Coachwork

A coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for automobiles or a manufacturer of complete horse-drawn vehicles.

Coachwork is the body of a motor vehicle (automobile, van, bus, or truck), a horse-drawn coach or carriage (whence the term originated, derived from the Hungarian town of Kocs), or, by extension, a railroad car or railway carriage. The term is usually reserved for bodies built on a separate chassis (body-on-frame construction), rather than being of unibody or monocoque construction. With reference to motor vehicles, auto body is the standard term in North American English. An obsolescent synonym is (plural: carosseries).

Coachbuilders are: carrossiers in French, carrozzeria in Italian, karosseriebauer in German and carroceros in Spanish.

In reference to a recreational vehicle or motorhome, coach-built means a vehicle which has been purpose-built, using only a chassis as a base vehicle, as opposed to a conversion which is built inside an existing vehicle body.

A British trade association the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers, was incorporated in 1630. Some British coachmaking firms operating in the 20th century were established even earlier. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer (though oldest in the U.S.), formed in 1810.

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