Different types of cars

There are so many different types of cars out there that could be so confusing when deciding which one to buy. Do you need a full size SUV or a crossover, and what the heck is the difference between the two? Read on to understand the difference between the two.

Convertible

Any car with its roof retractable is a convertible. Sometimes these are cloth tops but other times they could be hardtops.

Coupe

This is a  type of a car with full size doors, a fixed rooftop rather than a convertible top, a trunk and no lift or tail gate. They are relatively smaller than sedans and typically have a small back seat. Coupe are sportier cousins to sedans.

Sedan

If you add two more doors to a coupe you will have a sedan. Their back seats can accommodate 2-3 people and come in a variety of sizes. Smaller sedans are great for those people who don’t need a huge back seat or truck while large sedans are good for families.

Some manufacturers confuse and call their sedans coupe, but for those of you who don’t spend their entire life in a marketing department, cars with four doors are called sedans.

Hatchbacks

Hatchbacks were all the rage in the 1980s, but quickly went out of favor. They’re back — in a big way, even from luxury manufacturers — but you won’t find the word “hatchback” in any of their marketing materials, because the term isn’t exactly the sexiest thing in the world.

Hatchbacks can have either two or four doors, and have a rear cargo hatch that blends into the body’s lines. They offer much better cargo volume than their sedan counterparts because of the cargo area’s flexibility, but don’t have the boxy look of a station wagon.

Station Wagon

Station wagons were once the favorite family vehicle. Crossovers are often doing the job today, but there are still wagons on the road. Wagons are closely related to their four-door sedan cousins, offering five-passenger comfort, along with a liftgate and a cargo area that opens into the passenger area.

Wagons generally have drivelines that mirror the availability of coupes and sedans in the same line: front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive.

 Minivan

Minivans came along in the 1980s to fill the gap between big, body-on-frame station wagons and full-size vans. Like the crossover, they’re exclusively based on a similar car platform.

Minivans have seating for up to seven people, and now treat the rear seat passengers as well as those riding up front, with separate temperature controls, media options and first-class-style seating. For a while the minivan market was stagnant, but in recent years, manufacturers have upped their game, providing every amenity a luxury car offers, plus an on-board vacuum to clean up Cheerio spills.

Van

Quietly, the van market has completely transformed in the last half-decade. Before 2010, van manufacturers were essentially selling the same body-on-frame trucks that they did in the 1970s, mostly to contractors and church groups looking to haul 15 people without much consideration for fuel efficiency, package efficiency or ease of use.

As car manufacturers have become more global, though, the van market has changed completely. New models of vans have arrived in Kenya that have been sold in Africa for years, that are not only more fuel efficient, but are easier to drive and easier to work with than their ladder-frame, V-8-powered American counterparts.

Vans are also available in much smaller sizes than ever, allowing small businesses to zip in an out of their communities without the massive girth of the vans of the 1970s.