Coupe de Ville

For the luxury automobile built by the Cadillac Division of General Motors, see Cadillac Coupe de Ville.

A coupé de ville is a two-door 2-light, or one side window per side, close-coupled four-seat carriage or motor car, in which the rear passenger seats are covered and without side windows but the front seats are open or coverable with only a light folding roof. Rear seat passengers may travel in privacy, as windows to the rear of the car are kept small. There is no division between front and rear seats as in a limousine.

This style is intended for the personal use of women riding in the back seat and chauffeured. Seeking publicity and building on his work with Studebaker, Raymond Loewy had two Lincoln Continentals altered to coupés de ville in 1946 using a removable plexiglas cover over the chauffeur.

Once high-speed highways entered the cities this part-open style became obsolete and is now best remembered in the model-name Cadillac Coupe de Ville.^{[citation needed]}

Bentley 1948

interior

Convertible with roof folded to the
coupé de ville position

A coupé de ville is alternatively defined as a drophead coupé with a three-position top which may be fully closed, fully open, or partially closed, leaving rear passengers covered.

Related style

Cadillac town car,
coupé maître or sedanca de ville, 1940

By contrast, a town car, coupé maître, or sedanca de ville has a division between driver and passengers, four doors, and 4-lights or two side windows on each side. The seat for the driver, and possibly a footman, are open or coverable with only a light folding roof. The open driving seat is all that distinguishes this type of car from a conventional limousine.

Reference

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1989