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.
Ford is stupid for never releasing a four door mustang. Especially with the new generation in 2014 finally getting ditching the solid axle.
They kind of did in the ’80s with the LTD lx and fairmont. They were even available as wagons so you could swap on the mustang front clip as even the body lines line up.
https://www.drivingline.com/articles/the-other-fox-bodies-fords-cheaper-rarer-mustang-50-alternatives/
They mocked one up early on, but it didn’t look very good with the extended dash-to-axle dimension and would’ve had compact room with midsize overall length, something it was felt 4-door sedan buyers wouldn’t accept.
The old poverty spec BMW 318 circa 1980 looks ridiculous with two doors. Add two and voilà , fixed.
https://live.staticflickr.com/684/32577468032_a7a8226218_b.jpg
There absolutely should be a 4 door BRZ/86. Imagine a new, lightweight, rear drive, manual, proper sport sedan in 2024
And the fact that there’s no big Audi coupe baffles me, a coupe A/S/RS7 would be sick
For some reason a four door Fiero just popped into my head.
Wayne’s World AMC Pacer Limo
“Party time…Excellent!”
That Charger chop job up top looks strangely Australian
Lada, hardtop. Pillarless obvs.
Jeep Gladiator definitely: Lose one seat, gain at least a 6ft bed and extra payload. The cost of making the 2 door Wrangler bodies compatible with the Gladiator frame is minimal at best.
I think Jeep’s future would be best off making very durable commercial vehicles. Who else makes a “light duty” pickup with a solid axle up front?
While I think the Maverick should have a 2 door 6ft bed extended cab variant the cost of making that would be very high, and from what I’ve seen reported to have a Unibody 2 door long bed pickup it would require a ton of stiffening, so maybe just a 2 door short bed variant.
As far as “2 Door” vehicles that should be 4 Door basically all cargo vans. You should have sliding doors on both sides, not just one.
When I look at used conversion vans, there’s a period of time (I don’t pay close attention, but it’s there) where Chevy Express ones have them on both sides, but more recent ones don’t. Dunno if it’s just a supply/demand thing or if it’s something else.
Me personally, I disagree with having sliding doors on both sides for both applications.
With passengers, the “enclosed” side behind the driver’s seat creates a good spot for loose cargo (backpacks, instruments, etc.) without worrying about them falling out when you open the door.
But I feel even more strongly for cargo vans–so many of those get shelves installed in them, and any space for doors is less space for shelves. And even without shelves, it still makes it more of a minefield for anything “loose” falling out when opening doors.
Depends on the use case, let it be an option.
They should have made a two-door version of the Jaguar XE as a 4 series/ C class coupe rival.
No two doors should have been four doors. There are practically no two doors cars left anymore! Leave them alone!
There are so many cars I wish came as a two door:
Honda Civic (current)
Kia Stinger
Suzuki SX4 (I always sort of wanted to do a rear seat delete for mine anyway)
Corolla Hatchback
Basically all body on frame SUVs
Yeah I’m weird and you’d think I’d appreciate more doors being a van cultist, but if it isn’t a van, I prefer two doors. Yeah it’s impractical with car seats, but once kids are out of those they certainly have the ability to climb back there (I’m convinced the death of the two door is mostly due to how kids spend half their childhood in carseats/boosters now, where I was out of a carseat by 2 and a booster by 5). I used to love climbing back into weird two door vehicles as a kid. But I’m probably one of the few that found that entertaining.
It’s sad that wagons are dead and sedans are about to die, but I think I’m more sad about the death of the coupe than anything. To me the perfect mix of body style for a model is wagon option, and coupe option.
Body on frame SUVs? During my residency in tucson, I saw many Mexican Dodge RamChargers, a two-door SUV based on the “new” post-1994 Ram Truck that was apparently too good for the US to have. Damn, that was one handsome truck.
Yeah it’s impractical, but if I’m going to be surrounded by Tahoes and 4Runners, etc. I’d like some of them to 2-doors. I’m not a truck guy but in my opinion all of the best looking SUVs are 2-doors.
Normally the Bishop’s work amuses, That lead image Horrified !
For sure! That Charger front half/Coronet back half is a fright!
Regarding Limo, I’d love to see a minivan (any, I’m not picky) extended so it has multiple sliding doors on each side. Because sliding doors are fun.
It exists, Ford Transit XXL
Holy crap that’s terrifying.
You misspelled “awesome”.
I’m in love
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have a new plan for when I win the lottery. I shall use it to shuttle people to my private jet.
YES! Stacker doors on a van!
The Hyundai Veloster should have been either a 4 door or a 2 door.
No.
My examples both came in 2- and 4- door versions but each one had a better configuration and they’re opposites. The Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance looked far better as a 2-door, and its successor the Neon looked bizarre as a 2-door and needed those 4 doors IMO.
I can’t come up with a single 2-door that should have been a 4-door. I also cannot think of a single 4-door that should not have at least had a 2-door counterpart.
Ever since my earliest car memories, our ’69 Buick Wildcat, I have always liked big 2-doors. One I always wanted to see was a coupe version of the 9th gen Pontiac Bonneville. Drop bucket seats in the front and back and call it Catalina 2+2.
A much easier question how many 3 door cars should not have been 3 door? (not counting the hatch, thinking the sc1 or veloster)
I do wonder why there aren’t ordinary (i.e., factory option) 6/7 door vehicles. I look at stuff like Escalades and Expeditions and think, why have to go in there hunched over to get to the back row (especially if it’s still roomy enough to hold an average adult) when a little bit of messing with proportions might allow for a much more comfortable and luxurious third-row entry with your own doors?
Otherwise you’re just pushing the “no, you can’t get in, you have to wait until the person behind you gets in first” issue of 2-door 4-seaters to the 2nd-row occupants.
Checker aerobus.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checker_Aerobus
First time I came across one was when a whole pack of kids piled out of a wagon version when my family was on vacation in Ocean Shores Washington back in the ’90s.
That’s freaking awesome. So much nicer ingress/egress than typical passenger vans or SUVs.
Honestly, if they did newer Dart coupes, I think that would’ve done some good.
Wouldn’t need the 1.4T to hit the 40mpg mark that it needed to, that’s for sure.
In other markets it was called the Neon, I’d totally have considered a Citrus Peel 2-door Dart and rebadged it to relive my 96′ Neon coupe glory days.
The Neon that’s in places like Mexico currently are just rebadged Fiat Tipo’s. The newer Dart’s are based directly on the Giulietta but modified for American tastes, and their alternative names are both Fiats: Fiat Viaggio & Fiat Ottimo (which, for some reason, was a hatchback).
In terms of chassis to help the image: Neon/Tipo is on Fiat’s Small Wide, Giulietta is on Compact, Dart is on Compact Wide.
Ah, gotcha, I think the Dart was in general a smidge too big, smaller cars got better mpg, bigger cars were more comfy. Still a 2-door might have helped them move some more.
I still feel like Chevrolet Should have kept a K5 version of the Yukon/Tahoe. it could have been a separate line that just used some parts sharing for the interior and body and then gone full off road with solid axles in front, low ratio manual trans and 4 to 1 t-case along with a return to the removable back half or better fully removable roof.
Any sub-compact car should have a 2-door option, used to be that was the cheaper option too, less doors, with a manual, well that’s $1k off right there.
Some specific sub-models only offered on 4-door, why no Wrangler 4xe 2-door? You have the 4xe parts, you have the 2 door parts, make it fit!
I’ll also agree with DT, who’s left that offers a 2-door pickup for the regular folks(not fleets that can still order them). Toyota? Nissan maybe?
Maybe I’m getting old and have no kids to care about loading/unloading and approaching mid-life-crisis-get-impractical-car times, but can’t think of where I’d want to add extra doors, maybe on the Model X just have 4 regular doors instead of falcon doors?
If only BMW had given us a two-door Isetta where the front and back open up completely…
Do you mean something like the Isetta 600?
It exists. It is called a Janus.
RE: DT’s Editor’s note: You can’t have your cake and eat it too wrt unibody pickups and regular cabs!!
Golf R and GTI
The extended cab GMT400 started out as a 2-door, then later became a 3-door. Should have had 4 doors from day 1.
The first gen Chevy Volt would have been better as a two door. The back seats were small and constrained by the battery tunnel. Two doors and wagons make more sense to me than sedans, anyway.
So, the ELR with Chevy badges, right?
Honestly, that might look pretty sweet ngl.
The ELR is a pretty good cased for why not, even ignoring the cost
There’s been one in my town for years and I always thought “you go dude!”
I can’t wait for when those finally become cheap enough to fall under my radar. I’d buy one in an instant.
Beautiful cars. Horribly priced when new.
It’s the same platform as the Cascada so could’ve been a convertible too!