Combi coupé is a proprietary marketing term used by Swedish manufacturer Saab for marketing their fastback styled hatchback models.
The term denotes a car with a mixture of a "combi" (a European term for an estate car / station wagon) and a coupé.[1] As a liftback, the Combi Coupé incorporates a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, a top-hinged liftgate — and a fold-down rear seat to allow flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box design, the body style includes an A, B & C-pillar.
The term was coined by Björn Envall and first introduced with the 1974 Saab 99. Saab also discussed making a hatchback available for the Saab 96/Saab 95 model range and Envall created the prototype Saab 98.
The term was later applied to the Saab 900 model line-up. Saab's national competitor Volvo also made a prototype combi coupé[2].
At the Paris car show Jason Castriota showed models that indicates that the new Saab 9-3 will be available as a combi coupé.[3] It has since been confirmed that the new 9-3 will be available as a combi coupé, convertible and crossover.[4]