The small-sedan segment does sometimes get overlooked as a fertile patch for mixing practical, enjoyable and affordable motoring for a diverse cross-section of buyers, even modestly sized families. Around $22K gets you into the buck-banging basement with Honda’s Civic and Skoda’s Octavia, and both nameplates top out in the $52K and $46K mark, respectively, for high-performance driver’s versions (albeit a hatchback for the Civic)...
The Hyundai i30 Fastback N is a striking proposition. While the hatch lines up squarely against a raft of familiar hot hatch luminaries such as the Golf GTI and Megane RS, its longer and slinkier sibling is harder to pigeonhole. We’ve already pitched it against a fellow outsider in the form of Skoda’s criminally under-appreciated Octavia RS...
While buyers continue to gravitate toward SUVs, small cars haven’t entirely lost their appeal. They account for about one-in-seven new vehicles sold this year, with this cluster of models forming the vast majority of the segment’s sales. We’re testing flagship variants here, with sticker prices between $30,000 and $40,000...
Does the perfect hot hatch exist? Is your perfect hot hatch someone else's nightmare ride? The latter scenario is probably more likely, but to put the theory to the test, we’ve pitted the all-new Renault Megane RS280 against the reigning champs from our recent hot hatch mega test...
Do you hate being stuck in traffic jams? Yeah, me too. But, if you're going to be driving a small hatchback, why suffer in an entry-level model? This is where moving up in the model range changes a traffic jam from a chore to a treat. So, if you have around $35,000 burning a hole in your pocket, which premium hatchback should you go for? We lined up the 2018 Honda Civic VTi-LX and the 2018 Mazda 3 SP25 Astina to see which one deserves your hard-earned cash...
Welcome to Part Two of the video feature for our recent 2018 Hot Hatch Mega Test. To recap, we've assembled three all-wheel-drivers and three front-drivers from non-premium marques, with pricing ranging from $43k (i30 N) through to $57,690 (STI Spec R). It's a rich and diverse field with each competitor representing its maker's fastest and most fun-filled efforts...
We pit five of the best turbo hot hatches - and one wildcard sedan - against one another to find out which is the fastest and most fun small rocketship for under $60k. In this video we test outright performance and lap times...
Is there a more vibrant and diverse segment on the market right now than that labelled 'hot hatch'? In fact, is it technically a segment at all, but rather a broad net cast wide enough to include a $25K compact-sized Suzuki Swift Sport at one extreme and larger, circa-$80K Audi RS3s and Merc-AMG A45s at the other? And that’s just hatchbacks...
Front-wheel drive has been part of the classic hot-hatch formula since the genre was ignited in the 1970s. The layout would dominate any all-time-greats list for the category, featuring the likes of the Peugeot 205 GTI, Renault Megane RS, and of course Volkswagen Golf GTI (Marks III and IV excepted!). Yet, there have long been exceptions, of course...
For all the hoo-ha about booming sales of SUVs, the so-called 'small car' segment remains the market's most popular, still accounting for almost 20 per cent of all new vehicles sold in Australia. Of this, the majority are hatchbacks instead of three-box sedans, which draw people in based on their improved practicality and generally less conservative design approaches...
Two new-generation hatches, hugely important for each brand both in simple number terms and, more importantly, making a strong argument for the attentions of increasingly savvy buyers in the small-car market. One of these cars, the new 2017 Honda Civic, boasts a pedigree nearly 50 years old, with the same name and with a very well-regarded history of solid engineering...
