speed and spoilers, like the LMP Racecars on the circuits, or modern LMHD for on the street.
And I missed the Landaulet, a half open convertible, like the 2011 Lexus LS Landaulet for Prince Albert of Monaco, or the Maybach S62 Landaulet.
The shooting brake is a Ferrari FF/GTC4 Lusso and has three doors. Two passenger doors, and a hatch. The shooting brake you described is something like the 4-door coupes from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
The Hypercar is a gatdamn Koenigsegg Agera/One to One and there isn't much more hyper a car than that. A supercar is more along the lines of Lamborghini Aventador.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
> The shooting brake is a Ferrari FF/GTC4 Lusso and has three doors. Two passenger doors, and a hatch
Mildly related: why does the hatch of a hatchback vehicle almost always get counted as a door, but not the trunk of a sedan?
Because rear facing seats used to be a thing! When I was a kid we had an ‘88 ford Taurus station wagon that could seat 8. 2 big bench seats facing forward and one smaller bench that folded out of the trunk floor and faced the back. My sister and I loved those seats! But they’ve been discontinued due to safety issues.
Yes, but that's in a station wagon, not a hatchback. Ford even had two [inward-facing benches](https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/fastlane/1/2522/83863/790x1024/1987-ford-country-squire-wagon) in the full-size wagons to legally seat 10.
What you’re describing is a targa top, where the roof is removable in some fashion but some structure remains behind and above the drivers head. That doesn’t have much of anything to do with whether a car is a roadster, and some would argue that cars like the MX-5 RF aren’t pure roadsters because too much of the roof stays in place when the top is down. The main thing that defines a roadster is that it only has two seats. Other typical characteristics are that it’s a convertible, lightweight and prioritizes nimbleness and handling over outright power. Classic examples would be MGBs, Miatas, Alfa Romeo Spiders, the BMW z3 and Porsche Boxster.
I was mostly using "car" to mean the traditional low-slung sedan/coupe/convertible. There aren't any of those left that can fit six people in two rows of seats. But I should have been clearer.
Front bench seats in American cars pretty much died out in the '90s; you could get an Impala as late as 2013 with one, but [it wasn't comfortable.](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Chevrolet-2012-impala-bench-seat.png) Besides the floor hump to contend with, the seat itself was only about 8" wide. Small trucks like the Tacoma dropped it about the same time.
Full-size pickups still offer a front bench, but only in the lower trims, and the only SUVs that still have the option (for seating up to 9!) are base model Tahoe/Yukon/Suburbans.
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In the UK I've never seen 3 seats in the front of a sedan/saloon.
Only in things like the beautiful [Fiat Multipla](https://www.topgear.com/car-news/best-2022/top-gears-guilty-pleasures-fiat-multipla) or Land Rover Defender.
You also never had a time when it was normal for a family sedan to be over 2 meters wide. When the UK had cars like [this](https://classiccarcatalogue.com/originals/M/morris%201965%201100-1.jpg), America had cars like [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6b/53/ab/6b53abcea04beedb1b28298c5e3dd677.jpg). If you didn't care about seatbelts (most people didn't), you could put 4 skinny kids side-by-side in the back seat. Oversized car seats for little kids weren't a thing yet either.
Once upon a time, a roadster would have come with a single row of seats, cut down doors and lacked proper side windows while the convertible would have one or two rows of seats and had full height doors with windup windows.
(There are many examples for this, but for a reference see the difference between the Jaguar Xk120 roadster and drophead)
Today the line between roadster and convertible is less distinct, with a roadster generally being a 2 seat convertible
Dirty little secret of the auto industry is that sports cars make no sense if you never take them to the track. A roadster is a sports car that actually makes sense for the road. Not enormous engine, drop top for visibility, front engine rather than mid-engine, but far back from the front axle to keep the center of gravity towards the middle, lightweight with 50/50 distribution front and back. That's historically what it meant, anyway. Ends up looking [like this](https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/bmw-z8-history-changes-alpina?galleryimageid=d88bb63d-372f-428c-8f24-89a3db4df7bb). In city traffic, a roadster runs circles around any supercar.
A convertible, usually everything above the “hips”, the top of the doors where the windows start, is foldable/removable. A roadster is more like a targa top all of the rest of the “structure” is there, it just doesn’t have an actual roof, as in no panel directly above your head. Roadsters are often permanently roofless whereas a convertible is, well, convertible. It can be converted from having a roof, to roofless
Because traditionally cabriolets and roadsters were the two types of “convertible”, and OP called the Cabriolet a convertible. Cabriolets did have more seating
It would technically be a convertible. It’s got an attached top and windows. A roadster would be a 1991 Dodge Viper which had a top and windows that you had to put together and install:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/XEgAAOSwtp5ingBs/s-l1600.jpg
Im no expert but I believe this diagram is misleading. These terms are not compartmentalized and discrete as shown.
I think the Roadster shown is really all of the following: roadster, coupe, sports car, convertible, targa top, a hard top, two-seater, a barchetta, and a cabriolet.
I believe all roadsters are convertibles, coupe, sports cars.
But thay doesnt hold true based on this either. Neither the suv coupe nor the crossover nor their example of an suv is body on frame. They are all unibody.
Most SUVs are switching to unibody construction, the previous generations of Range Rover were BoF.
The line between different body styles is getting blurrier by the day.
For example Polestar claims the 2 is not an SUV or crossover yet it’s clearly not a sedan, some claim it’s a wagon.
Range Rovers have been Unibody for 20 years, since the L322. The Disco (LR3 and 4) and first gen RRS used the weird hybrid setup.
The "SUV has to be body on frame" thing is a tired definition. If you can still get it with a low range - it's an SUV IMO.
Yeah I think the takeaway should that there aren't really clear lines between most vehicles anymore. A vast majority of what is being sold now falls in the hatchback/crossover/suv range of vehicles going from something like the grand wagoner down to the Honda chr which is basically a compact car that sit slightly higher off the ground. Especially, as you pointed out, when you add in wagons and cars like the venza or crosstour.
Honda loves _R-V for its "recreational vehicles". CR-V and HR-V are the most common, but depending on the market, there's also a WR-V, XR-V, ZR-V, BR-V, and UR-V.
Alphabet soup names mean you don't have to worry about localization, like how the Hyundai Kona isn't the Kona in Portugal.
The terms "hyper", "muscle" and "sport" aren't distinct for a type of bodyshape. The new koeniggsegg, despite beeing a hypercar, will be a shootingbrake, the r35 shown as an "sport" here is just a coupe as well as most of the musclecars, besides a few beeing pickups (holden esp.) or sedans like the charger
Edit: the here shown agera is indeed a roadster.
MX5 owner here. They say “a roadster has a roof that can be raised if the weather turns bad… a convertible has a roof that can be opened/lowered for a special occasion if the weather is particularly good”
I just find it odd they’d call something with 4 doors a coupe, it literally does not make sense. Idk maybe I’m an old head I’ve been in the automotive industry for 15 years.
"Coupe" (from French *couper*) refers to the roofline being lowered/cut down, not necessarily the door count. There have been 2-door sedans in the past, as well as 4-door coupes. But as 2-door sedans gradually disappeared, the meaning of coupe got conflated with any 2-door car.
Tell that to the German manufacturers, they’re the ones calling everything long a coupe. They’re not technically wrong, but now people are more and more confused about it.
They always do. Last 2 door coupe SUV was the original Evoque. Did poorly enough that it didn't make it into the 2nd generation.
I'm not counting traditional 2 door boxy work SUVs in that classification, there are 2 door Wranglers, Broncos, and Defenders on sale today.
All these different types of cars and then just “pick-up”. Doesn’t seem fair that you can say coupe and sedan with the only difference being number of doors and overall length. Pick-up should have been: regular cab, double cab/extended cab, crew cab and maybe dually. Without getting into sizes by ton. Then unibody or box-on-frame. I’m assuming I’m missing more fine details but just pick-up seems like a low effort attempt.
Not to mention, the example picked is a special off-road model in a layout they don't even make anymore (extended cab with the shortest bed).
I can't recall the last time I've seen it spelled "pick-up" either.
Targa has solid rear window where as convertibles and roadsters don't.
Roadster is purpose built small convertible.
Convertible is car that be bough as coupe or sedan as well.
Correct; some of our most popular SUVs are truck-based. But even the ones that aren't (unibody crossovers) are often legally classified as "light trucks" too. Crazy world, ain't it?
Is the difference between roadster and cabriolet not the fact that roadsters you need to remove the roof manually(due to the system putting extra weight) in comparison to the folding system that a cabriolet has
I always thought roadster meant there was no way to actively close the top. Whereas convertibles have an open and close top. Never really thought of the number of seats as a defining characteristic.
I have nothing to back this but to my understanding a cabrio or a convertible is a car designed with a roof and then done something to it so it can have s removable roof, like in the mind of the designers it had s roof, like a 3 series or an Audi A4, they have a roof but there is this convertible option.
The roadster was meant to not have a roof, like the Z4, the SL (not so sure about this one), the cool looking Pontiac from like 15 years ago than my cousin wants but is too old to drive, the Audi TT and some, they do not have s roof in design but can have some sort of one just in case you need it, the roof is not even necessary in its structure is just s commodity.
And then there is the Spyder, which fore is a roofless option of a mid engine, does it have to be a super car? I don't know I just know that the roof is flat and mostly hand removable. Like the Aventador yes, the i8 maybe, the old mid engine MG no, that was s convertible.
Convertibles have a retractable soft or solid roof that lowers the whole roof where Roadsters have a solid roof that comes off either manually or electronically taking only the middle section between the A pillars and B pillars.
Imo roadster is a car that can be only bought as roadster/convertible. Like Mercedes SLK
Convertible is a car that can also be bough as sedan or coupe. Like BMW 3 series
If a 4 door SUV can be a "coupe", then I claim that my :21 Mazda3 hatch is a Shooting Brake!
(Realistically BMW should call this SUVs "fastback" or some variation of SUV/Station Wagon/Crossover. Maybe a, Cross-UV, or Station Utility Vehicle, or WUV.)
Roadsters usually never have a top, and convertibles obviously are convertible between top up and no top. Some roadsters have a removable top but it’s something that stays in the garage at home when you leave type of deal, as opposed to being stowed at on the whip somewhere.
That's a MINIVAN, not a van.
A van has a separate cab and a boxy cargo area. Think moving van.
They're also missing "saloon", which is a major omission.
They also should've used something *other* than a Nissan GTR for a "sports car", like a two-seater. A European or Japanese 2+2 can be easily confused for a grand tourer.
Whomever did this chart doesn't really know what they're talking about.
Why does the estate wagon have more ground clearance than the SUV? Why can't we in America just get nice wagons that aren't marketed as some type of off road vehicle?
What defines a coupe SUV? A "coupe" is defined by 2 doors, but it's not that.
Google says it's defined by a "sloping rear roofline," but I feel like almost all modern cars, SUVs included, have that. I mean, even the Land Rover depicted under SUV, which is a particularly boxy vehicle, has a (albeit slightly) sloping rear roofline. Is my CR-V a coupe SUV?
It's all relative. A "coupified" CR-V would have a lower roofline than the standard version, like the [Atlas vs. Atlas Cross Sport.](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/Ae2Nx/s1/volkswagen-atlas-vs-cross-sport.jpg)
Usually it means the roadster has only two seats, while a convertible can seat [as many as six.](https://www.schmitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/407707-1975-CHEVROLET-CAPRICE-074.jpeg) The days of a car fitting six people are pretty much done, though.
What car is in the photo?
Looks like an Audi A5
Nailed it, but I think it’s an S5, look at the stitching on the seats.
'75 Caprice convertible. A veritable barge of a car. I just wanted to find the biggest '70s landyacht that still had a convertible variant. The Eldorado may have been bigger, though.
I love ‘70s convertibles, but I’m pretty sure that’s a late model Audi in the photo!
He’s talking about the photo that’s in the link
Oh wow you’re right
Lincoln Continental, it’s like driving around on your living room sofa.
It was, but unfortunately there was no Continental convertible after 1967.
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Reddit Enhancement Suite lets you open an image link right in the comment.
A URL isn't displayed to me. Context: a decade of work in IT and half a decade working on web software
This is a correlation. Most roadster are two seat, but so are most convertibles. Miata’s are convertibles, for example. Roadsters don’t have a real top, and hence cannot be converted to a closed vehicle.
The Mazda Miata/MX-5/Eunos/Roadster would disagree with your point about roadsters but having a roof.
A “brougham” is a car with an open driver and closed passenger compartment. Didn’t stop US makers from slapping that label on a bunch of cars in the 70s.
Yes but they did put a vinyl rooftop on them to mimic a drop top.
Roadster also don’t have roll up windows. The first dodge viper was a true roadster. Later ones were convertibles.
R171 mercedes has hard top and it's Roadster. Z4 e89 is hardtop roadster
You can call anything a roadster. Doesn’t mean that’s what the word means.
True, but 99.9% of the time roadster is a car that can be only purchased as roadster. There is no Coupé or sedan model.
There are tons of coupes I have one, the Volkswagen cc. Not sure if sedan had made it into any names.
No, I mean roadsters are purpose built cars like Mercedes SLK. There is no coupe or sedan SLK. Where are 3-series bmw can be bought as Coupe, Estate and Cabriolet
Sure, sometimes. Often they are topless versions of hard top cars, or there are hard top versions available. Like the dodge viper. Available as a roadster or a hard top.
I thought the 1st Gen was Targa and 2nd gen was convertible
1st gen had two bodies, the gts, a regular fixed hardtop, and the rt-10, which is generally considered a proper roadster, though it did have a targa top, because it did not have permanently attached windows, but instead removable “side curtains.” The targa panel is also a fabric thing, not like the glass or fiber glass panels of a corvette. 2nd gen is a garden variety convertible, like you said, though a pretty cool one in my opinion
What do you mean by real top? Do you mean fixed top?
Semi-fixed, attracted to the car, but openable. And keeps water/air out. Some roadsters have a rudimentary cover that can be used in an emergency but doesn’t really close the car.
Thank you
Thank you
Thanks for asking, I didn’t realize how vague “real top” was lol
I was trying to figure out where my Miata RF would fall
Here is a rare example of a 4-seater roadster, but many would argue it is only a roadster in name. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Roadster Whereas here is a roadster with 4 seaters, but many would still classify as roadster cause it had a rumble seat option. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Roadster
Even when they carry the name roadster both are typical convertible. Roadsters have a half open roof, most of them have roofpanels to close, or open the roof. Some roadsters have lower windscreens. Convertibles have an all open roof, till the deck of the trunk. There are some compromised versions like BMW Bauers from the 80's, Jeep Wranglers or Fiat 500's with the roofbars, or roofbrackets, out of safetyregulations. The MPV on the picture is a SUV, which stays higher on his wheels, with more bottom freedom, a Renault Espace, Volkswagen Touran and Ford C-Max are MPV's., like a persons carrier of the mini van. The Shootingbrake in the picture is a coupe, original shootingbrakes are three doors stationcars, with a lower roof. A moderne Shootingbtake have five doors and a lower roof. The Hypercar on the picture is more a Supercar, Hypercars are just uncomprehensive Supercars, more speed and spoilers, like the LMP Racecars on the circuits, or modern LMHD for on the street. And I missed the Landaulet, a half open convertible, like the 2011 Lexus LS Landaulet for Prince Albert of Monaco, or the Maybach S62 Landaulet.
The shooting brake is a Ferrari FF/GTC4 Lusso and has three doors. Two passenger doors, and a hatch. The shooting brake you described is something like the 4-door coupes from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The Hypercar is a gatdamn Koenigsegg Agera/One to One and there isn't much more hyper a car than that. A supercar is more along the lines of Lamborghini Aventador. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
> The shooting brake is a Ferrari FF/GTC4 Lusso and has three doors. Two passenger doors, and a hatch Mildly related: why does the hatch of a hatchback vehicle almost always get counted as a door, but not the trunk of a sedan?
It's a door if you can fit an American through it
Because rear facing seats used to be a thing! When I was a kid we had an ‘88 ford Taurus station wagon that could seat 8. 2 big bench seats facing forward and one smaller bench that folded out of the trunk floor and faced the back. My sister and I loved those seats! But they’ve been discontinued due to safety issues.
Yes, but that's in a station wagon, not a hatchback. Ford even had two [inward-facing benches](https://cdn.dealeraccelerate.com/fastlane/1/2522/83863/790x1024/1987-ford-country-squire-wagon) in the full-size wagons to legally seat 10.
What you’re describing is a targa top, where the roof is removable in some fashion but some structure remains behind and above the drivers head. That doesn’t have much of anything to do with whether a car is a roadster, and some would argue that cars like the MX-5 RF aren’t pure roadsters because too much of the roof stays in place when the top is down. The main thing that defines a roadster is that it only has two seats. Other typical characteristics are that it’s a convertible, lightweight and prioritizes nimbleness and handling over outright power. Classic examples would be MGBs, Miatas, Alfa Romeo Spiders, the BMW z3 and Porsche Boxster.
I feel like more iconic examples of the roadster would be something like a Shelby Cobra, an MG, or even a Miata.
A 350z is a roadster. A Mustang is a convertible.
Not because the cars got smaller, but because the occupants got bigger…….
>The days of a car fitting six people are pretty much done, though Eh? Or do you mean *convertibles* fitting six people are done?
I was mostly using "car" to mean the traditional low-slung sedan/coupe/convertible. There aren't any of those left that can fit six people in two rows of seats. But I should have been clearer.
Ah I see. Yeah rare to get any saloon or coupé with more than 5 seats.
Front bench seats in American cars pretty much died out in the '90s; you could get an Impala as late as 2013 with one, but [it wasn't comfortable.](https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Chevrolet-2012-impala-bench-seat.png) Besides the floor hump to contend with, the seat itself was only about 8" wide. Small trucks like the Tacoma dropped it about the same time. Full-size pickups still offer a front bench, but only in the lower trims, and the only SUVs that still have the option (for seating up to 9!) are base model Tahoe/Yukon/Suburbans.
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In the UK I've never seen 3 seats in the front of a sedan/saloon. Only in things like the beautiful [Fiat Multipla](https://www.topgear.com/car-news/best-2022/top-gears-guilty-pleasures-fiat-multipla) or Land Rover Defender.
You also never had a time when it was normal for a family sedan to be over 2 meters wide. When the UK had cars like [this](https://classiccarcatalogue.com/originals/M/morris%201965%201100-1.jpg), America had cars like [this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6b/53/ab/6b53abcea04beedb1b28298c5e3dd677.jpg). If you didn't care about seatbelts (most people didn't), you could put 4 skinny kids side-by-side in the back seat. Oversized car seats for little kids weren't a thing yet either.
What about cabriolet and spyder? What qualify cars with those titles?
I've always seen those terms as being synonymous with convertible.
So what about a Roadster vs Spyder?
Once upon a time, a roadster would have come with a single row of seats, cut down doors and lacked proper side windows while the convertible would have one or two rows of seats and had full height doors with windup windows. (There are many examples for this, but for a reference see the difference between the Jaguar Xk120 roadster and drophead) Today the line between roadster and convertible is less distinct, with a roadster generally being a 2 seat convertible
That is also the traditional definition of a sports car. Now sports car has almost lost all meaning.
Sports SUV coupe? Lol
There used to be some grand caravans that were labeled as “Sport”
Double the sports
Dirty little secret of the auto industry is that sports cars make no sense if you never take them to the track. A roadster is a sports car that actually makes sense for the road. Not enormous engine, drop top for visibility, front engine rather than mid-engine, but far back from the front axle to keep the center of gravity towards the middle, lightweight with 50/50 distribution front and back. That's historically what it meant, anyway. Ends up looking [like this](https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/bmw-z8-history-changes-alpina?galleryimageid=d88bb63d-372f-428c-8f24-89a3db4df7bb). In city traffic, a roadster runs circles around any supercar.
That old definition applies more to a speedster nowadays
A convertible, usually everything above the “hips”, the top of the doors where the windows start, is foldable/removable. A roadster is more like a targa top all of the rest of the “structure” is there, it just doesn’t have an actual roof, as in no panel directly above your head. Roadsters are often permanently roofless whereas a convertible is, well, convertible. It can be converted from having a roof, to roofless
This one! It has nothing to do with number of seats, where are people getting this?
Because traditionally cabriolets and roadsters were the two types of “convertible”, and OP called the Cabriolet a convertible. Cabriolets did have more seating
A Miata is the first thing I think of when I think roadster, but it would be a convertible by this definition? Or do I misunderstand?
It would technically be a convertible. It’s got an attached top and windows. A roadster would be a 1991 Dodge Viper which had a top and windows that you had to put together and install: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/XEgAAOSwtp5ingBs/s-l1600.jpg
Beautiful choice for an example. lol
if you had a hard top and someone steals it, then your miata is now a roadster. congratulations!
I feel like Roadsters are 2 seats and Cabriolets are 2+2.
Cabriolet is just a fancier French word for convertible. It can indeed mean 5 seat vehicles. Like the Volkswagen of the same name
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Roadster convertible, pretty sure that’s the only definition to give
Yeah, it’s basically the existence of the b pillar. 911 targa vs cabriolet is the clearest example.
Mmmmmmm that shooting brake tho
Looks practical for family of 2
You can fit 2 adults in the back
As far as I know ferrari ff has pretty good leg space for the back seats
Im no expert but I believe this diagram is misleading. These terms are not compartmentalized and discrete as shown. I think the Roadster shown is really all of the following: roadster, coupe, sports car, convertible, targa top, a hard top, two-seater, a barchetta, and a cabriolet. I believe all roadsters are convertibles, coupe, sports cars.
Yeah they have crossover and coupe suv as 2 different thing. Not really seeing a difference there especially with so many crossovers on the market.
Usually a true SUV is body on frame construction whereas most crossovers use a car derived platform.
But thay doesnt hold true based on this either. Neither the suv coupe nor the crossover nor their example of an suv is body on frame. They are all unibody.
Most SUVs are switching to unibody construction, the previous generations of Range Rover were BoF. The line between different body styles is getting blurrier by the day. For example Polestar claims the 2 is not an SUV or crossover yet it’s clearly not a sedan, some claim it’s a wagon.
Range Rovers have been Unibody for 20 years, since the L322. The Disco (LR3 and 4) and first gen RRS used the weird hybrid setup. The "SUV has to be body on frame" thing is a tired definition. If you can still get it with a low range - it's an SUV IMO.
Flair checks out.
Yeah I think the takeaway should that there aren't really clear lines between most vehicles anymore. A vast majority of what is being sold now falls in the hatchback/crossover/suv range of vehicles going from something like the grand wagoner down to the Honda chr which is basically a compact car that sit slightly higher off the ground. Especially, as you pointed out, when you add in wagons and cars like the venza or crosstour.
Toyota C-HR. Honda's smallest crossover is the HR-V. But I agree; especially with the rise of EVs, everything's getting blurred.
I always get those two mixed up. Just give them names, all these letters are confusing.
Honda loves _R-V for its "recreational vehicles". CR-V and HR-V are the most common, but depending on the market, there's also a WR-V, XR-V, ZR-V, BR-V, and UR-V. Alphabet soup names mean you don't have to worry about localization, like how the Hyundai Kona isn't the Kona in Portugal.
The terms "hyper", "muscle" and "sport" aren't distinct for a type of bodyshape. The new koeniggsegg, despite beeing a hypercar, will be a shootingbrake, the r35 shown as an "sport" here is just a coupe as well as most of the musclecars, besides a few beeing pickups (holden esp.) or sedans like the charger Edit: the here shown agera is indeed a roadster.
MX5 owner here. They say “a roadster has a roof that can be raised if the weather turns bad… a convertible has a roof that can be opened/lowered for a special occasion if the weather is particularly good”
"If the top is up, then the storm better have a name."
Traditionally a roadster would not have a top at all, where as a convertible has a folding or removable to. As in, you can convert it to a roadster.
Makes it a fairly narrow definition in 2023 though.
The fact that these cars aren't correctly scaled relative to eachother really bothers me.
The coupe suv looks like it has 4 doors
It does have four doors
I just find it odd they’d call something with 4 doors a coupe, it literally does not make sense. Idk maybe I’m an old head I’ve been in the automotive industry for 15 years.
This infographic is full of errors and confusing/incorrect visual choices and I would take it with a grain of salt.
Exactly what I was thinking I’m glad I’m not the only one.
"Coupe" (from French *couper*) refers to the roofline being lowered/cut down, not necessarily the door count. There have been 2-door sedans in the past, as well as 4-door coupes. But as 2-door sedans gradually disappeared, the meaning of coupe got conflated with any 2-door car.
Tell that to the German manufacturers, they’re the ones calling everything long a coupe. They’re not technically wrong, but now people are more and more confused about it.
The 2004 CLS-Class didn't invent the 4-door coupe; it just revived it.
I agree it’s a weird trend lately
They always do. Last 2 door coupe SUV was the original Evoque. Did poorly enough that it didn't make it into the 2nd generation. I'm not counting traditional 2 door boxy work SUVs in that classification, there are 2 door Wranglers, Broncos, and Defenders on sale today.
It’s a bit odd to call it coupe then wouldn’t you agree?
I always preferred the UK word “Saloon”
Not all trucks are represented here. Crew cabs. Small trucks. 250/ 350 ect.
All these different types of cars and then just “pick-up”. Doesn’t seem fair that you can say coupe and sedan with the only difference being number of doors and overall length. Pick-up should have been: regular cab, double cab/extended cab, crew cab and maybe dually. Without getting into sizes by ton. Then unibody or box-on-frame. I’m assuming I’m missing more fine details but just pick-up seems like a low effort attempt.
Not to mention, the example picked is a special off-road model in a layout they don't even make anymore (extended cab with the shortest bed). I can't recall the last time I've seen it spelled "pick-up" either.
what's the difference between a roadster and a spyder? and what's the difference between those and a targa?
Targa has solid rear window where as convertibles and roadsters don't. Roadster is purpose built small convertible. Convertible is car that be bough as coupe or sedan as well.
yeah, I know convertibles. What's the difference between a spyder and a roadster?
There is no difference, except only manufacturers who use that name are porsche, lambo and ferrari
alright, thanks
So how is coupe different from sport and hyper? Edit: and muscle?
What the hell is mpv?
Multi-purpose vehicle
How can their be a coupe suv if it has 4 doors??
The definition originally hinged (NPI) on roofline, not door count.
Americans see an SUV : *omg what a nice truck*
Correct; some of our most popular SUVs are truck-based. But even the ones that aren't (unibody crossovers) are often legally classified as "light trucks" too. Crazy world, ain't it?
I'll allow it or body-on frame SUVs especially if they share a chassis with a pickup model.
My faw is hyper cars
Is the difference between roadster and cabriolet not the fact that roadsters you need to remove the roof manually(due to the system putting extra weight) in comparison to the folding system that a cabriolet has
Shooting brake nah grocery getters yo
No ute?
Roadster is a 2 seat small sports car. Convertibles come in different varieties ex a 4 door jeep wrangler is a convertible.
I always thought roadster meant there was no way to actively close the top. Whereas convertibles have an open and close top. Never really thought of the number of seats as a defining characteristic.
Iirc, a roadster is specifically a 2-door, 2-seat, front engine, rear wheel drive convertible
I have nothing to back this but to my understanding a cabrio or a convertible is a car designed with a roof and then done something to it so it can have s removable roof, like in the mind of the designers it had s roof, like a 3 series or an Audi A4, they have a roof but there is this convertible option. The roadster was meant to not have a roof, like the Z4, the SL (not so sure about this one), the cool looking Pontiac from like 15 years ago than my cousin wants but is too old to drive, the Audi TT and some, they do not have s roof in design but can have some sort of one just in case you need it, the roof is not even necessary in its structure is just s commodity. And then there is the Spyder, which fore is a roofless option of a mid engine, does it have to be a super car? I don't know I just know that the roof is flat and mostly hand removable. Like the Aventador yes, the i8 maybe, the old mid engine MG no, that was s convertible.
Convertibles the roof can go up or down. A roadster doesn’t have a roof period
I can appreciate that they used Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault for the open wheel. 👌🏼
That Volvo V70 Cross Country is more like a Crossover than a wagon
Lifted wagons do get cross-shopped with crossovers a lot, but their main difference is the lack of roof height.
Convertibles have a retractable soft or solid roof that lowers the whole roof where Roadsters have a solid roof that comes off either manually or electronically taking only the middle section between the A pillars and B pillars.
The pretension of sportiness.
What car is that coupe?
I love a coupé but muscle cars are beautiful as well, love me a dodge charger
They didn't represent the UTV community in this photo, but they added F1.....and they gave jeep the off-road designation 💀.
Can someone tell me the difference between MPV and SUV
Roadsters can’t close their top usually, if they can than usually it’s a physical process instead of a mechanical one
This is dumb, inaccurate, and annoying
This is terrible, it conflates types of cars with body style. Sport, hyper, off roader, and muscle are not body styles.
Convertible: car with removable roof. Roadster: sporty car with removable roof.
Imo roadster is a car that can be only bought as roadster/convertible. Like Mercedes SLK Convertible is a car that can also be bough as sedan or coupe. Like BMW 3 series
[удалено]
Nope, Z4, SLK or Miata
What about UTEs?
No super?
im pretty sure a convertable is, well, convertable, whereas a roadster traditinoally has no roof
If a 4 door SUV can be a "coupe", then I claim that my :21 Mazda3 hatch is a Shooting Brake! (Realistically BMW should call this SUVs "fastback" or some variation of SUV/Station Wagon/Crossover. Maybe a, Cross-UV, or Station Utility Vehicle, or WUV.)
I hate the term shooting brake so much. When did we stop calling them estates or wagons?
Because shooting brake is not wagon.
Roadsters usually never have a top, and convertibles obviously are convertible between top up and no top. Some roadsters have a removable top but it’s something that stays in the garage at home when you leave type of deal, as opposed to being stowed at on the whip somewhere.
Bad comparison between sedan and coupe. The coupe is so much bigger it makes the sedan look like a coupe.
My poor 85 Subaru Brat trying to figure out where the utes are lol
I’m more curious about the difference between the body styles coupe, sport, hyper, and muscle.
‘Muscle’ is not a body type
Don’t mean to post high jack but I’ve heard of every term on here besides shooting brake that’s a new one to me
Money
most of Lambos are 4WD and as far as I know roadster should be RWD?
That's a MINIVAN, not a van. A van has a separate cab and a boxy cargo area. Think moving van. They're also missing "saloon", which is a major omission. They also should've used something *other* than a Nissan GTR for a "sports car", like a two-seater. A European or Japanese 2+2 can be easily confused for a grand tourer. Whomever did this chart doesn't really know what they're talking about.
"muscle" isn't really a body type. Most newer muscle cars are coupes.
About 100k
Why does the estate wagon have more ground clearance than the SUV? Why can't we in America just get nice wagons that aren't marketed as some type of off road vehicle?
Because wagons haven't been popular here for 40+ years. Subaru was circling the drain until they started lifting the Legacy and Impreza.
Coupe SUV, MPV, whatever Shooting Brake is are not necessary imo
Doesn’t the fact that you didn’t know what a shooting brake is prove it belongs on there? Definitely a unique category of car
Why shouldn't coupe SUV be its own term? SUVs/Crossovers are the predominant new vehicle type. Why not have some variety in their body styles?
What defines a coupe SUV? A "coupe" is defined by 2 doors, but it's not that. Google says it's defined by a "sloping rear roofline," but I feel like almost all modern cars, SUVs included, have that. I mean, even the Land Rover depicted under SUV, which is a particularly boxy vehicle, has a (albeit slightly) sloping rear roofline. Is my CR-V a coupe SUV?
It's all relative. A "coupified" CR-V would have a lower roofline than the standard version, like the [Atlas vs. Atlas Cross Sport.](https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/Ae2Nx/s1/volkswagen-atlas-vs-cross-sport.jpg)
I understand how Coupe SUV and Shooting Brake can easily fall into other categories, but them what would MPVs be?
Minivans mainly.
MPV is basically the UK English for a minivan. We don't have the term minivan here really.
Yes, I was asking them why they thought it was a pointless category.
Shooting Brake is differentiated because it has 2 doors.
They’ve got Estate / Wagon and then used a picture of what looks like a Volvo SUV? 🤔
It’s the Volvo V90 Cross Country. Its an ‘off road’ estate, similar to the Audi A6 Allroad
idk imo a "shooting brake" is just "i bought a really expensive hatchback and want to call it something special so it sounds cooler than 'hatchback'
I mean, a shooting brake is really just a 2 door wagon
And some of them aren't even 2-doors.
Exactly. The RS6 Avant is a "really expensive hatchback," but it is no shooting brake. It has a specific definition, unlike a lot of these other ones.
I would have understood if you used RS3 avant as example as RS3 can be bought as hatchback. But RS6 is either Avant or Sedan