Two door vs. Four door

Posted by humanpotatohybrid On 2022/6/12 17:54:18

I had a thought the other day and even though it's not Packard-specific it does concern the era so I figured I'd post here and see if anyone has an opinion on it.

To state what is commonly known, starting in the 40's and continuing through the 70's or so you were often able to buy the exact same size of car, except that one was a two door and the other a four door. For example in '55, the Clipper Super, Clipper Custom, and Patrician/400 all came in 4door/2door pairs that aside from that difference were essentially identical, aside from unnecessary differences in interior options, with the Clipper Deluxe and Caribbean being the only two out of the eight without a "door" option.

I'm certainly not against any body style or anything, but to me, 2-door cars have the minor disadvantages of: harder to get in and out of the back seat, and the front seatbacks push you forward during hard braking, compared to a 4-door. The only advantage I see is that the B-pillar delete adds a bit to the styling, especially with the windows down. I discussed this with a middle-aged mechanic friend of mine and he didn't have a whole lot to explain the prevalence.

Anyone have an idea why mid/full sized 4-door sedans having 2-door versions was popular for so many years? I know this is a very open-ended question, I'm just interested to hear anyone's thoughts on it.