Cars
Turning your garden variety sedan into a two-door coupe isn't a simple chop job. Automakers rightly assume that the coupe buyer needs to see more than just missing doors to assume the coupe version is a good version. Therefore, the manufacturer decides to differentiate the two-door in other ways - sometimes succeeding; sometimes not.Â
- New 2013 Honda Accord Sedan And Coupe: First Photos And Details, Will Be Available As A Hybrid
Honda has released the first official photos of the production version of the ninth generation Accord in both four-door sedan and two-door coupe body styles before it goes on sale in North America this fall. The appearance of the coupe variant shouldn't...
- Toyota Rumored To Present Prius Based Hybrid Coupe To Challenge Honda's Cr-z
If you believe that a coupe version of the Prius sounds like a good idea, then you'll be happy to know that reports coming in from Japan say that Toyota is actually working on a dedicated sporty hybrid model. Best Car magazine went one step further...
- Acura 2+1 Coupe Concept Study: Design Proposal For An Affordable Nsx
The new V10-powered NSX may have bitten the dust due to the enduring global economic crisis (click here for details) but that doesn't mean that Honda fans can't continue to dream on. The Acura 2+1 Coupe Concept you see pictured above is a design...
- 2009 Honda Civic Coupe & Si Coupe Image Gallery
Along with the Civic Sedan and Civic Hybrid, Honda also updated the U.S market Civic Coupe for 2009. Offered with the same 140 HP 1.8-liter (Coupe) and 197 HP 2.0-liter (Si Coupe) as before, the ’09MY Civic Coupes benefit from the same aesthetic...
- Top 10 Best-selling Cars In America - April 2010
It's a naming thing, pure and simple. Officially, the Toyota Matrix is a Toyota Corolla Matrix. As a result, added to the U.S. sales total of the Toyota Corolla is the Toyota Matrix. Granted, the Matrix isn't a huge seller in the United States;...
Cars
COUPEIZING GOOD SEDANS
Turning your garden variety sedan into a two-door coupe isn't a simple chop job. Automakers rightly assume that the coupe buyer needs to see more than just missing doors to assume the coupe version is a good version. Therefore, the manufacturer decides to differentiate the two-door in other ways - sometimes succeeding; sometimes not. Coupes come and go like rising tides. Not only does the generic coupe sector sell with force and disappear again into the abyss, but specific models run through a cycle of faltering and ascending time and time again. Do you know of many small cars with the image once held (and still held) by the Acura Integra? Or its successor, the Acura RSX? Or its teammate, the Honda Prelude? They've all disappeared. Poof.
Coupe sellers persist, however. Many believe that the struggling U.S. economy will severely curtail sales of sporting cars, in the same way that convertibles are suffering now. Even so, Cadillac debuted a high-priced, high-class CTS coupe in Detroit and has every intention of seeing it through to production. Of course we all want it - it's spectacular - but will we buy it? Hmm.
BMW rides the wave of coupe success with the 3-series. Somehow, regardless of prevailing market conditions, the 3-series two-door squeezes past the "to axe" list.
This leads me to the more specific topic on my mind. The latest Honda Accord coupe is surprisingly stunning. Walk down Rodeo Drive or Main Street, it at least makes you turn for a second look. Honda didn't take the proverbial design hand book and throw it out the proverbial window, but, the typically staid company decided to give the Accord coupe added jazz compared with the sedan. Result.
Toyota's Camry isn't perceived as a sportatious vehicle and likely won't be anytime soon. The harder Toyota pushes the hybrid sedan, the less the Camry Solara makes sense to me. Its design elements would work well on an expensive yacht; but not a car. Interestingly, in the USofA, the car is entitled the Camry Solara on Toyota.com. Toyota.ca sticks simply to Solara. One way or another, Toyota did a good job of making the coupe appear truly different from the sedan. Different isn't always desirable.Â
Then there's the Nissan Altima coupe. The Good Car Guy attacked it before for appearing awkward and bloated. That was before the car was seen live and in action.Â
Who'd have thunk it possible that the Altima coupe could be worse than awkward and bloated? Nothing exposes a vehicle's awkwardness and bloatedness quite so much as a grocery store parking lot and a cell phone camera, so here it is.Â
- New 2013 Honda Accord Sedan And Coupe: First Photos And Details, Will Be Available As A Hybrid
Honda has released the first official photos of the production version of the ninth generation Accord in both four-door sedan and two-door coupe body styles before it goes on sale in North America this fall. The appearance of the coupe variant shouldn't...
- Toyota Rumored To Present Prius Based Hybrid Coupe To Challenge Honda's Cr-z
If you believe that a coupe version of the Prius sounds like a good idea, then you'll be happy to know that reports coming in from Japan say that Toyota is actually working on a dedicated sporty hybrid model. Best Car magazine went one step further...
- Acura 2+1 Coupe Concept Study: Design Proposal For An Affordable Nsx
The new V10-powered NSX may have bitten the dust due to the enduring global economic crisis (click here for details) but that doesn't mean that Honda fans can't continue to dream on. The Acura 2+1 Coupe Concept you see pictured above is a design...
- 2009 Honda Civic Coupe & Si Coupe Image Gallery
Along with the Civic Sedan and Civic Hybrid, Honda also updated the U.S market Civic Coupe for 2009. Offered with the same 140 HP 1.8-liter (Coupe) and 197 HP 2.0-liter (Si Coupe) as before, the ’09MY Civic Coupes benefit from the same aesthetic...
- Top 10 Best-selling Cars In America - April 2010
It's a naming thing, pure and simple. Officially, the Toyota Matrix is a Toyota Corolla Matrix. As a result, added to the U.S. sales total of the Toyota Corolla is the Toyota Matrix. Granted, the Matrix isn't a huge seller in the United States;...