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July 2, 1937 - Amelia Earhart

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17,223
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New York City
Amelia Earhart's beautiful Cord car her husband gave her Down Under

http://mpnews.com.au/2017/01/16/earharts-car-lands-at-mornington/

Gorgeous car, but a question for anyone who knows. The car is described as a "Cord sedan," however, it's a two-door convertible. Isn't a sedan a four-door car? I've heard the term "convertible sedan" even though I thought, until then, a sedan was a four-door hardtop, but if a sedan can be a two-door car and a convertible what does the term "sedan" even mean?
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
In the Era, "sedan" was used in the US, for the most part, to describe a closed car with a front and a back seat. It could be a two-door or four-door vehicle -- or a "Tudor" or "Fordor" if your name is Henry. "Convertible Sedans" were basically what used to be called "touring cars," a term which had become old-fashioned and unpopular by the 1930s, hence the Boys coming up with "convertible sedan" as an alternative.

I don't know any 1930s definition that would call Earhart's car any kind of a sedan. That's a convertible coupe by any contemporary definition of the terms.
 
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10,941
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My mother's basement
Gorgeous car, but a question for anyone who knows. The car is described as a "Cord sedan," however, it's a two-door convertible. Isn't a sedan a four-door car? I've heard the term "convertible sedan" even though I thought, until then, a sedan was a four-door hardtop, but if a sedan can be a two-door car and a convertible what does the term "sedan" even mean?

A somewhat off-topic aside: A couple days ago I shared the road with a '63 top-down Lincoln Continental. That car (among the most attractive ever made, to my eye) would qualify as a convertible sedan.
 

cookie

I'll Lock Up
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Sydney Australia
2 door.
 

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