A cabrio coach or semi-convertible is a type of car that has a retractable

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, different #Fabric, fabric types, etc. At f ...

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of t ...

, similar to a convertible/cabriolet. The difference is that where a convertible often has the

B-pillar The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door Sedan (automobile), sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or Greenhouse (automotive), greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, ...

C-pillar The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, C'' and (in larger cars such as 4-door stati ...

and other bodywork removed, the cabrio coach retains all bodywork to the top of the door frames and just replaces the roof skin and rear window with a retractable fabric panel. An advantage of the cabrio coach, particularly for unibody designs is that retaining more of the car's original structure means that

structural rigidity In discrete geometry and mechanics, structural rigidity is a combinatorial theory for predicting the flexibility of ensembles formed by rigid bodies connected by flexible linkages or hinges. Definitions Rigidity is the property of a struct ...

is higher (or the vehicle weight is lower) than traditional cabriolets. If a vehicle's roof includes metal panels as well as the soft-top, it may be considered to be a canvas top design or a fixed-roof vehicle with a

sunroof A sunroof is a movable panel that opens to uncover a window in an automobile roof, allowing light and fresh air to enter the passenger compartment. Sunroofs can be manually operated or motor driven, and are available in many shapes, sizes and styl ...

, instead of being a cabrio-coach. These have the advantage that they may be more easily retrofitted to an existing car; it was a factory option (although listed as a separate model) for the

Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

up to 1963.

History

This type of roof was popular in Germany in the 1930s, and was found on cars such as the

Citroën 2CV The Citroën 2CV (french: link=no, deux chevaux(-vapeur), , lit. "two steam horse(power)s", meaning "two ''taxable'' horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive, economy family car, introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial d ...

Fiat 500 The Fiat 500 ( it, Cinquecento, ) is a rear-engined, four-seat, small city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975 over a single generation in two-door saloon and two-door station wagon bodystyles. Launc ...

, and others. The cabrio coach version of the

Nash Rambler The Nash Rambler is a North American automobile that was produced by the Nash Motors division of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation from 1950 to 1954 in sedan, wagon, and fixed-profile convertible body styles. On 1 May 1954, Nash-Kelvinator merge ...

was marketed as a "convertible

landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

". Some more modern cars have also featured this roof style, for instance

Nissan Figaro The Nissan Figaro is a front-engine, front-wheel drive, two-door, 2+2, fixed-profile convertible manufactured by Nissan for model year 1991, and marketed in Japan at Nissan Cherry Stores. A total of 20,073 Figaros were produced by Nissan in ...

Citroën Visa The Citroën Visa is a five-door, front-engine, front wheel drive supermini manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1978 to 1988 in gasoline and diesel variants. 1,254,390 examples were ultimately manufactured over a single generation, with a ...

Décapotable,

Fiat 500 (2007) The Fiat 500 is an A-segment city car manufactured and marketed by the Fiat subdivision of Stellantis since 2007. It is available in hatchback coupé and fixed-profile convertible body styles, over a single generation — with an intermediate ...

, and the Citroën C3 Pluriel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabrio Coach Car body styles