Car Body Styles Explained: Sedan, Coupe, Convertible, Targa, SUV, Van
A car’s body style is the shape of the passenger compartment and the volumes attached to it — how many rows of seats, how many doors, whether the roof is fixed, and whether the luggage rides in a sealed boot, under a tailgate, or in an open bed. It describes the box, not the badge, the price or the engine. Count the boxes in profile and you have placed the car: three is a sedan, two is a hatchback, estate or SUV, one is a van. Everything else — doors, roof, ride height — is a modifier, and almost every argument about body styles is really an argument about marketing.
| Word | What it specifies | What it means with a suitcase in your hand |
|---|---|---|
| Sedan / saloon | 3 boxes, 4 doors | A sealed boot: luggage out of sight, cabin noise out of the boot, predictable to park. |
| Coupé | a proportion, not a door count | Low roof, long rear deck, cabin pushed back. Two doors are a consequence, not a rule. |
| Convertible | the roof folds | The umbrella term. Roadster: two seats. Cabriolet: a fixed-roof car with the roof cut off. Spider: the Italian for it. |
| Targa | a panel lifts out | A fixed hoop and a removable roof section. Not a folding roof. The Corvette coupé and the 911 Targa. |
| SUV / crossover | frame / floorpan | Almost everything sold as an SUV is a crossover. The Wrangler, the Bronco and the G-Class are the frames. |
| Van / minivan | 1 box | Sliding doors on the minivan are the whole point: they open in a space narrower than the car. |
The three-box idea, which explains most of it
Before the marketing names, there is a simple bit of geometry. Look at a car in profile and count the boxes: engine, cabin, luggage.
Three boxes — a bonnet, a cabin and a separate boot with its own lid — is a saloon, which Americans call a sedan. Two boxes — a bonnet and one continuous volume behind it, opened by a tailgate that includes the rear window — is a hatchback, an estate, and every SUV on earth. One box — the windscreen starting almost above the front wheels and everything behind it cabin — is a van or a people carrier.
Count the boxes and you have placed the car before anybody says a word about it. We run about a hundred cars in Los Angeles across every one of these bodies, so each section below ends with what the label means when somebody is standing in front of the car with a suitcase, which is the only test that has ever mattered.
Sedan and coupé: it was never about the number of doors
A sedan is the three-box car: four doors, a fixed roof, and a boot that is a separate sealed volume from the cabin. It is the default shape of the twentieth century and it survives because the sealed boot is genuinely useful. A coupé is the same idea with the roof pulled down and the cabin shortened, historically with two doors — and the two-door part is the bit everyone treats as the definition and the bit manufacturers abandoned twenty years ago. The proportion is the definition: a low roof, a long rear deck, a cabin pushed backwards. Doors are a consequence, not a rule.
We have both halves of the argument in the same garage. The AMG GT 43 has four doors and a hatchback tailgate and Mercedes sells it as a four-door coupé, which sounds like nonsense until you stand next to it and see that the roofline is a coupé’s. Meanwhile the Audi RS3 is a three-box saloon with a sealed boot, and nobody would call it a coupé at any angle. The full taxonomy runs to dozens of terms; these two cover most of what a rental page will ever call a car.
Convertible, roadster, cabriolet, spider, targa
All of them mean “the roof comes off”, they are not interchangeable, and the differences decide who can come with you. Convertible is the umbrella term: a roof that folds or retracts, fabric or metal. A roadster is a convertible with two seats and no pretence of a back row — the Boxster. A cabriolet is a convertible built on a car that also exists with a fixed roof, usually with rear seats — the 430i, the A5, the Mustang, the Mini.
Spider or Spyder is the Italian word for the same thing on a mid-engined car — the two Huracán Spiders. Drophead coupé is Rolls-Royce’s own word for a four-seat fabric-roofed convertible — the Dawn. And a targa is a fixed roll hoop with a removable panel between it and the windscreen, not a folding roof at all.
The targa is the term that catches people out, and two of ours are targas: the Corvette coupé, whose panel lifts out by hand and stows in the boot behind the engine, and the 911 Targa, whose roof section lifts and stows in a piece of theatre while the rear glass stays put. The practical rule for Los Angeles: for a third person, the four-seat cabriolets, before the colour is discussed; for two and a drive, the roadster. The whole open-top ladder, rung by rung, is its own page.
SUV and crossover, which are not the same word
An SUV in the original sense is a two-box vehicle with a raised ride height built on a separate ladder frame, the way a truck is built. A crossover is the same shape and the same ride height built on a car floorpan, in one piece, the way a saloon is built.
Almost everything sold as an SUV today is a crossover, including nearly every one in this fleet; the exceptions are the ones that came from somewhere else — the Jeep Wrangler, the Ford Bronco and the G-Class, all still built on a frame because they are descended from military vehicles rather than from saloons. Does it matter for four days? Rarely. A crossover rides better, is quieter, corners flatter and parks more easily; a body-on-frame car tolerates being driven up something rough and looks like it would. Unless the plan involves dirt, the word is decoration and the choice is simply which one you want to arrive in.
Van, minivan and truck
A minivan is a one-box passenger vehicle on a car floorpan, with sliding rear doors and a low floor you step onto rather than climb into. The sliding doors are the whole point: they open in a space narrower than the car, which is why a Kia Carnival works in a Los Angeles parking structure where an SUV’s rear door does not.
A van in the full sense is a commercial vehicle — taller, longer, built on a frame, walk-through inside — and ours is a Sprinter converted to carry people in individual chairs rather than parcels, a different vehicle from the same shell. A pickup is a two-box body with the second box open to the sky; the Cybertruck is one, with a powered cover over the bed that makes it something closer to a very tall two-seat estate with a locked boot.
The seat count is what people actually mean when they ask about vans and SUVs, and how many seats each SUV really has is set out separately, because “seven seats” and “seven adults” are not the same sentence.
What the label means with a suitcase in your hand
A sedan hides the luggage and keeps it quiet; a coupé hides less of it and asks you to bend further. A cabriolet with four seats keeps a usable boot; a roadster keeps room for one soft bag; a Spider keeps a shallow compartment under the bonnet and nothing else; a targa puts the roof panel in the boot, which is the detail that decides the airport tier on the Corvette. A crossover opens a tailgate over a flat floor; the body-on-frame cars open a side-hinged door with a spare wheel on it, which needs room behind the car. A minivan slides. A van walks through. That is the whole taxonomy, reduced to the question that decides bookings.
What it costs, and how it reaches you
Body style does not set the deposit; the car does. Every car carries a refundable hold by its band, back 5–7 business days after it returns, and the band sets the per-day cover and which young-driver fee a driver under twenty-five pays. Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary.
Airport delivery is $150 both ways standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the shuttle out to it, or $300 both ways VIP at the terminal, half that for one direction — and here the body style does matter, because the shuttle with cases is a different half-hour beside a Spider than beside a Carnival. The rest is in the terms; every shape is on the fleet page.
The short version
Count the boxes: three is a sedan, two is everything from a hatchback to an SUV, one is a van. Then apply the modifiers. A coupé is a proportion, not a door count; a convertible folds, a targa lifts out; a crossover is built like a saloon and a true SUV like a truck; a minivan slides its doors.
The full vocabulary is long, and the only test that matters is the one with a suitcase in your hand. Every shape here sits on the fleet page.
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Cars in this guide
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Frequently asked questions
What is a car body style?
Nizo Luxury sorts its Los Angeles fleet by it — +1 (424) 303-6496 — from a Kia Carnival minivan at $114 a day to a four-door coupé. A body style is the shape of the passenger compartment and the volumes attached to it: how many rows of seats, how many doors, whether the roof is fixed, and whether the luggage rides in a sealed boot, under a tailgate or in an open bed. It describes the box, not the badge, the price or the engine. Count the boxes in profile — three is a sedan, two is a hatchback or SUV, one is a van — and you have placed the car.
What is the difference between a sedan and a coupe?
Not the number of doors. A sedan is the three-box car: four doors, a fixed roof, a sealed boot. A coupe is the same idea with the roof pulled down and the cabin shortened — a proportion, not a door count, which is why Mercedes sells the four-door AMG GT 43 as a coupe and nobody argues once they have stood next to it.
What is the difference between a convertible, a roadster and a cabriolet?
Convertible is the umbrella term for a roof that folds. A roadster has two seats and no pretence of a back row — the Boxster. A cabriolet is a fixed-roof car that also exists with the roof cut off, usually with rear seats — the 430i, the A5, the Mustang. Spider is the Italian word for it on a mid-engined car. In Los Angeles a roadster is the car you book when the drive matters more than the seat count.
What is a targa top?
A fixed roll hoop with a removable panel between it and the windscreen — not a folding roof. The Corvette coupe's panel lifts out by hand and stows in the boot; the 911 Targa's roof section lifts and stows while the rear glass stays. Two of ours are targas, and neither is a convertible.
What is the difference between an SUV and a crossover?
How they are built. A true SUV sits on a separate ladder frame, like a truck; a crossover is built on a car floorpan in one piece, like a saloon. Almost everything sold as an SUV today is a crossover; the frames here are the Jeep Wrangler, the Ford Bronco and the G-Class. Unless the plan involves dirt, the word is decoration and the choice is simply which one you want to arrive in.
Why does a minivan park where an SUV cannot?
Sliding doors. They open in a space narrower than the car, so a Kia Carnival unloads in a Los Angeles parking structure where an SUV's hinged rear door hits the pillar. A van in the full sense is a taller, longer commercial shell built on a frame; ours is a Sprinter converted to carry people in individual chairs.