QOTD: Are You Missing the Coupe Yet?

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

It won’t have escaped your attention that Honda hauled the wraps off its 10th-generation Accord on Friday. Some good things were added: trunk space, a ten-speed automatic, and turbocharged engines. However, as Soiricho gives, Soiricho also taketh away: the V6 disappeared, as did the coupe.

The move wasn’t surprising, as coupes (and non-crossovers in general) are currently enjoying the popularity of fish-flavored toothpaste. With their numbers dwindling, what car currently on sale today would you like to see as a coupe?

In 2005, I bought a three-year-old Accord Coupe, finished in silver with black leather seats and powered by the four-cylinder engine of the day. Back then, the Accord Coupe looked significantly different from its sedan brother, at least once one got aft of amidships. Designing a completely different (and, in my mind, wonderful) set of taillights for a low-volume Accord variation couldn’t have been cheap. This means I held the keys to a brace of silver two-door cars at one time: the Accord and the Mark VII. I’ve never fully considered that choice until this very moment.

The current Ford Fusion is a fetching looking thing, one which I think would be made even prettier if it shed two of its doors. The thought of the current aggro-Camry in coupe form would surely make Steph Willems weep, just as a twin-doored Malibu would arouse some of the Bowtie fans amongst us. A two-door Chevy SS would’ve been cool, but there’s an argument to be made that one is available in the form of a Corvette.

Of course, none of these dreams will ever come to fruition. The market has voted with their wallets and, with one notable exception, most buyers in search of a midsized car want them with doors that are four. How about you? If given the chance to coupe-ify a current model, what would it be? Or would you even bother?

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • George B George B on Jul 17, 2017

    What I like most about Coupes is the position of the B pillar further back. The forward position of the B pillar is a major annoyance if you have long legs. However, a relatively long wheelbase 4 door sedan achieves this result with the added utility of 2 additional doors for rear seat passengers.

    • Vulpine Vulpine on Jul 17, 2017

      "However, a relatively long wheelbase 4 door sedan achieves this result with the added utility of 2 additional doors for rear seat passengers." Which for most of the people wanting coupes simply will never be used as seats, but rather repositories of trash and junk if they're even left upright at all.

  • Pete Zaitcev Pete Zaitcev on Jul 17, 2017

    My daily driver is not only a coupe, but it's also a convertible and RWD! (from certain point of view, as Obi-Wan Kenobi used to say). Take that, Honda!

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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