What’s Up With Car Body Names?

Thank you to all my Patrons for supporting the channel!

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

[NameExplain]

Suggest a topic for next Monday’s video!

[tristanbrooks]

Ah yes, the Sudan - there was a big fight between auto manufacturers a few years ago that resulted in a new type of car, the South Sudan.

[pooroldnostradamus]

Are you sure it's called a Sudan? I was thinking Bahrain.

[RTam]

Years ago I was a driving instructor. I had a pupil who was, shall we say, not the sharpest tool in the box. One day he told me that he'd bought a Vauxhall Chevette. I asked him which variant and he said it was a hunchback.

[llydrsn]

The Hatchback of Notre Dame would be a great title for the next Cars movie

[matthewgrgaddie]

Surprised you didn't mention the Station Wagon/Estate Car.

[billberg]

As a native Minnesotan, I never entertained the idea of a convertible, not even as a child.

[skyden]

I'm reminded of this classic joke- Q: Why do chicken coupes only have two doors? A: Because if they had four doors they'd be called "chicken sedans." 😄
Fyi, the horsedrawn carriage which required only one horse and two wheels that was shown in this video is also known as a "hansom."

[andrewmazzarini]

Also worth noting that the Commonwealth also has different terms from North America for the storage space and the engine block space in a sedan; while you call them the bonnet & boot over in the UK, they're called the hood & trunk in NA

[kittycatcitycat]

Lots more types of cars to mention. What about the station wagon? Small Hatchbacks, I'd say, are a good idea. They can have a relitively small parking footprint per how much they hold, and you can use a lot of that space for people or stuff interchangably. In cases where people have a small household, this fairly works well when buying fairly large furniture or going camping, cottaging picknicing etc, and works for most carpooling and road-trip scenarioes, but you can still park pretty easily in the city. I'm never gonna drive myself, but I have to say, I was impressed when my mom's car became a hatchback by this versitility. Many mini-vans are similarly made to give more or less bak trunk space. It's amazing what that makes possible, even at the smaller end of these vehicles.

[JonahTurtleK]

I had a saloon but it turned into a convertible.... The bridge was rather low 😅

[theGypsyViking]

I have a joke for everyone. Why do chicken coops only have two doors? Because if they had four doors they would be chicken Sudans.

[PLuMUK]

The link between the convertible and the cabriolet is that the earliest versions of the cabriolet had a fold down hood.

[laroderickdexter]

SUV is so common in the states that it is; no surprise, people don't know what the acronym means .

[Nylak-Otter]

I mean, I've only ever had SUVs, because I use them as a sports vehicle (pull horse trailers, carry kayaks, etc) and a utility vehicle (travel rough terrain with aluminum custom dog boxes in the back for my search and rescue K9s).

So...a sports/utility vehicle.

[christopherbentley]

Thanks for the explanations of those car body types, Patrick, especially the sedan as I've long - evidently mistakenly - thought that it must be something to do with the French settlement of Sedan, on the basis that a limousine is evidently from that other French place-name, Limousin. Some years ago I learned a French term based on the capital of the region of Limousin, Limoges, referring to whenever a high-ranking official is sacked, that being «limogé», ie., being driven away for one last time in their limousine.

[Dr_V]

I'm currently driving a 4 doors pick-up truck (Toyota Hilux), the type of car I dreamed of since I was a teen and was finally able to get in my early 40s. It's not fast or luxurious but it's powerful, spacious, sturdy and versatile, able to carry my entire family and a good amount of cargo at the same time and drive pretty much anywhere from a city center to the most remote off-road wilderness.

[crazycatdragon]

I was just trying to describe a vehicle to my sister yesterday and didn’t have the word for it and now I

[Zundfolge]

Your description of a Coupe was actually a description of a GT (ie Grand Touring). A Coupe is really nothing more than a Sedan cut down to two doors instead of 4.

[joseliano]

The Society of Automotive Engineers defines a “coupe” not in terms of how many doors a car has, or how its roof is sloped, but how much space the car has behind the driver. If > 33 cubic feet (~934 L) it is a sedan, and if < 33 cubic feet it is a coupe. Therefore, in theory, there could be a four door coupe or a two door sedan, and in fact some cars have been marketed as 2 or 4 door sedans.
🤷🏻‍♂️