It seems that all the cars I’ve seen in foreign movies have four doors, the larger ones anyway. Are large two door sedans an american oddity?
Peace,
mangeorge
In Australia, they aren’t all that common. There are basically two types of cars here: The Big Aussie Six, which usually means a locally-manufactured, in-line six cylinder, rear-wheel drive family sedan, and there are The Rest, most commonly smaller, front-wheel drive Japanese four cylinder models. It is the second category which has the vast majority of the two-door cars, especially in the sporty models.
A notable exception to this pattern is the Holden Monaro, resurrecting a badge not seen in Australian showrooms for decades. This vehicle is due to be exported in conservative numbers to the USA.
I think the closest things in Japan are Nissan Skyline and Toyota Soarer (aka Lexus SC). I think the reason is obvious; most families have just one car, so they need cars which seat 3 or more easily and comfortably. There seem to be fewer and fewer 2-door hatchbacks as well. The only two-door cars out there are sports cars - young people without kids are the only people who don’t need four-door cars.
My theory has always been that, here in America, anything that raises your auto insurance is considered “cool.”
I can only talk for central/western european cities.
Here there are several penalties linked to a large car. They are expensive to insure, guzzling expensive petrol and (most importantly) difficult to park). Therefore a normal scenario is for a family to have one large car with room for everyone and their bags/skis/kites (and consequently four/five door) to use for ‘family outings’, and a smaller ‘city-car’, with just about room for the shopping. The smart car is increasingly popular in this niche.
The European lifestyle is also not as dependent on the car as the American, and therefore we tend not to go overboard on something that is, after all, just a means of transportation.
Here in London, two-door cars are much more common than in my home town of Cape Town (South Africa) - my theory is that this helps to keep the cars smaller, which in the narrow streets of London is a great advantage. Back home, the streets are much wider, and you can get away with bigger cars (although not as big as is common in the USA).
Having said that, sunroofs are also a lot more common here, and given that it rains all the time, I have yet to come up with a theory for this phenomenon…
Grim
“The European lifestyle is also not as dependent on the car as the American, and therefore we tend not to go overboard on something that is, after all, just a means of transportation.”
Heretic!
You shall fel the awe of my schw33t XXL Caddy!
It’s because, on the rare occasions when the sun does shine, it’s all the more important to be able to take advantage of it.
Another thing that occurred to me: those huge doors on 2-door sedans need a lot of room to open, don’t they? That might be a problem in the cramped parking lots of Japan and Europe.
grimpixe, I believe the OP is asking about big 2-door sedans. Like the Buick Riviera or the Cadillac Eldorado. You don’t see too many of those in London, do you?
Large 2 door cars in the US are in imitation of the smaller 2 door European and Asian sports cars. 2 door cars are seen as “sportier” and 4 door cars are “family”, “pracitcal” cars. A fairly big car that imtates the look of a small car IS odd when you think on it. So there is something to Popup’s contention that a 2 door big American car is “overboard”.
Then again, at the opposite end of the scale there is this new Mini Cooper… it’s not a car, it’s a four-wheeled fetus.
Yoiks!!! :eek: That’s a whole lotta car!!
Nope - never see those here.
Grim
You’re right in that our lifestyle is highly dependant on the automobile, with certain exceptions for those nasty big city things where it seems it’s easier to not own a car.
But aside from that dependance, we have the option for smaller cars; they just don’t sell quite as well as the larger cars.
By way of example, I’ve read that the average commute in my area is 30 minutes or so, which is LONG for me, but probably very short for others! My commute is from 25 to 45 minutes, depending on which way I’m going.
So in my case, a large car is not overkill – it’s a comfortable environment for an uncomfortable situation. I actually tried the “economy, commuter car” route, and while the vehicle got good mileage and was small and nimble, it was just tortutous to feel every dang bump on the road; the sardine-box confinement jarred my nerves, and the complete inability to pass left-lane idiots-gabbing-on-their-phones-at-50mph was frustrating.
That’s not to say there’s a point I don’t think others reach overkill, though. I like the Exursions a LOT, but I couldn’t see myself driving one daily 52 miles! 
<pedantic>“Two-door sedans”?
A two-door passenger automobile is a “coupe”. A sedan has four doors, by definition.</pedantic>
No, it has four poles, and is carried by muscular nubian warriors. A good look perhaps, but not very convincing on the freeway. 
[Banky]What’s a Nubian?[/Banky]
I, too, have always been curious about huge cars with only 2 doors. I just assumed that many of these, especially the older ones, were designed with only 2 doors to minimize the changes needed to make them convertibles. After all, everyone knows that convertibles only have 2 doors (which is another issue I’ve always wondered about: where are the 4-door convertibles?)
Opening and exiting the car via the overly long doors of a “super-sized” coupe in a small parking space is a pain. Getting in and out of the back seat over/around the fold-down front seat of any size coup is no fun, either. This is why I elected to get the 4 door (sedan) model when I got my '99 Saturn, which is a small car by US standards.
Caveman, I believe that a lot of the big assed card made 2 door (coupe) were not produced as convertibles.
OK, I meant that "A lot of the big assed cars made as 2 door models (coupes) were not produced as conveytibles.
Actually, sedan chairs had two poles.
Slight Hi-jack:
The Holden Monaro is basically a widened Opel platform,
like the Cadillac CTS…incidentaly, the Monaro is going to be imported to the USA as the new Pontiac GTO!
here http://www.cfpca.wayne.edu/faculty/wright/autohistory/pix08.html
here http://www.highway-one.com/Classifieds/Cadillac/MacNaughtonCadillac.html
and coming soon the cielo? http://www.edmunds.com/news/feature/vehicles/42971/article.html actually looks more like a large sun roof than a convertible but…