Compare the best coupes cars

A coupe is a type of car that sits between a sports car and something, well a little more sensible.

Traditionally, a coupe car will have two doors and some come with just two seats, while others have a further two seats in the rear.

The best coupe cars should be great fun to drive – they don’t need to come with the most powerful engines, but they should put a huge grin on your face as you drive through a series of corners.

The final box that the best coupe cars must tick is they should look fantastic. Sleek styling, a swoopy roofline and a mean-looking, low-to-the-ground stance mark the best coupes out from the rest.

Increasingly, there is a new kind of coupe emerging. Buyers love the looks of a coupe – that low, swept back roofline – but need a dose of practicality for their day-to-day car. Enter the four-door coupe. These cars have the looks but also a further two doors and useable rear seats that you can easily access from the rear doors.

Are these cars

Is a coupe a four-door car? Well, that’s a matter of debate. Traditionally, a coupe had two doors – and sometimes just two seats. People’s tastes change – or develop, at least. And so now you get four-door coupes. These offer coupe buyers more practicality than a two-door coupe. You get easy access to the rear seats through those two extra doors, but you still get the stylish looks of a traditional coupe.

That depends on where you come from. In Europe, people pronounce coupe: ‘koo-pay’. The word coupé is French and it’s literal meaning means chopped off. A coupe was a horse-drawn carriage that did not have two rearward facing seats. This evolved into a car with just two seats – with the others chopped off. In the US, coupe is sometimes pronounced differently – more like ‘koop’.