Following in the tracks of "Mercedes' CLS 550" it seems that more luxury automakers are determined to squeeze four people into a sedan with limited headroom, narrow windows, and door openings that guarantee added business for chiropracters as passengers endeavour to squeeze in and out. Maserati's revamped Quattroporte will be joined by the upcoming Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamerica, while a BMW 8-Series 4-door coupé, "the CS Concept", was unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show yesterday. All these cars are absolutely gorgeous, of course... no complaints there. But what amuses me is that the manufacturers have the audicity to call them coupes or, just to add a little class, coupés.

Nothing, however, is really new. Rover, for example, "introduced its P5B" in 1967, when it added an all-aluminum V-8 to the luxurious P5. The "B" stood for Buick. Until then an inline six had been standard but the P5B benefited from a new 3.5 liter engine made with tooling the company had purchased from the GM division. Originally, and briefly, used in a Buick compact, that engine went on to successfully power several Rover models along with the Morgan +8 sports car. With the new engine, Rover lowered the sedan's roofline for a more rakish look, reduced the size of the greenhouse, added a few more niceties to the very English wood and leather interior and called it... right, a coupe.

There were examples of sporty 4-door sedans with high waists and low roofs dating back to the 30's, so Rover wasn't first, either, but the men who made those cars didn't call them coupes. Perhaps, like your reporter, they were under the impression that a coupe is traditionally a 3-window (windshields don't count in this vernacular) 2-door with a shorter roofline and longer trunk. Through most of its history the coupe cost less than a sedan because, with fewer body parts, it cost less to make. Today, due to the way marketing types have skewed the facts, you'll pay more for a 2-door. But they still cost less to make.

[photo: Historic & Classic-car Hirers Guild]