Know Your Type Of Car

No type of car is completely useless. For you, a car may serve little to no purpose, but for another person the same car may just be the perfect means of transportation.

I use the word "type" here liberally, knowing that there are so many ways in which cars can be classified. Many people tend to think of brands of cars when differentiating them into groups.

In Nigeria, we tend to have even looser ways of grouping cars. For example, some say "one door car". 

Some people buy a car simply because they can afford it, even when they don't plan to move them. But sometimes (most times in fact) we Nigerians buy cars because we need them. YES! a car's basic function is to get from point A to point B, but there is more to its need than just its basic function. Every type has something the other doesn't have, something you might just "need". In a similar vein, I would like to relate to you what I consider to be the basic types of cars:

COUPES: These are the type some call 'one-door', (why call it that when there’s another door on the other side?). They normally have no or really small rear seats, surely not a car for any type of crowd. Their trunks too are mostly small. They are more compact, sporty and stylish than normal sedans. Don't expect them to be cheaper than their sedan counterparts because they are smaller and don't expect them to be faster either because they are sportier, it all depends on their engine and a host of other stuff.

CONVERTIBLES: These are cars that no matter the type, have retractable roofs. instead of simply enjoying the cool or warm breeze from the windows of your car as you cruise, you also have the option of taking your top off (the car's of course). Despite its sleek appearance, retracting the roof of a convertible increases drag, resulting in increased fuel consumption. In addition, convertibles tend to have little to no space in the trunk since the roof collapses into it. Despite its short comings, a convertible is bound to turn heads wherever you go.

SEDANS/ SALOONS: To me, these are the most common car type we have here in Nigeria. They mostly have four doors and their rear seats can have more or less the same leg space as your sitting room. A regular sedan can accommodate at least four adults comfortably but don't mistake it to be a crowd car still. They have a bigger boot than coupes and can accommodate more people comfortably (obviously).

*note* both coupes and sedans can have two or four doors (this will be interpreted shortly).

HATCHBACKS: These are basically any coupe (3 doors) or sedan (5 doors) with a rear door that swings upward or sideways to provide access to the cargo area at the rear instead of a trunk lid. They can have one or two seat row(s). They have a vertical cargo space advantage over the usual sedans or coupes but they are shorter lengthwise than their actual coupe or sedan counterparts and so have shorter lengths than estates/ station wagons.

STATION WAGONS/ ESTATES: These are cars like the hatchback BUT with two or three rows of seats and do not lack the trunk space which the former does, they even have more cargo space than sedans and comprise of one or more fold able or removable seats which can make you switch between accommodating more people or cargo.

SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE (SUV): These are the type of vehicles Nigerians wrongly call "Jeeps". They are built for both off- and on- road trips meaning they are especially effective on our poorly made and maintained roads (which make up most of our roads in Nigeria) and where you run out of road, you can, with the advantages of better ground clearance and four or all-wheel drive (*not all SUVs have four wheel drive), forge your own new path if you've got the "Cojonese". That's not all! They also have more interior space than regular cars; some have 5-passenger seats and some 7-passenger seats (some are large enough to sit bears comfortably). They consume relatively more petrol and are generally more expensive than smaller types of cars.

TRUCKS/PICK UPS: These are vehicles with a "bed" at the rear in which items can be hauled. Some trucks have covers for their beds, so goods can be trundled in crowded areas slowly without the fear of theft. They are built mainly to handle load, there are light duty and heavy duty trucks. Along with their strength, some also have the comfort and luxury of an SUV.

CROSSOVERS: These are vehicles built on car platforms which combine the features of an SUV with those of a passenger vehicle (especially station wagons and hatchbacks) to produce a splendid cocktail. Thanks to their SUV and normal car handling they can handle light off-roads better than sedans as well as provide better fuel economy than SUVs. It’s not as big as an SUV but almost as rugged as one, at a cheaper cost. In 2008 a wall street journal blog article called them "wagons that look like SUVs but ride like cars".

These aren't all the car types and they all have sub groups, they would be attended to anon.