Sedan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A sedan car, American English terminology (saloon in British English), is one of the most common body styles of the modern automobile. At its most basic, the sedan is a passenger car with two rows of seats and adequate passenger space in the rear compartment for adult passengers. The vehicle has a separate trunk (boot in British English), for luggage at the rear.
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[edit] Types of sedan
Several versions of the body style exist, including four-door, two-door and fastback models.
A sedan seats four or more and has a fixed roof that is full-height up to the rear window. Most commonly it is a four-door; two-door is rarer but they do occur (more so historically). In the U.S., this term has been used to denote a car with fixed window frames, as opposed to the hardtop style where the sash, if any, winds down with the glass. As hardtops have become rarer, this distinction is no longer so important.
[edit] Notchback sedans
A notchback sedan is a three-box sedan, where the passenger volume is very distinct from the trunk volume of the vehicle (when seen from the side). The roof is on one plane, generally parallel to the ground, the rear window at a sharp angle to the roof, and the trunklid also parallel to the ground. Historically, this has been a very popular and traditional form of passenger vehicle.
[edit] Fastback sedans
A fastback sedan is a two-box sedan, where the passenger volume blends seamlessly with the trunk volume of the vehicle, but excludes the hatchback feature.
Marketing terminology is often misleading in this area - for example DaimlerChrysler calls the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class fastback sedan a four-door coupe, because the rear passenger compartment is small - but it is still usable by adults.
Certain sedans are edging close to being one-box vehicles, where both the hood and trunk rake into the passenger compartment - the 2006 4-door Honda Civic is an example of this.
Typically this design is chosen for its aerodynamic advantages. Automakers can no longer afford the penalty in fuel consumption produced by the traditional notchback three box form - most sedans in 2006 have the very steeply raked rear windows and short trunk lids that characterize the fastback sedan.
[edit] Two-door sedan
The SAE defines such a vehicle as any two-door model with rear accommodation greater than or equal to 33 cubic feet (0.934 m³) in volume (a calculation made by multiplying the legroom, shoulder room, and headroom). By this standard, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, and Mercedes-Benz CL-Class coupes are all two-door sedans. Only a few sources, however (including the magazine Car and Driver), use the two-door sedan label in this manner.
In the popular vernacular, a two-door sedan is defined by appearance and not by volume; vehicles with a B-pillar between the front and rear windows are generally called two-door sedans, while hardtops (without the pillar, and often incorporating a sloping backlight) are called coupés.
The Mazda RX-8 meets the volume requirement to be called a sedan, but it has vestigial rear-hinged rear doors, so some call it 2+2-door sedan. Another term for a coupé endowed with rear-hinged doors is a "quad coupé". Although this may simply be vernacular, based on a possible copyright by [General Motors], for its [Saturn ION] Quad-Coupé.
Although they are making a comeback in two-door sedans, a piece of Sedan history is hidden within these rear-hinged doors. Over time they have come to be dubbed suicide doors for reasons that become clear when you delve into their history. As with many things, many people will say this without actually knowing why they are so named. Dating back to the days of horse drawn carriages, there have almost always been multi-door passenger compartments. The compartments generally offered an unbiased angle with which to enter the cabin. The reasoning behind this may have been many things, aesthetics, ease of construction. Whatever the reason, over time it was obvious that something had to change. One door would face the rear (when open) and one door would face the front. After all of this superfluous explanation, one might wonder why they were so dangerous and what drove us to engineer doors that opened in the same direction. It was due to the fact that the rear doors posed a great deal of threat to the rear passengers. Picture New York, early nineteen-hundreds. Imagine stepping out onto a cobblestone street where only trolley cars and horses roamed. As the front passenger, you would (hopefully) be pushed back into the vehicle, using the door as a shield to oncoming traffic and dangers. In the rear, the door would be ripped off, or worse, you'd be facing perpendicular to the street traffic when it was to late to realize what was coming your way. To stop this from being a problem on modern cars with rear-hinging entry, auto manufacturers have developed a very simple but effective method of keeping things safe. Both doors are locked together with a double L shaped formation. Thus, for the rear door to open, the front door must be open as well. This also adds to child safety, if the parent has not opened their door, the child can not exit the vehicle.
[edit] Hardtop sedans
Sometimes a particular fastback or hardtop car body style is referred to as a sedan. Both have the classic trunk (boot) at the rear of the vehicle. Classically a sedan will have a frame around the door windows, while the hardtop has frameless door glass. The hardtop design can be considered separately (i.e., a vehicle can be simply called a four-door hardtop), or it can be called a hardtop sedan. During the 1970s, hardtop sedans were often sold as sport sedans or colonnades by American manufacturers. The more contemporary four-door sedans with B-pillars were called pillared hardtops or pillared sedans during this period. The sport sedan term has since been appropriated for other uses.
[edit] Hatchback sedan
Hatchback (a.k.a. liftback) sedans typically have the fastback profile, but instead of a trunk lid, the entire back of the vehicle lifts up (using a liftgate or hatch). A vehicle with four passenger doors and a liftgate at the rear can be called a four-door hatchback, four-door hatchback sedan, or five-door sedan. An example of such is the Chevrolet Malibu Maxx. There can also be two-door hatchback sedans (three-door sedans), by the same technical explanation for two-door sedans. Examples of this design are the Volkswagen Golf and Renault Vel Satis.
[edit] Chauffeured sedans
Chauffeured limousine sedans are primarily used by businesses for meetings as well as for airport transportation. Main vehicles used for these means are usually the Lincoln Town Car, a Cadillac, or a Mercedes. Chauffeurs are professional drivers, usually with over 10 years experience in the transportation industry or tourism industry. Chauffeured sedans are owned either by private owners, livery services or corporations. Large corporations as well as governments commonly provide luxury sedans to their top executives as well as VIP guests. Chauffeured sedans, especially the Lincoln Town Car, may also be stretched into limousines that are capable of seating up to 20 or more people. Another, smaller number of chauffeured sedans are owned by private individuals who hire chauffeurs to drive them in their own cars.
[edit] Small sedans
Sedan bodystyles on smaller cars are now less popular in Europe after the hatchback revolution during the 1970s. In the US and many developing countries notchback sedans like the Volkswagen Jetta retain popularity.
The first major European manufacturer to phase out sedans in favour of hatchbacks was Renault, who introduced the hatchback (Renault 4) in 1961. In the case of Renault, the only sedan offered is the Megane, rival Fiat actually does not offer a sedan model in its European range at all.
[edit] Large Sedans
The 3-box sedan bodystyle is still used on large and luxury cars. The hatchback feature has been notably unsuccessful in penetrating this segment worldwide. Instead, the angle of the rear window has been steadily increasing, as seen on the Audi A6, making many modern sedans resemble fastback sedans.
[edit] Terminology
[edit] Origin
The word sedan is possibly derived from a southern Italian dialect derivative of Italian sede "chair" (the first sedan was said to have been introduced from Naples). The derivation from the town of Sedan in France, where it was said to have been made or first used, lacks historical evidence, according to OED. The word sedan was later used to refer to a litter or windowed box containing a passenger seat carried by two or more bearers.
[edit] International terminology
In North American English, the term sedan is used.
In British English the configuration is called a saloon and has its engine under the bonnet at the front, and a boot for luggage at the rear. The British English term is sometimes used by British car manufacturers in the United States: the Rolls-Royce Park Ward was sold as a saloon in the United States, while the smaller Silver Seraph was called a sedan.
In Australia and New Zealand, the American term sedan is used, albeit with the British terms boot and bonnet being retained. In other languages, sedans are known as berline (French), Berlina (Spanish, European Portuguese, Romanian and Italian), although these terms also may include hatchbacks. These terms, besides sedan, derive from types of horse-drawn carriages.
