A sports car with four doors gets called a coupe. A tall hatchback gets called a crossover and so does a wagon on stilts. Car names stopped describing cars a while ago.
They used to. A body style is a promise about the job: how many people fit, how much luggage, where the roof ends, how you get a fridge into the back. Say “station wagon” and everyone pictured the same car. Say “crossover” and all you have told them is that it sits higher than something.
Part of the blame is marketing. “Four-door coupe” sounds faster than “sedan with a sloping roof” and a name costs nothing to change when the car underneath is the same. The rest is that the shapes themselves have blurred. Hatchbacks grew taller, wagons gained ride height and sedans picked up sloping rooflines.
So here in this article, we walk through the main body styles and point out the places where the labels stop behaving. First, one piece of vocabulary that makes everything else easier.
First, count the boxes
Designers describe a silhouette by counting boxes. A three-box car has the engine bay, the passenger cabin and the boot as three separate volumes, which is the classic sedan outline. A two-box car lets the cabin and cargo area share one space: hatchbacks, wagons, most SUVs. A one-box car puts engine, passengers and luggage under a single continuous shape, which is the minivan and the old Volkswagen Type 2 before it.
One caveat. Every diagram on this page puts the engine at the front, because that is where nearly everyone puts it. Nearly. The Porsche 911 has spent sixty years with its engine behind the rear axle and shows no sign of remorse, mid-engined cars keep theirs where the back seats ought to be, and the Volkswagen Type 2 I just used as the one-box example is rear-engined, which rather undercuts the diagram. Electric cars dodge the argument altogether by having no engine bay at all, and often a boot at each end. Read the front box as “where the heavy mechanical bits usually sit” and the rest of the page still works.
You'll see “three-box” and “two-box” all the way down this page. Once you can spot them, half of the sorting is done for you.
01Sedan: why is this still the default?
A sedan (a saloon, if you are reading this in Britain) is the three-box layout at its most literal. There is an engine bay at the front, a closed cabin with a fixed metal roof and two rows of seats in the middle, and a boot sticking out the back as its own compartment. Four doors, room for five.
The shape has lasted because the separate boot is a good idea. It keeps luggage, and the noise and smells that come with it, out of the cabin, and it gives engineers a solid wall behind the rear seats to build a quiet, stiff structure around. That is why the sedan is the body style people reach for when ride quality and refinement matter more than carrying capacity.
Engine bay. Engine, gearbox and radiator sit ahead of the cabin in their own sealed volume.
Cabin. Two rows of seats under a fixed metal roof, with a solid bulkhead behind the back seat.
Boot. A separate compartment with its own lid. Luggage noise and smells stay out of the cabin, but the opening is small.
Tap a compartment on the picture or a button under it, to see what that part of the car does.
The family is bigger than it looks. The plain notchback has a clear step from the roof down to the boot lid. Liftback and fastback sedans sweep the rear window into the tail, and some add a hatch. Coach and club sedans are older names for two-door versions, a category that mostly survives as a pub quiz answer.
Popular sedans
- Toyota Corolla
- Toyota Camry
- Honda Civic
- Honda Accord
- BMW 3 Series
- BMW 7 Series
- Lexus LS 400
- Volkswagen Jetta
- Volvo S60
- Hyundai Elantra
- Tesla Model 3
02Coupe: what does "cut" have to do with it?
The word comes from the French couper, "to cut". A coupe is a car that's been cut short: a smaller cabin, two doors, and a roofline that drops towards the tail more steeply than a sedan's. Most seat two, or two plus a pair of rear seats (a 2+2) that suit small children and short trips with adults you don't much like.
That's the textbook version. Then the industry got involved. Mercedes-Benz sells the CLS as a four-door coupe, which is close to the opposite of what the word means. Mazda's RX-8 also had four doors: two conventional ones, and two small rear-hinged ones that open only after the fronts do. Mazda called them freestyle doors. Most people called them suicide doors. "Coupe" now describes a roofline as much as a door count, and it's a roofline that marketing departments love.
Engine bay. A longer bonnet than a sedan of the same size, because the cabin has been pushed back.
Cut-short cabin. Two seats, or 2+2. The roof peaks early and falls away, which is where the headroom goes.
Boot. Still a sealed boot, but a shallow one. The sloping tail takes the space.
The traditional sub-types are the berlinetta (a lightweight sporty coupe), club coupe, business coupe, opera coupe and quad coupe. The RX-8 is generally filed under that last one.
Popular coupes
- Ford Mustang
- Chevrolet Corvette
- Toyota 86
- Subaru BRZ
- BMW M2
- Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe
- Nissan Z
- Toyota Supra
03Station wagon: all the cargo, none of the attitude
Take a sedan, extend the roof rearward over a shared passenger and cargo space, and swap the boot lid for a hatch. That's a station wagon (an estate, in Britain). Two boxes, four doors, seats for five. Some big American wagons, like the 1969 Ford Galaxie Country Squire, added a pair of rear-facing seats in the back for children and whoever lost the argument.
Engine bay. Shared with the sedan the wagon is based on, which is why it drives like one.
Cabin. Two rows of seats. The roof keeps running instead of stepping down.
Cargo, shared. No bulkhead. The load space is open to the cabin and the hatch exposes the full height of it.
The appeal is that a wagon rides like the sedan it's based on. Next to the SUV version of the same car, it's typically lighter and sits lower, which helps handling and fuel use. Plenty of buyers in many markets have still walked straight past them to an SUV, so a few wagons, including the Subaru Outback, Volvo V90 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain, have taken to wearing plastic body cladding and a raised ride height, like a wagon in hiking boots.
Popular station wagons
- Ford Mondeo Estate
- Audi A4 Avant
- Subaru Outback
- Volvo V60
- Volvo V90
- Buick Roadmaster Estate
- Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain
04Hatchback: a wagon, shortened until it fits
A hatchback is the same two-box idea as a wagon in a smaller package, with a rear door that swings upward to open up the cargo area. It's sold as a three-door or five-door, because the tailgate counts as a door, and it seats up to five. The rear slopes more than a wagon's does, and that shorter tail is why a Golf or a Mini fits into gaps a Camry wouldn't. Three-box hatchbacks exist, but they're rare.
Engine bay. Almost always transverse and front-wheel drive, which is what keeps the nose short.
Cabin. Up to five seats in a footprint that parks where a sedan won't.
Cargo, shared. Short and steeply cut. Fold the back seats and the cabin becomes the load bay.
There's a bonus. Take a small, light body, fit a serious engine, and you get the hot hatch, which is the reason the Honda Civic Type R, Volkswagen Golf GTI and Hyundai Veloster N exist at all.
Popular hatchbacks
- Volkswagen Golf
- Volkswagen Polo
- Mini Cooper
- Ford Focus
- Hyundai Veloster N
- Honda Civic Type R
- Chevrolet Bolt
05Fastback: the one everyone argues about
A fastback sits somewhere between a coupe and a hatchback. The roof runs down to the tail in one continuous slope with no step, which is good for airflow, so it's the shape performance cars tend to use. Many have a rear hatch. Some are two-box, some are three-box, and the definition is loose enough that enthusiasts can fill a forum thread with it.
Engine bay. Long nose, because the shape wants the cabin set back.
Cabin. The roof peak is the only place with full headroom. Everything behind it is falling away.
Tail. The argument lives here. Sealed boot and it's three-box; add a hatch and it's two.
The 1965-66 Mustang Fastback is the textbook example, and the Toyota 2000GT, Jaguar F-Type Coupe and Mercedes-AMG GT carry the idea forward. Several four-door cars, like the Audi A7, borrow the same roofline, which is how you end up with a four-door fastback and a headache.
Popular fastbacks
06Convertible: the roof is optional
A convertible (or cabriolet) is a car you can drive with the roof up or down. The roof might fold away, or come off completely, and it comes in several forms: a fabric soft top, a retractable hardtop that stows itself automatically, a detachable hardtop you lift off by hand, or a Targa-top or T-top, where only a section of the roof comes out.
The design brief is a strange one: take away the part of the car that does a large share of the structural work, then compensate. That usually means extra bracing underneath, which adds weight, and a roof that needs somewhere to live, which costs boot space. Convertibles are generally three-box layouts with seats for two to four. The two-seaters are known as roadsters or spyders.
Engine bay. Conventional enough. The interesting compromises are all behind it.
Open cabin. The roof is drawn dashed because it is optional. Removing it costs stiffness, so bracing goes in underneath.
Boot. Smaller than it looks. A folding roof has to live somewhere, and this is where.
Popular convertibles
- Honda S2000
- Mazda MX-5 / Miata
- BMW Z3
- Mini Cooper Convertible
- Chevrolet Corvette
- Porsche Boxster Spyder
- Mercedes-Benz SL-Class
- Toyota MR2 Spyder
- Ford Thunderbird
- Ford Mustang Convertible
07Microcar: how small can a car get?
Smaller than a hatchback, and often described as one. A microcar (or city car) has three or four wheels, seats one to four, and gets by on an engine so small that fuel and running costs barely register. It's made for dense cities and short trips, and the trade is a compact cabin and very little cargo space.
Engine bay. Tiny, and not always at the front. Kei rules cap it at 660 cc; the Isetta used a motorcycle engine.
Cabin. One to four seats. The whole car is roughly the length of a normal car's cabin.
Cargo. Essentially a parcel shelf. This is the trade you make for the parking.
The family runs from post-war oddities to modern commuters. The BMW Isetta, Messerschmitt KR200 and Berkeley SA322 come from the 1950s. The Fiat 500 and Smart Fortwo are the modern ones, and the Renault Twizy is legally a quadricycle rather than a car. Japan has its own version, the kei class, which caps engines at 660 cc and produced cars like the Suzuki Alto and the Honda Beat, a mid-engined roadster you can park in a hedge.
Popular microcars
08Limousine: a car designed to be looked at
You've seen one outside a wedding, an airport or a film premiere. A limousine is a stretched three-box car with a long wheelbase, a long cabin, and a partition between the driver and the passengers. It's not a daily driver. It's a car for occasions, where the length is the point.
Engine bay. Unchanged from the car it started as. Stretching happens behind it.
Stretched cabin. The dashed line is the partition. Everything between it and the rear seats is added length.
Boot. Proportionally the smallest part of the car, which tells you what the car is for.
The usual starting points are the Lincoln Town Car and the Chrysler 300, with the Rolls-Royce Phantom at the formal end and the Hummer H2 limousine at the other. At the extreme is the American Dream, a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado limousine stretched to 100 feet, which holds the Guinness record for the world's longest car and has a hinge in the middle so it can get around corners.
Usual starting points
09Pickup truck: the easy one
This is the body style you can identify from across a car park. A pickup truck is a light-duty truck with the engine at the front, an enclosed cabin, and an open cargo bed with low sides and a tailgate. The cabin has one row of seats (a single cab) or two (a double cab).
Traditionally the pickup is body-on-frame: a separate ladder frame carries the engine, drivetrain and suspension, and the body sits on top. That's why pickups are known for toughness and off-road ability. The exceptions are the new unibody pickups, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, Ford Maverick and Honda Ridgeline, which trade some of that ruggedness for a car-like ride.
Engine bay. Front-mounted, and on a traditional pickup it sits on a ladder frame rather than in a unibody.
Cab. One row of seats for a single cab, two for a double cab. Fully enclosed and sealed off from the load.
Open bed. Open to the sky with a drop-down tailgate. Nothing else on this page carries a dirty or oversized load as easily.
Popular pickups
- Toyota Hilux
- Toyota Tundra
- Ford Ranger
- Ford F-150
- Honda Ridgeline
- Mitsubishi Triton
- Chevrolet Colorado
- Ram 1500
- Nissan Frontier
- Jeep Gladiator
- Mahindra Scorpio Pickup
10SUV: is it a truck underneath?
A sport utility vehicle is a two-box, four-door body with lots of passenger and cargo room, seating for five or seven in two or three rows, and a few skills borrowed from off-roaders: ground clearance, four-wheel drive, locking differentials. It's practical, comfortable, and works as a family car on tarmac or gravel.
Engine bay. On a traditional SUV this sits on a ladder frame, which is the thing that separates it from a crossover.
Cabin. Two or three rows, five or seven seats, and a seating position high enough to see over traffic.
Cargo, shared. Open to the cabin. Fold the third row and the volume behind the front seats is enormous.
The question that matters is what's underneath. A traditional SUV is body-on-frame, built like a pickup truck. That makes it tough, good at towing and hard on fuel, and it's why the Land Cruiser, 4Runner, Nissan Patrol, Jeep Wrangler, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Chevrolet Suburban are still the SUVs of choice when the road ends. Most new SUVs are unibody now, built on car platforms like the Honda Pilot, Subaru Ascent and BMW X6. That's lighter and smoother on the road, but less suited to hauling a boat up a boat ramp.
Popular SUVs
- Toyota Land Cruiser
- Toyota 4Runner
- Nissan Patrol
- Jeep Wrangler
- Mercedes-Benz G-Class
- Land Rover Range Rover
- Chevrolet Suburban
- Honda Pilot
- Subaru Ascent
- BMW X6
11Crossover: the small one that took over
If the SUV is the big brother, the crossover is the younger sibling. It has the same two-box layout, four doors and two rows of seats for five, but it's lighter, more compact, and built on a car's unibody instead of a truck frame. You get the tall seating position and the cargo flexibility without the weight.
Engine bay. A car engine in a car unibody. This is the whole difference, and it is invisible from outside.
Cabin. Two rows, five seats, and the tall seating position people actually buy these for.
Cargo, shared. Same shared-volume idea as a hatchback, raised up and squared off.
The line between the two has blurred to the point of near-invisibility. The Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V are what most people mean by "SUV" today, and underneath they're crossovers. BMW sells the X6 as a "Sports Activity Coupe," which is quite a lot of body style to ask one name to carry. If you want a rule of thumb, ask whether the structure is a ladder frame or a unibody. The ladder frame is the SUV.
Popular crossovers
- Toyota C-HR
- Toyota RAV4
- Honda HR-V
- Honda CR-V
- Ford EcoSport
- Nissan Kicks
- Hyundai Venue
- Jeep Renegade
- Subaru Outback
12Minivan: the sensible one
The minivan, van or MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) has a one-box or two-box shape with a taller roof, a flat floor, two conventional front doors and two sliding doors at the back. Inside there are usually three rows of seats, and up to eight people. North America says minivan. Europe and most of the rest of the world say MPV.
Engine bay. Pulled back and tucked under the windscreen. The nose is short so the cabin can be long.
Cabin. Three rows, up to eight seats, on a flat floor. The dashed line is the sliding door.
Cargo. Behind the third row, and open to the cabin. Fold the seats flat and the whole box is load space.
The sliding doors are the best idea on the list. A rear door that slides open instead of swinging out means nobody dings the car in the next parking space, and it works in a tight garage where a hinged door wouldn't. It's also the reason minivans are the most functional body style on this page and one of the few that people hesitate to admit they want.
Popular minivans
All twelve, side by side
| Body style | Doors | Seats | Cargo | Layout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedan | 4 | 5 | Separate boot | Three-box |
| Coupe | 2 (sometimes 4) | 2 to 4 | Shallow boot | Three-box |
| Station wagon | 4 + hatch | 5 | Shared with cabin | Two-box |
| Hatchback | 3 or 5 (tailgate counts) | Up to 5 | Shared with cabin | Two-box |
| Fastback | 2 or 4 | 2 to 5 | Boot or hatch | Disputed |
| Convertible | 2 | 2 to 4 | Boot, minus roof storage | Three-box |
| Microcar | 2 to 5 | 1 to 4 | Minimal | Two-box |
| Limousine | 4 | 6 to 20 | Small boot | Three-box, stretched |
| Pickup truck | 2 or 4 | 2 to 6 | Open bed | Cab plus bed |
| SUV | 4 + tailgate | 5 to 7 | Shared with cabin | Two-box |
| Crossover | 4 + tailgate | 5 | Shared with cabin | Two-box |
| Minivan | 2 + 2 sliding | 7 to 8 | Shared with cabin | One- or two-box |
Showing all 12 body styles.
So which one do you actually need?
The labels will keep drifting. Coupes will gain doors, crossovers will gain roofs, and someone will invent a new name for a sedan. Ignore the label and ask three plain questions.
How many people do you carry on the busiest day of the year, and how much do they bring? How often do you leave the tarmac, or tow something heavy? And how much do you care how it feels on a corner?
Choose for the worst regular day, not the average one.
This picker needs JavaScript. The answer is in the paragraph below either way.
Choose for the worst regular day, not the average one. If that day involves six people, a minivan wins and your pride will recover. If it involves a trailer or a dirt track, you want a body-on-frame SUV or a pickup. If it is a mattress and a dog, a wagon or hatchback will do it with less fuel and less bulk than most of the tall vehicles people buy instead, and I would argue that is where the majority of buyers should be looking. The ones who want the tall seating position anyway can buy a crossover with a clear conscience.