Sedans are any car that has an A, B, and C pillar. Two door sedans exist and if we were to go by the author's argument that the Ford Mustang is a sedan, by the definition Wikipedia gives us, he's technically right. Just look at this picture of an S-197. Right there, in bright red, is a B Pillar. Though if we were to start fretting, I'd worried about whether or not it'd be appropriate to actually call it a sedan because it's very easy to argue that it doesn't have “adequate passenger space in the rear compartment for adult passengers.” I'm not a very big man. Even I feel cramped in the back seat of a Mustang.
Does that make my Civic coupe a sedan? Or is it a two door sedan as opposed to a four door sedan? Maybe the confusion is popular or common terms versus technical terms. Ask a botanist what a tomato is, and they'll tell you it's a fruit. But that isn't particularly useful when making a fruit pie. Maybe it depends on the audience. Talking to a group of vehicle designers? Referring to a Mustang's structure as being a sedan could make sense. But if I were to list my Civic on Craigslist as a sedan, every single response would call me a liar. That might explain my annoyance with the author. Nobody likes the guy at a party who declares a tomato a fruit. I don't think he knows his audience, or he's deliberately being obtuse to try to feel smarter than them.
Here's the thing - Honda calls it a coupe. This is an easily-defendable statement to make because it's a 2-door hardtop. It might also be referred to as a hatchback, which Honda has used in the past. A 1990 Prelude, on the other hand, could be called a coupe... but also a sedan, but not a hatchback: The confusion is "readily accepted terms" vs. "weird corner case terms." For example, here's Car & Driver speculating in 2013 what a 2015 Mustang SEDAN would look like: Count the doors. So yeah. Tomatoes are fruit, and if you put them in fruit salad, you're an idiot. Then when you write an entire article about why everyone is wrong for hating on your tomato fruit salad, you're a douche.
Does it have a B pillar behind the door and functional back seats? Then yeah. It's a two door sedan according to Wikipedia. kleinbl00 and I kind of talked about that back and forth a bit. What an engineering team might classify the car as and what the marketing team might classify the car as depends on their reasoning. Take it even further, regulatory agencies, whether for racing, emissions, or safety, all have their own criteria. It's a fun thing to talk about, but obviously not everyone is gonna agree. I think when car journalists write their opinion pieces, they have in the back of their mind a goal to get as many angry letters to the editor as possible. If you ever have a weekday afternoon where you find yourself bored with nothing to do, go to the library and look at a few back issues of magazines like Car and Driver and Motortrend and read the letters to the editor. People get their panties in a bunch over the smallest of details.Does that make my Civic coupe a sedan?
Maybe the confusion is popular or common terms versus technical terms.
That might explain my annoyance with the author. Nobody likes the guy at a party who declares a tomato a fruit. I don't think he knows his audience, or he's deliberately being obtuse to try to feel smarter than them.
But a fuckload more people will agree than disagree, and Road and Track are on the wrong side of the argument, and doubling down by being pedantic and whingeing about their audience. I think this is a recent thing. Automobile Magazine never ran like that. Motor Trend never ran like that. I'm willing to believe Road & Track is now because they haven't been worth reading for a long-ass while. 'member these? That's back when Road & Track used to care about precision. Back when they'd give you TRACK specs. Back when they were telling you things you couldn't just grab off the Internet because it involved original research. Now? Call your readers idiots for disagreeing that a fuckin' mustang isn't a sedan but a 240Z is.It's a fun thing to talk about, but obviously not everyone is gonna agree.
I think when car journalists write their opinion pieces, they have in the back of their mind a goal to get as many angry letters to the editor as possible. If you ever have a weekday afternoon where you find yourself bored with nothing to do, go to the library and look at a few back issues of magazines like Car and Driver and Motortrend and read the letters to the editor. People get their panties in a bunch over the smallest of details.
