About types of cars & get to know which one is best suited for you

There’s a world of choice in today’s car market, what with more than 400 different models and many car types available. What are the different types of cars? The first thing to know is that “cars” means “passenger vehicles of all types.” For the purposes of keeping it simple, we’ve broken down all of those vehicle choices into nine major categories.

SEDAN

A sedan has four doors and a traditional trunk. Like vehicles in many categories, they’re available in a range of sizes from small (subcompact vehicles like Maruti Suzuki Dzire, Ford Aspire) to compacts (Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla) to mid-size (Honda Accord, Hyundai Verna), and full-size (Toyota Avalon, Dodge Charger).

Luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and Lexus have sedans in similar sizes as well.

HATCHBACK

Traditionally, the term “hatchback” has meant a compact or subcompact sedan with a squared-off roof and a rear flip-up hatch door that provides access to the vehicle’s cargo area instead of a conventional trunk. The Volkswagen Polo and Tata Altroz are two typical hatchbacks. More recently, rear hatches have found their way on to some larger cars, like the Audi A7. They look like sedans, but they actually mid-sized Honda Ridgeline a steeply raked hatchback that affords easier access to the cargo area and greater carrying capacity than a traditional trunk would.

SPORT-UTILITY VEHICLE (SUV)

SUVs—often also referred to as crossovers—tend to be taller and boxier than sedans, offer an elevated seating position, and have more ground clearance than a car. They include a station wagon-like cargo area that is accessed through a flip-up rear hatch door and many offer all-wheel drive. The larger ones have three rows of seats. Sizes start at subcompact (Mahindra TUV-300, Ford EcoSport), mid-size (Hyundai Creta, Volkswagen T-cross), and go all the way to full-size (Toyota Fortuner). Luxury brands offer many SUV models in most of the same size categories.

MINIVAN

Minivans are the workhorses of the family-car world, the best at carrying people and cargo in an efficient package. They’re called minivans but they are far from “mini.” That’s because they are tall boxes-on-wheels with sliding side doors for easy access and a rear hatch that opens to a large cargo area. Most minivans have adjustable seats in their second and third rows that often can be removed or even folded into the floor to create a huge open cargo bay.

STATION WAGON

Wagons are similar to sedans but have an extended roofline and a hatch door at the rear instead of a trunk. Some, like the Audi A4 Allroad, have elevated ground clearance and some rugged body cladding to make them more like a sport-utility vehicle (SUV), but they are nonetheless closely related to sedans.

SPORTS CAR

These are the sportiest, hottest, coolest-looking coupes and convertibles—low to the ground, sleek, and often expensive. They generally are two-seaters, but sometimes have small rear seats as well. Cars like the Porsche 911 and Mazda Miata are typical sports cars, but you can stretch the definition to include muscle cars like the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger. Then there are the high-end exotic dream cars with sky-high price tags for the one percent, cars like the Ferrari 488 GTB and Aston Martin Vantage, which stop traffic with their spaceship looks.

COUPE

A coupe has historically been considered a two-door car with a trunk and a solid roof. This would include cars like a Ford Mustang —or even two-seat sports cars like the Chevrolet Corvette. Recently, however, car companies have started to apply the word “coupe” to four-door cars or crossovers with low, sleek rooflines that they deem “coupe-like.” This includes vehicles as disparate as a BMW X6 SUV. At Car and Driver, we still consider a coupe to be a two-door car.

CONVERTIBLE

Does the roof retract into the body leaving the passenger cabin open to the elements? If so, it’s a convertible. Most convertibles have a fully powered fabric roof that folds down, but a few have to be lowered by hand. There are also a number of models with a retractable hardtop, as well as several unusual quasi- convertibles (called “Targa tops”) like the Porsche 911 Targa and Corvette; only the forward section of their roofs retracts or can be removed by hand

 

PICKUP TRUCK

A pickup truck has a passenger cab and an open cargo bed in the rear. Virtually all pickups offer some form of all-wheel drive or part-time four-wheel drive—the latter for off-road use only. With one exception—the Mahindra Imperio—pickup bodies are cabs mounted to a separate steel frame. Currently, pickup trucks come in two size categories: full-size and mid-size.