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Typical pillar configurations of a sedan (three box), station wagon (two box) and hatchback (two box) from the same model range.

A sedan (American English, Canadian English, Australian English;  /sɨˈdæn/), berline (French) or saloon car (British English, Irish English, New Zealand English) is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with A, B & C-pillars and principal volumes articulated in separate compartments for engine, passenger and cargo.^[1] The passenger compartment features two rows of seats and adequate passenger space in the rear compartment for adult passengers. The cargo compartment is typically in the rear, with the exception of some rear-engined models, such as the Renault Dauphine, Tatra T613, Volkswagen Type 3 and Chevrolet Corvair. It is one of the most common car body styles.

Types of sedans[link]

Several versions of the body style exist, including four-door, two-door, nine-door, and fastback variants of both.

A sedan seats four or more people and has a fixed roof that is full-height up to the rear window. The roof structure will typically have a fixed B-pillar on sedan models. Most commonly it is a four-door; two-door models are rare, but they do occur (more so historically). In the U.S., the term sedan has been used to denote a car with fixed window frames, as opposed to the hardtop style without a "B" pillar and where the sash, if any, winds down with the glass. However, true hardtops have become increasingly rare.

Four-door sedans can have either two or three side windows: One in each door (vent windows not counted), and the possible third integrated in the "C"-pillar.

Notchback sedans[link]

1962 Chevrolet Impala, a typical notchback sedan

A notchback sedan is a three-box sedan, where the passenger volume is clearly distinct from the trunk volume of the vehicle (when seen from the side). The roof is on one plane, generally parallel to the ground, the rear window at a sharp angle to the roof, and the trunk lid is also parallel to the ground.

Fastback sedans[link]

1941 Plymouth fastback sedan

A fastback sedan is a two-box sedan, with continuous slope from the roof to the base of the decklid, but excludes the hatchback feature. Marketing terminology is often misleading in this area - for example, Daimler AG calls the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class sedan a four-door coupé because its semi-fastback design tries to give the impression of a coupé. Certain sedans are edging close to being one-box vehicles, where the windshield is steeply raked from the hood/bonnet and the rear window slopes toward almost the end of the car, leaving just a short rear deck that is part of the trunk lid - the 2006 4-door JDM Honda Civic is an example of this. They are not fastbacks because their bodyline changes from the roof to the rear deck. Their steeply raked rear windows end with a decklid that does not continue down to the bumper. Instead, their rear ends are tall - sometimes in a Kammback style - to increase trunk space.

Typically this design is chosen for its aerodynamic advantages. Automakers can no longer afford the penalty in fuel consumption produced by the traditional notchback three box form.

Two-door sedans[link]

Opel Kadett B two-door sedan

The Society of Automotive Engineers defines such a vehicle as any two-door model with rear accommodation greater than or equal to 33 cubic feet (930 L) in volume (a calculation made by adding the legroom, shoulder room, and headroom).^{[citation needed]} By this standard, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, and Mercedes-Benz CL-Class coupés are all two-door sedans. Only a few sources, however (including the magazine Car and Driver), use the two-door sedan label in this manner.

In the popular vernacular, a two-door sedan is defined by appearance and not by volume; vehicles with a B-pillar between the front and rear windows are generally called two-door sedans, while hardtops (without the pillar, and often incorporating a sloping backlight) are called coupés.

The Mazda RX-8 meets the volume requirement to be called a sedan, but it has vestigial rear-hinged rear doors, so some call it 2+2-door sedan. Another term for a coupé endowed with rear-hinged doors is a "quad coupé." However, this may simply be vernacular, based on a possible copyright by General Motors, for its Saturn Ion Quad-Coupe.

Hardtop sedans[link]

1958 AMC Ambassador hardtop sedan

In historic terminology a sedan will have a frame around the door windows, while the hardtop has frameless door glass. A true hardtop sedan design also has no "B" pillar (the roof support behind the front doors). This body style has an open feel, but requires extra underbody strengthening for structural rigidity. The hardtop design can be considered separately (i.e., a vehicle can be simply called a four-door hardtop), or it can be called a hardtop sedan. During the 1960s and 1970s, hardtop sedans were often sold as sport sedans by American manufacturers and were among the top selling body styles. During the 1980s, automakers in the U.S. focused on removing weight and increasing strength, and their new four-door sedans with B-pillars were called pillared hardtops or pillared sedans. The sport sedan term has since been appropriated for other uses. In Japan, and among Japanese manufacturers worldwide, the hardtop design was popular among luxury sedans throughout the 1990s.

Hatchback sedans[link]

Chevy Malibu Maxx hatchback sedan

Hatchback (a.k.a. liftback) sedans typically have the fastback profile, but instead of a trunk lid, the entire back of the vehicle lifts up (using a liftgate or hatch). A vehicle with four passenger doors and a liftgate at the rear can be called a four-door hatchback, four-door hatchback sedan, or five-door sedan. An example of such is the Chevrolet Malibu Maxx and Audi A5 Sportback. There can also be two-door hatchback sedans (three-door sedans), by the same technical explanation for two-door sedans. Examples of this design are the Volkswagen Golf, and Chevrolet Chevette.

Chauffeured sedans[link]

Strictly speaking limousine sedans have a separate compartment for the driver and the passenger compartment is long enough to contain at least two comfortable, forward-facing bench seats. Vehicles used for these means are usually Lincoln Town Car, Cadillac, Mercedes, or Rolls-Royce or Maybach for the more wealthy. The term limousine can refer to a large sedan, especially if hired from a service. Chauffeured limousines are primarily used by individuals for weddings, businesses for meetings, as well as for airport and sightseeing transportation. Chauffeurs are professional drivers, usually with experience in the transportation industry or tourism industry. Chauffeured sedans are owned either by private owners, livery services, or corporations. Large corporations as well as governments commonly provide luxury sedans to top executives, as well as VIP guests. Chauffeured sedans, such as the Lincoln Town Car, may also be stretched into limousines that are capable of seating up to twenty people.

Terminology[link]

Sedan chair carried by two people

Origin[link]

The word sedan is possibly derived from a southern Italian dialect derivative of Italian sedia "chair" (the first sedan was said to have been introduced from Naples). However, Portuguese and Spanish navigators and colonists encountered litters of various sorts in India, Japan, Mexico, and Peru. They were imported into Spain in the late sixteenth century. Soon the fashion spread into France and then England. All the names for these derived from the root "sed-" from the Latin "sella" - the traditional name for a carried chair.^[2]

The first automobile to use the configuration was the 1899 Renault Voiturette Type B. The first closed car, for at least 4 persons, which used the word sedan was the 1911 Speedwell sedan, which was manufactured by the Speedwell Motor Co in Dayton, Ohio.^[3] But even before that time completely closed cars were called saloons or limousines, like the 1905 Rational 4-door limousine^[4] or the 1907 Renault 4-door limousine^[5] or the 1910 Stella 2-door saloon.^[6] The words saloon or limousine do not exclusively mean a fully closed car.^[7] Cars which are called sedans are always fully closed.

The derivation from the town of Sedan, Ardennes in France, where it was said to have been made or first used, lacks historical evidence, according to Oxford English Dictionary.

International terminology[link]

In American English and American Spanish, the term sedan is used (accented as "sedán" in Spanish). The engine compartment, at the front, is covered by the hood; the cargo compartment at the rear is called the trunk.

In British English, a car of this configuration is called a saloon. The engine compartment cover is the bonnet, the cargo-compartment boot is at the rear. Hatchback sedans are known simply as hatchbacks (not hatchback saloons); long-wheelbase luxury saloons may be referred to as limousines.

The British English term saloon is sometimes used by British car manufacturers in the United States. For example, the Rolls-Royce Park Ward was sold as a saloon in the United States, while the smaller Silver Seraph was called a sedan.

In Australia the American term sedan is used, albeit with the British terms boot and bonnet being retained. In New Zealand the British terms are used, but the American terms are understood by most of the population. In other languages, sedans are known as berline (French), berlina (European Spanish, European Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian); although these terms also may include hatchbacks. These terms, besides sedan, derive from types of horse-drawn carriages. In German, the term limousine is used for sedans, and "stretch-limousine" for limousines.

See also[link]

• Sports sedan
• Car body style

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sedans

Sedan may refer to:

Look up sedan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Vehicles[link]

• Sedan (automobile), a passenger car in a three-box configuration with A, B & C-pillars and principal volumes articulated in separate compartments for engine, passenger and cargo
• Litter (vehicle), or sedan chair, a human-powered, wheelless device for transport of persons
• Aeronca Sedan, a light aircraft

Places[link]

France

• Sedan, Ardennes
  • Battle of Sedan (1870), 2 September 1870
    • Sedantag (German: Day of Sedan), German Empire holiday celebrating victory in the battle
  • Battle of Sedan (1940), 12–15 May 1940
  • CS Sedan Ardennes, the local French football club

Australia

• Sedan, South Australia

Azerbaijan

• Sədan

United States

• Sedan, Indiana
• Sedan, Kansas
  • Sedan Township, Chautauqua County, Kansas
• Sedan, Minnesota
• Sedan, West Virginia
• Sedan Crater, nuclear test crater in Nevada

Miscellaneous[link]

• Rolfe Sedan (1896-1982), American actor
• Sedan (nuclear test), a 1962 nuclear test in Nevada

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Tommi Mäkinen

A retired Mäkinen signing autographs during a visit to Rally Finland in 2004.
Personal information
Nationality	Finnish
Born	(1964-06-26) 26 June 1964 (age 48)
World Rally Championship record
Active years	1987–2003
Teams	Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru World Rally Team
Rallies	139
Championships	4 (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)
Rally wins	24
Podiums	45
Stage wins	362
Total points	544
First rally	1987 1000 Lakes Rally
First win	1994 1000 Lakes Rally
Last win	2002 Monte Carlo Rally
Last rally	2003 Rally Great Britain

"Turbo" Tommi Antero Mäkinen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtommi ˈmækinen] is a now retired Finnish rally driver, born in Puuppola, Finland near Jyväskylä on 26 June 1964. As of 1999 he lived in both Monaco and Jyväskylä, married, with two children. Mäkinen is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking second in championships (4), tied with Juha Kankkunen and behind Sébastien Loeb (8), and fifth in wins (24).

He is a four-time World Rally Champion, a series he first won, and then successfully defended, continuously throughout 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, on all occasions driving the Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. He also aided Mitsubishi to the 1998 world constructors' title as well as winning the 2000 Race of Champions. Mäkinen's navigators include compatriots Seppo Harjanne and Risto Mannisenmäki, the former retiring from alongside Mäkinen having previously served 1985 champion, and fellow 'Flying Finn', Peugeot's Timo Salonen.

Career[link]

Mäkinen won the Group N Finnish Rally Championship driving a Lancia Delta HF 4WD in 1988. Mäkinen's first world rally win came on the 1994 1000 Lakes Rally (now Neste Rally Finland), in a Ford Escort RS Cosworth. Mäkinen proved a late developer by the standards of some in rallying circles, only nabbing his first full-time manufacturer seat in a Group A formula Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution alongside former Group A rally champion Swede Kenneth Eriksson, in 1995 - but success was to prove spontaneous thereafter.

A cultured Safari Rally win in 1996 proved the platform on which to build a dominant championship lead, which he consolidated by taking the title in Australia, away from runner-up, Subaru's Colin McRae - a long-time rival. He proceeded to win every drivers' title for Mitsubishi from 1996 to 1999. The Mitsubishi team, with the Finn and young Briton Richard Burns among its driver personnel, also won its sole manufacturers' championship in 1998, while late that same year, the licensed Tommi Mäkinen Rally video game was also released. In 2000, despite opening his campaign with victory on the January Monte Carlo Rally, Mäkinen finally relinquished his grasp on the title, being beaten in the standings by new title holder and fellow Finn, Marcus Grönholm. That year Mitsubishi produced a 'Tommi Mäkinen edition' of the road version of the Lancer Evolution VI to commemorate his previous title successes. This car had a different front bumper than the regular Evolution VI, while some models also featured a red and white paint job to closely resemble Mäkinen's rally car.^[1]

Mäkinen with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo at the 2001 Rally Finland.

Mäkinen remained with Mitsubishi until the end of the 2001 season, having finished third in that year's standings behind Burns and McRae, by now respectively drivers for Subaru and Ford - but not before the inauspicious introduction of team's first ever World Rally Car on the San Remo Rally. Mäkinen and team-mate Freddy Loix struggled with the car before the Finn's crash on the mountainside roads of the following round in Corsica was responsible for breaking co-driver Mannisenmäki's back and in doing so, virtually end his top-line career. The Finn was forced to fare with substitute co-drivers for the remaining events in Australia and Great Britain, the latter of which he retired from, helping Burns to claim the championship.

A move to the Prodrive-run Subaru World Rally Team for 2002 as replacement for Burns (who had chosen to drive a works Peugeot 206 WRC alongside Gronholm for his title defence) yielded one more, final career victory, on the 2002 Monte Carlo Rally where a technical infringement committed by on-the-road winner, and emerging talent, Sébastien Loeb, allowed Mäkinen to upstage the Frenchman. But his form then took a dive and he was not to add again to his tally of world titles.

He retired from the sport at the end of the 2003 season with third place on that year's Rally Great Britain.

WRC victories[link]

Number	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	44th 1000 Lakes Rally	1994	Seppo Harjanne	Ford Escort RS Cosworth
2	45th International Swedish Rally	1996	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3
3	44th Safari Rally Kenya	1996	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3
4	16º Rally Argentina	1996	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3
5	46th Neste 1000 Lakes Rally	1996	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3
6	9th API Rally Australia	1996	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3
7	30º TAP Rallye de Portugal	1997	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
8	33º Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava (Rallye de España)	1997	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
9	17º Rally Argentina	1997	Seppo Harjanne	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
10	47th Neste Rally Finland	1997	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
11	47th International Swedish Rally	1998	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 4
12	18º Rally Argentina	1998	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5
13	48th Neste Rally Finland	1998	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5
14	40º Rallye Sanremo - Rallye d'Italia	1998	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5
15	11th API Rally Australia	1998	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5
16	67ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo	1999	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6
17	48th International Swedish Rally	1999	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6
18	29th Rally New Zealand	1999	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6
19	41º Rallye Sanremo - Rallye d'Italia	1999	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6
20	68ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo	2000	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6
21	69ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo	2001	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5
22	35º TAP Rallye de Portugal	2001	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5
23	49th Safari Rally Kenya	2001	Risto Mannisenmäki	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6.5
24	70ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo	2002	Kaj Lindström	Subaru Impreza WRC2001

WRC results[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tommi Mäkinen

• Tommi Mäkinen Racing Ltd.