Close-coupled sedan

A close-coupled sedan is an obsolete type of car body which disappeared from the United States market by World War II, though it survived elsewhere for a time. It was a four-windowed sedan with a trunk that from front to rear was almost as thin as an upright suitcase. Such a vehicle was a bit lighter, and hence less expensive, than a regular sedan of the day, which had its rear-seat passengers sitting over the differential, and had room for a wider trunk at the rear, sometimes being a compartment added on not at the factory but by specialists. The passengers in a close-coupled sedan sat a little bit forward of the differential, so they had somewhat less room.

The mechanical particular was that the rear suspension could not be a Hotchkiss drive. Ford Motor Company, which used a transverse spring suspension until 1949, could offer such a vehicle, and called its version a "Victoria" in the 1930s.