Hardtop... Sedan... Terminology

[Idaho]

I never fully understood the terminology... hardtop, sedan, post car, etc.

I found this to be an interesting read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtop

Some of the most interesting parts:

The automotive usage of the term "hardtop" is most often applied for a fixed roof body style without a center pillar. They were sometimes called a "hardtop convertible" because they were designed to look like a convertible with the top raised. While some early models retained side window frames and B-pillars, by the 1950s most were "pillarless hardtops", omitting the B-pillar (the roof support behind the front doors) and configuring the window frames, if any, to retract with the glass when lowered. Some hardtops took the convertible look even further, including such details as simulating a convertible-top framework in the interior headliner and shaping the roof to resemble a raised canvas top. By the late-1960s such designs were further emphasized with an optional vinyl cover applied on the steel roof.

I found the origin of the vinyl top particularly interesting.

The hardtop began to disappear along with convertibles in the mid-1970s, partly out of a concern that U.S. federal safety regulations would be difficult for pillarless models to pass. The ascendancy of monocoque construction also made the pillarless design less practical. Some models adopted modified roof styling, placing the B pillars behind tinted side window glass and painting or molding the outer side of each pillar in black to make them less visible, creating a hardtop look without actually omitting the pillar. Some mid to late 1970s models continued their previous two-door hardtop bodies, but with fixed rear windows or a variety of vinyl roof and opera window treatments. The U.S. industry's last true two-door and four-door hardtops were in the 1978 Chrysler Newport and New Yorker lines.

Here's clarification on the term Sedan:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_(automobile)

The word sedan is possibly derived from a southern Italian dialect derivative of Italian sedia "chair" (the first sedan was said to have been introduced from Naples). However, Portuguese and Spanish navigators and colonists encountered litters of various sorts in India, Japan, Mexico, and Peru. They were imported into Spain in the late sixteenth century. Soon the fashion spread into France and then England. All the names for these derived from the root "sed-" from the Latin "sella" - the traditional name for a carried chair.[4]

The first automobile to use the configuration was the 1899 Renault Voiturette Type B. The first closed car, for at least 4 persons, which used the word sedan was the 1911 Speedwell sedan, which was manufactured by the Speedwell Motor Co in Dayton, Ohio.[5] But even before that time completely closed cars were called saloons or limousines, like the 1905 Rational 4-door limousine[6] or the 1907 Renault 4-door limousine[7] or the 1910 Stella 2-door saloon.[8] The words saloon or limousine do not exclusively mean a fully closed car.[9] Cars which are called sedans are almost always fully closed. The term "convertible sedan" was used in the 1930s to describe a car with a soft, foldable top and roll-up windows, very much like a convertible coupe.

The derivation from the town of Sedan, Ardennes in France, where it was said to have been made or first used, lacks historical evidence, according to Oxford English Dictionary.

A sedan /sɨˈdæn/ (American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand English) or saloon (British and Irish English) is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with A, B & C-pillars and principal volumes articulated in separate compartments for engine, passenger and cargo.[1] The passenger compartment features two rows of seats and adequate passenger space in the rear compartment for adult passengers. The cargo compartment is typically in the rear, with the exception of some rear-engined models, such as the Renault Dauphine, Tatra T613, Volkswagen Type 3 and Chevrolet Corvair. It is one of the most common car body styles.

Several versions of the body style exist, including four-door, two-door and fastback variants of both.

A sedan seats four or more people and has a fixed roof that is full-height up to the rear window. The roof structure will typically have a fixed B-pillar on sedan models. Most commonly it is a four-door; two-door models are rare, but they do occur (more so historically). In the U.S., the term sedan has been used to denote a car with fixed window frames, as opposed to the hardtop style without a "B" pillar and where the sash, if any, winds down with the glass. However, true hardtops have become increasingly rare.

Four-door sedans can have either two or three side windows: One in each door (vent windows not counted), and the possible third integrated in the "C"-pillar.

As always, understanding the terminology of our language involves a history lesson