Autoblog

mk @ Apr 8th 2008 10:56AM

A sedan can have two doors, although not common. A sedan body style with a standard straight and tall three-box profile (like a sedan) with 4 seats, and sometimes defined by a hard b-pillar, when some coupes used to have no b-pillar and roll-down quarter windows as well.

That is less common now with safety standards. All coupes tend to have b-pillars and fixed quarter glass, and sleeker profiles, so the two-door sedan descriptor is a bit arcane and defunct.

A coupe, by definition, however has only two doors, and is "cut down" in size compared to larger cars with four doors, or full-size two-door sedans.

But a 4-door coupe is like having a four-wheel bicycle. It is invalid by the definition of it's own words.

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The alphanumerics certainly have run amok. CLS is an E-class "sleek" sedan, not an S-class derived car.
But CLE is a C-class derived sleek sedan, not an E-class base.

I have no idea why MB is so enamored with the arching belt-line, shallow tail end, and joan-rivers-facelifted-headlights, it makes the car look badly bloated, or like a badly drawn cartoon car. The CC isn't much better.

So much for German styling acumen. German cars used to look fantastic, lately they have begun to look aimless and strange just for the sake of being different.

Exceptions being Porsche, and some Audis, including R8. BMWs have gotten strange since Bangle, and MB is trying too hard to not be completely beige-bland, and VW is following along.