A rumble seat (American English), dicky (dickie/dickey) seat (British English), also called a mother-in-law seat, [1] is an upholstered exterior seat which folded into the rear of a coach, carriage, or early motorcar. Depending on its configuration, it provided exposed seating for one or two passengers.
Additional occasional seating appeared in the latter centuries of evolution of the coach and carriage. The 1865 edition of Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language defines a dickie seat or rumble as "A boot [note 1] with a seat above it for servants, behind a carriage." [2] Similar to the dickie seat on European phaetons was the spider, a small single seat or bench on spindly supports for seating a groom or footman. [3]
Before World War I, dickie or rumble seats did not always fold into the bodywork. [4] Following it, such optional passenger arrangements typically were integrated into the rear deck. [1] [5] [1] When unoccupied, the remaining space, if any, under the seat's lid could be used for storing luggage. [1]
Roadster, coupe and cabriolet car body styles were offered with either a luggage compartment or a rumble seat in the deck. Models equipped with a rumble seat were often referred to as a sport coupe or sport roadster.
Rumble seat passengers were exposed to the elements, and received little or no protection from the regular passenger compartment top. Folding tops and side curtains for rumble seats were available for some cars [1] (including the two-door version of the Ford Model A) but never achieved much popularity. Among the last American-built cars with a rumble seat were the 1938 Chevrolet, [6] the 1939 Ford [7] and 1939 Dodge [8] and Plymouth. [9] The last British built car with a dickey seat was the Triumph 2000 Roadster made until 1949. [10] [11]
A convertible or cabriolet is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers.
A hatchback is a car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second row seating, where the interior can be reconfigured to prioritize passenger or cargo volume. Hatchbacks may feature two- or three-box design.
A coupe or coupé is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
A sedan or saloon is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo.
A roadster is an open two-seat car with emphasis on sporting appearance or character. Initially an American term for a two-seat car with no weather protection, usage has spread internationally and has evolved to include two-seat convertibles.
Coupé de ville — also known as town car or sedanca de ville — is a car body style produced from 1908 to 1939 with an external or open-topped driver's position and an enclosed compartment for passengers. Although the different terms may have once had specific meanings for certain car manufacturers or countries, the terms are often used interchangeably.
The Adams Company is an American manufacturing concern. It was founded in 1883 and is based in Dubuque, Iowa, United States.
There are many types of car body styles. They vary depending on intended use, market position, location, and the era they were made in.
Landau is a carriage design with a folding fabric top consisting of two sections supported by external elliptical springs.
Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars.
A landaulet, also known as a landaulette, is a car body style where the rear passengers are covered by a convertible top. Often the driver is separated from the rear passengers by a division, as with a limousine.
A brougham was a light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage built in the 19th century. It was named after the politician and jurist Lord Brougham, who had this type of carriage built to his specification by London coachbuilder Robinson & Cook in 1838 or 1839. It had an enclosed body with two doors, like the rear section of a coach; it sat two, sometimes with an extra pair of fold-away seats in the front corners, and with a box seat in front for the driver and a footman or passenger. Unlike a coach, the carriage had a glazed front window, so that the occupants could see forward. The forewheels were capable of turning sharply. A variant, called a brougham-landaulet, had a top collapsible from the rear doors backward.
A phaeton is a style of open automobile without any fixed weather protection, which was popular from the 1900s until the 1930s. It is an automotive equivalent of the horse-drawn fast, lightweight phaeton carriage.
A runabout is a car body style popular in the 1910s, based on the horse-drawn runabout carriage.
The trunk or boot of a car is the vehicle's main storage or cargo compartment, often a hatch at the rear of the vehicle. It is also called a tailgate.
The Dolson was a brass era automobile manufactured in Charlotte, Michigan by the J.L. Dolson & Sons from 1904 to 1907. They later changed the company name to the Dolson Automobile Company. The Dolson was a large car with a 60-horsepower engine. They offered a touring car boasting seven seats that sold for $3,250 in 1907. It was advertised as the "Mile-a-Minute" car. They also offered smaller vehicles, with chain and shaft-driven 20 hp flat-twins, and a shaft driven four of 28/30-horsepower.
Scripps-Booth was a United States automobile marque based in Detroit, Michigan. Established by James Scripps Booth in 1913, Scripps-Booth Company produced motor vehicles and was later acquired by General Motors, becoming a division of it, until the brand was discontinued in 1923.
A vis-à-vis is a carriage in which the passengers sit face to face with the front passengers facing rearward and the rear passengers facing forward. The term comes from the French vis-à-vis, meaning face to face.
A brougham was originally a car body style where the driver sat outside and passengers seated within an enclosed cabin, as per the earlier brougham horse-drawn carriage. Similar in style to the later town car, the brougham style was used on chauffeur-driven petrol and electric cars.
A limousine, or limo for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment.
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