American Definition
In America, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) provides very specific definitions regarding coupés. By their definition some two-door classic coupé cars are not actually classified as coupés but fall under the two-door sedan category. Before the days of motorized vehicles, the word referred to the front or after compartment of a Continental stagecoach. First coupé cars were required to have only one side window per side, but this consideration has not been used for many years. However, the definition of coupé is changing over time, it is not fair to expand it also for other variations of coupé (without four-door version), because they are not or not yet accepted enough by other manufacters, press and automotive environments.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) distinguishes a coupé from a sedan (saloon) primarily by interior volume; SAE standard J1100 defines a coupé as a fixed-roof automobile with less than 33 cubic feet (930 L) of rear interior volume. A car with a greater interior volume is technically a two-door sedan, not a coupé, even if it has only two doors. By this standard, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, and Mercedes-Benz CL-Class coupés are all two-door sedans. Only a few sources, however (including the magazine Car and Driver), use the two-door sedan label in this manner. Some car manufacturers may nonetheless choose to use the word coupé (or coupe) to describe such a model (e.g., the Cadillac Coupe de Ville).
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