A liftback is a variation of a hatchback car body style, with a more gently sloping roofline, roughly between 45 and 10 degrees, whereas traditional or archetypal hatchback designs tend to use a 45 degree to near vertical slope[citation needed] on the top-hinged tailgate (often called, and even counted as, a rear 'door' on hatchbacks).
As such, a liftback is essentially a hatchback with a gently sloping roof, with a side profile like that of fastback sedans, from an auto styling perspective. Some liftbacks, especially two-door models, may also have an appearance similar to a coupe, but with a boot / trunk tailgate hinged at the roof end, that is lifted including the rear window to open. Carmaker Saab used this in the marketing of their 900 liftback models, by calling them Combi coupé.
The liftback design combines a sedan or coupé with the rear hatch versatility of a hatchback. Liftbacks generally have more cargo space than the typically shorter bodied hatchbacks, and more space-use flexibility than conventional three-box sedans – but don't offer the space of a more square and boxy station wagon / estate variant of the same model. The aerodynamics of liftbacks can be more closely tear-drop shaped than those of hatchbacks, which due to their steeper down-sloped rears, more often end with a type of Kammback.