In the distant past, automakers used to build one model with sometimes half a dozen or maybe more body styles. Take the second-generation Ford Fairlane as an example. In the late 1950s, you could have purchased your Fairlane as a two-door hardtop, two-door coupe, two-door convertible, four-door hardtop, four-door wagon, four-door sedan, and a coupe utility! Whew, I hope you weren’t holding your breath while you were reading that. Today, you won’t really find that much variation for one model. I suppose the platform sharing of today is sort of similar, but not quite exact. With that in mind, what four-door should have been a two-door? What two-door should have been four-door?
Even back then, some cars were available with just a few body styles. The 1969 Dodge Charger in the topshot did not start life as a sedan but as a two-door hardtop. Our talented dreaming secret designer the Bishop imagined what would happen if Dodge had sold it as a four-door sedan. Wild, right? On the flip side, the new Charger will be a coupe, just like in 1969!
I’m going to come from left field on this one. The Dodge Magnum was a great wagon. Sure, the interior was plastic fantastic, but some people have gotten around that by installing the interiors from current generation Chargers. The Magnum SRT8, specifically, sounds like an American V8-lover’s dream. You get a 6.1-liter V8 making 425 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of twist, rear-wheel-drive, and sprints to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds. It’s a sleek wagon that still holds up today.
Now, let’s make it better. First, I’d add a manual transmission. Then, I’d chop off two doors. Oh yeah, Dodge Magnum SRT8 shooting brake!
Here’s another: The Volkswagen Phaeton was something special. Built during the terrifying, wacky reign of Ferdinand Piëch, these were super sedans with the luxury and raw power of a Bentley, but restrained style of a Volkswagen. Here, just read a blip from my article on it:
Piëch allegedly set ten standards for which the Phaeton was to meet. Apparently, most of these standards never reached the public, but the few that did perfectly illustrate why the Phaeton is adored by hardcore Volkswagen fans. One requirement doesn’t sound all that sexy, but it was that the vehicle needed a torsional rigidity of 37,000 N·m/degree.
Another is that the Phaeton needed to reach 190 mph without vibrations. And maybe the most absurd, but the Phaeton needed to able to drive all day at 186 mph in 120 degree temperatures while keeping the cabin at a cozy 71.6 degrees.
How do you make the Phaeton even more hardcore? Let’s chop off those two rear doors. I’m not talking about making a Bentley Continental GT, but taking the Phaeton as it is and just shortening it into a sleek Volkswagen sports car. I’d buy that!
[Ed Note: The answer to this is simple:
Bring me back the regular cabs! -DT]
Here’s where I turn things to you. What four-door do you think would have been cooler as a two-door? What two-door really should have been a four-door? If you’re feeling really silly, tell me what should become a limo.
I wish the Acura CL had survived one more generation
Hell, I’m still upset the Legend is gone.
CL plus SH-AWD is an appealing notion
Surprised nobody has said it yet, but current Civic and Integra absolutely deserve at least one 2-door variant. Imagine if the Integra Type S was a 2-Door, give us the spicy coupe and hot hatch combo we deserve Honda!
Absolutely!
The revived Integra is dead to me 😐
the DB8 Type-R sedan thumbs its nose at you
The Gladiator can easily be 2-door. You just remove 2 of the doors.
Booooooooo
I drive a Pontiac G6 GT hardtop convertible. It’s not particularly engaging to drive, but it’s secure and warm in winter while being breezy and fun in warm weather.
Know what would make it even better? Four doors…
suprised there has not been any four door convertibles except the wrangler and bronco for several decades.
Huh. The rarity of four-door convertibles never occurred to me, although that absolutely makes sense since it means you have to make a bigger (and probably more complicated/challenging) mechanism for folding and unfolding it.
I think the 10th gen Pontiac Bonneville would have looked fantastic as a coupe. Actually, I kinda want to see the Bishop draw that one up now that I’m thinking about it
Your avatar made me remember a car I always thought managed to look good as both a coupe and a sedan in its time: The Olds Achieva. Handsome lines either way, both looking good.
I agree, and would add the Allero to that list, too
Oh yes! I’d totally forgotten about the Allero coupe – it had such clean lines compared to its Grand Am cousin. Even at the time, the Grand Am looked way overwrought to me, but the Allero seemed much more balanced.
Unpopular opinion: I don’t like 2 doors. I want all the cars to have 4 doors, unless it is a dedicated sports car. I spent the first 15 years of my life crawling out of 2 door cars with a back seat (Datsun B210, Nissan Sentra). It is just a pain in the ass. If it is a 2 seater, then 2 doors are fine, otherwise, make it a 4 door or if you want extra credit, a 5 door.
I doubt that’s that unpopular of an opinion. That’s very reasonable and I feel similarly.
Miatas are fine, for example. But tiny back rows and/or back rows you need to crawl into need to go the way of the dodo.
Based on the number of coupes sold vs. sedans, the invisible hand prefers 4 doors.
Another pain of 2 door cars – tight parking spots and opening a longer door with limited space. Two cars in a two car garage – space becomes a premium.
I have an opinion your soft. Complaining crawling in and out of back seat through two doors so that our boomer parents could look cooler while driving. Wait maybe we are soft for not demanding to look cooler while driving like our parents??? Oh man my mind just blew.
This is the actual answer! Two door cars make no sense unless there is a real difference in performance. Why keep the same hardward and general format, but make it harder to use by removing two doors?
Chrysler 300 seems right as a sedan, but I’d love to see a coupe and a wagon, too.
Agree that the Gladiator would be better as a two-door, though I do think there’s an argument to be made for extended vs single cab. The Maverick seems like the perfect compromise for what they’re offering, though a single cab would be nice if it didn’t drive up the price overall.
2 doors that should be 4 doors is anything with a back seat. Not a sedan, but the half-door treatment of the Veloster. 2 door that should be a full sedan? I dunno…I wouldn’t mind seeing some convertibles get 4 doors, probably.
They did make a wagon of the 300, just hafta go across the pond and sit in the passenger seat to drive one
I did not know that. Wish we would have gotten it here.
Your telling me
When in scotland, saw one roaming the road and thought wtf, why didnt we get that.
Along with other dandy stuff we need in the colonies
or just buy a magnum and put all of the 300 bits on it.
Indeed, as there have been some done here, iirc the front fenders have the same crease line as a magnum so thered be no cutting and welding to make it look right
The one that is on my profile picture, at least a suicide door for the back.
I’ve never driven a 2-door. My personal policy would be this:
Either be a 2-door with two seats, or be a four-door with legroom.
(Miata? 2 doors, 2 seats. You pass. GT86? Two doors, useless back row. Either remove the back seats to make it obviously storage space, or just…I dunno, expand trunk space or something.)
No “decorative” back row. No cramped entry from the front that requires seat folding/adjustment.
I was thrilled when looking at Priuses to find out they actually have decent legroom in the back–I like being ready to carry people if I need to. (I mean, perhaps that’s the attitude that gives us so many crew cab pickups, but…at least I acknowledge I have no need of off-road or towing abilities.)
Lancer Evo’s and Impreza WRX STI’s.
There’s a reason the 22b is the best looking Impreza, and that’s because it had 2 doors.
As the former owner of a two-door 2000 2.5RS, this is the best answer. I still miss that car and regret that I never had the time or means to STi swap the thing like I had hoped.
Yes to you and Dalton! I’ve never understood the 4 doors thing on the street legal version of a race car. Or the actual race car for that matter.
Is it b/c of current FIA WRC rules? In the past, plenty of rally coupes…
Just to watch the world burn, there should be a two-door Maserati Quattroporte. Not a Duoporte, a two-door Quattroporte.
It’s called the GranTurismo. And one of the better looking luxury coupes made.
DT beat me to it. Throw in the Santa Cruz, too.
Not a specific model, but more of a category: any of the 40-foot-long “coupes” that roamed the earth in the 1970s. Those things had interiors with the same square footage as a small house and yet they had only two bank-vault style doors.
With a little clever design work they probably could have had six doors.
One of my friends in high school had a ’78 Cordoba coupe, thing was massive, with giant hand crank moonroof to match. Memory may be hazy but feel like at one point there was 5 of us in it and we each had our own private corner to hang out in it.
Old Man Rant Time
If my 6ft+ teen self could move forward the front seat to sit in the back of a Cougar the few times we had more than two of us in dad’s car then my kids can also. Nothing wrong with two doors in your dad car or pickup. My kids now complain when getting out the back of the Jeep GC because it does not have push button close doors like the Pacifica. I had to set them straight how soft they are.
Oh but they would not sell. I remember the 80s&90s having half of all cars only having 2 doors and most of them were GM G-bodies. My first car was a 79 LTD TWO DOOR they were like 6 feet long doors.
The answer to what should come with two doors. ALL OF THEM!!!! Every car should have a two door option, 4 door, wagon, and convertible for the kid less ones. Hell even the SUVs can be like this, Explorer Sport says hi. We don’t need a bunch of different models we need one model with real body options and colors while at it!!
Did the rise of child locks kill the coupe, or just bigger car seats used longer?
As someone who grew up in the back seat of a ’68 Mercury Cyclone, ’73 Mercury Montego, and ’77 Mercury Monarch, all 2-door versions, I concur with you, and Jody Foster, that today’s kids are too damn soft!
They should all be 5-door wagon/liftbacks.
Accord Wagon > Accord
Camry Wagon > Camry
CTS Wagon > CTS
Golf Wagon > Golf > Jetta
Counterpoint, they should all be 3-door shooting brakes.
Volvo 1800ES >>> any other Volvo.
the 1800ES is my dream volvo.
Yeah, I struggle to think of a car with back seats that wouldn’t be improved by wagon
David hit the nail on the head. Regular cab trucks should be the base model across the board.
And they shouldn’t all be so tall that you need a ladder to put something in the bed.
Bring back regular trucks!
If we’re allowed to include suicide doors, pretty much every hatchback coupe ever with rear seats should have gotten the Veloster treatment on both sides.
Even as a small child getting past the flipped forward front seat into the back of a ’77 Corolla hatchback was a chore. I can’t imagine trying to deal with car seats full of squirming toddler now.
We had a 2 door colt with our infant and then toddler 20+ years ago. it sucked.
That works well on my FJ Cruiser. It looks and feels like a two-door, but those suicide doors are nice when you need them (almost never). My wife’s YJ was a pain in the ass with two doors unless the top was off.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t suicide doors (especially when mirrored on both sides) really compromise side impact crashworthiness? E.g., less structural rigidity?
Not sure. Possibly. The doors themselves and the locking mechanism appear pretty robust. It’s still gotta be better than my xB in terms of rigidity. Those doors feel like they were made from flattened beer cans.
I’m personally a huge fan of the 2+2 coupe configuration, so I would say that I would prefer any sedan offering as a 2+2 rather than a sedan, because I seldom carry anyone in the back seat. So I guess my answer is all the sedans.
If that’s too broad of a brush, I’ll say I’d have appreciated a Lincoln LS as a luxury sport coupe (with the V8 AND the manual together, while I’m stringing together wishes). Same with the 90’s Shamu Impala SS. Stinger GT is also a great answer. Basically all the RWD sports sedans that never got a coupe.
Came to say there should be a log box 2 door jeep gladiator.
A Scramblidator? Scramdiator?
with you—but what do you call it?
Glambler
The Rhinestone Edition!
The Jeep Tudor. Kidding, Ford would sue.
Just The Gladiator just like other 2 and 4 door trucks have just one name. or call it the scrambler.
How about other doors? If so, USDM Ford Fusion with a hatchback instead of a trunk.
Would have complemented the already handsome design, made the car be what it actually looked like, and might have even kept it in production longer, as SUV/CUV rear entry versatility is a big selling point.
Yes, to hatchbacks, no to trunks
Would have solved the trunk space problem on the PHEV, making it one of the best all-around buys ever
You mean the C-Max?
In my mind’s eye, I see something more angled/less upright. Basically, the Fusion’s existing quasi-fastback rear converted to a true liftback, along the lines of what the rest of the world could get with the Mondeo. Plus you get the rear wiper that way – people love those!
I’ve got a rear wiper on my C-Max.
I have no candidates: just here to say I would be so down for a Magnum SRT8 Shooting Brake.
Yessss the world needs more shooting brakes.
I would have loved a Kia Stinger coupe. I think that was a missed opportunity.
Alternatively, I’d love to see a Toyota GT86 with 5-doors (and useable back seat) that I could use to transport the kids.
Good one. I’ve always been jealous at the sheer amount of 5 door hatchback cars that European markets get. Practicality and sporty in a reasonable everyday package. But no, our version of this has to be gigantic fake off-road vehicles.
Tasty cakes
GM EV1 as a 4-door. It’s a silly novelty as a 2-seat suppository, but add a couple doors and seats and it’s a statement that an EV could be a real car for regular people – which would have been really bold in the ’90s.
Kia Stinger as a 2-door. If you’re going to try to make a style and performance flagship why not go all out? It didn’t sell anyway, but if it didn’t sell with two doors it would be way cooler.
The Tahoe should have been available as a 2 door continuously since it went away in 1999.
It’s hard to think of a 2 door only vehicle that hasn’t already been made into a 4 door. I suppose I’ll stretch the definition a bit and say a Mustang based/inspired RWD sedan (Not a Mach E please) with V8 power and sharper handling than Grandma’s Crown Vic would have been cool to see at some point.
Came here for the Mustang. When you look at cars like the LTD (I know LTDScott would agree), Ford was soooo close to making it.
A new Falcon?
Porsche 944. Stretch the wheelbase about a foot, stick some doors back there, and yeah, that. We even talked about it back in the 80’s, and then 20 years later they actually built a four-door Porsche.
Yeah. I’ve always been amazed the Porsche didn’t think “sedan” a long time ago, esp. when it could have made one from a “lesser” Porsche so the 911 still remained unique.
Aw, I don’t know, I wish Porsche built nothing but coupes and roadsters. I don’t like the 4-door and SUV versions. But, Porsche probably wouldn’t have survived without them. Still, when I want 4-doors from Porsche, I’ll just buy two.
Or a 928 with an RX8 rear-access door?