How GM’s Marketing Department Set Out to Confuse You

Keeping track of body style names of old muscle cars and their lesser brethren can get confusing. Each of General Motors’ mainstream brands had their marketing department designate names for pillared coupes and hardtops but, many years later, it’s easy for enthusiasts to get their wires crossed and confuse the nomenclature. We hash this out for you so you can be an online terminology expert.

Let’s start with Pontiac and the dawn of the GTO, which just so happened to appear with the first year for GM’s mid-size A-body. From the Tempest to the GTO, the pillared coupe was called the Sports Coupe—note it’s sports, plural. This was true through 1969, upon which Pontiac began to refer to the pillared coupe as “Coupe” from 1970-72. Hardtops were simply “Hardtop” for all those years.

Oldsmobile handled it similarly to Pontiac, to a point. The 1964-65 F-85 Deluxe and Cutlass pillared coupes were called Sports Coupes, but the F-85 pillared coupe was called the Club Coupe (a name that’s a throwback to an earlier era). For 1966, the only mid-size pillared coupes were the F-85 Club Coupe and Cutlass Sports Coupe, with the latter being replaced by the Cutlass Supreme Sports Coupe for 1967.

A year after the 1968 redesign, Oldsmobile decided to call the F-85 pillared coupe a Sports Coupe, a name that would be continued through 1972 among several other Cutlass S and 4-4-2 models. Of course, for most years during this era, Oldsmobile referred to its hardtops as “Holiday Coupe” though, in 1971, the legacy Holiday name was discontinued and “Hardtop Coupe” was implemented through 1972.

Over at Buick, the 1964 Special Deluxe and Skylark pillared coupes was called “Coupe.” However, the Skylark hardtop was called the—wait for it!—Sport Coupe (note it’s sport, singular). This naming structure continued into 1968, when Buick redesigned its A-body series.

However, starting in 1969, the pillared two-door was now called a Sedan, while the hardtop remained the Sport Coupe. This would be true through 1971, as the pillared two-door became a Coupe for 1972.

And, finally, Chevrolet. USA-1! How did the biggest automotive company in America manage the pillared coupe? Uniquely, from 1964-67, Chevrolet didn’t offer one—it offered a proper Chevelle two-door sedan with a different roofline; in turn, the hardtop was called the Sport Coupe.

For 1968, with the Chevelle’s redesign, the hardtop continued to be called the Sport Coupe, while the new pillared coupe was called a Coupe. Starting in 1970, Chevelle did not offer a pillared coupe so only the Sport Coupe remained among closed two-doors through 1972.