Coupe de Ville

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.

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.