Hot hatch market expanding, even Kia!
 

Looks like we are finally going to start getting some of the hot hatches we have been asking for. The GTI that started it all is coming in MkVII trim shortly with an optional Performance Pack, Ford Fiesta ST, and this Kia Forte SX 5 door looks pretty decent. Not sure if Hyundai/Kia has got a decent 6 speed manual but it is available. I don't know why but these little cars are kinda cool to me. Its nice to see some more cars catered to us enthusiasts for sure. I wish they would bring some of these as the 3 door models but one step at a time.
http://www.automedia.com/Blog/ImageG...rte5-Door.jpeg

201hp turbo 1.6 with 6 speed manual or auto options. Available HID's, Nav, heated seats, LED tails, etc. Looks better than the Veloster Turbo to me, shootout with this and the Fiesta ST would be interesting.

As a huge fan of hot hatches, I actually sent an e-mail to Kia the other day asking if there was any plan to bring the Pro Ceed (as is, no silly restyling) to America, and how I thought it would be a missed opportunity if they didn't at least in limited quantity. Sorta like how a lot of VW guys felt when we were told NO SCIROCCO FOR YOU! I expected someone would scan it over and delete it. But then I received a call from them yesterday thanking me for my feedback, and that the powers that be appreciate the input and hopefully we'll be seeing them on the road in the USA soon.

I still don't expect to see them over here ever, but it was pretty classy of them to give me a personal call to let them know my input was valued.

That is pretty unexpected for sure, the Pro Ceed is pretty nice also i think they would sell. The performance numbers seemed very underrated that i saw unless they just have very strange gearing.

There are two big issues I have with Hyundai/Kia.
1. The top of the line models, the sportiest ones generally, are available only with an automatic transmission.
2. When they don't have an auto, like the Veloster Turbo, they go and gear for MPG instead of performance. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm willing to sacrifice some fuel efficiency for a quicker car.

Same here, i had a Sonata Turbo for a few months and while it was pretty damn quick on the freeway it was boost limited in the low gears to keep torque steer away which is fine. The car had other issues though it would change lanes on its own and they finally issued a recall for it but i was done with it. It also had a lot of noise from the front struts and the tan on the dash and door panels didn't match. That was my fault for not catching it before i bought it though.

Mazdaspeed3 FTW! Genwon.... or Genpu if you like to smile.

Bitches love turbo wagons!

Toyota needs to bring its redesigned Auris to N/A as the new Matrix (which AFAIK isn't being replaced when the current one is retired). And then they need to hot-hatchify it.

I mean they did sorta take a stab at it with a Euro Corolla Hatchback (Tsport/Tsport compressor) and the Matrix XRS in N/A but those weren't really near the hot hatches from VW, Mazda, etc.

The hot hatch market is amazing right now! I plan to buy one for a DD soon as I can get the FR-S paid off.

I'm leaning towards the sub-hot hatch like the Fiesta ST. I had a MKV GTI before my FR-S.

I was kinda hoping that they bring back some Civic hatches to the US, I owned the last Civic SI hatch and loved it. here to hoping Honda get it back together soon.

If there's one hatch I can agree to it would be the civic hatchy. Those were good platforms to build off from.

YES. I AGREE HERE. lol

Theres a reason why the Europeans are tired of hot hatches...

Go on... :popcorn:

They are?

Theres so many of them and for the god honest truth all of them are all the same. I have not driven any so i can not truly pass judgement but from all these things i read and hear from my European brothers and car journalists, i believe they should just drop the concept and try something new.

Hatchback's are great, but i think the market needs more coupes for the young bachelor.

Look at how many there are.

90s.
From the 1990s, the choice of hot hatches widened, with most examples still from the European motor manufacturers, with the Japanese makers making an impact too, and were primarily destined for European markets. New entries to the market and higher performance versions included the Fiesta RS Turbo[8] and Escort RS Cosworth (1991-1996), Honda Civic Type R, Nissan Sunny GTi, GTi-R, Peugeot 106 Rallye / GTi and 306 GTi-6 / Rallye, Proton Satria GTi, Renault Clio Williams / 16V, SEAT Ibiza GTi / GT 16v / Cupra, Toyota Corolla GTi. Ford also revived its historic RS2000 designation for the Escort in 1991; it had last been used 11 years earlier on the demise of the old rear-wheel drive Escort RS2000 saloon. The XR3i was discontinued in 1994.

2000's:
In the 2000s, a new hot hatch "class" was born, engine outputs grew up to well beyond 200 PS (147 kW; 197 bhp), and by 2010 Ford and Subaru challenged each other with the Ford Focus RS 500 (350 PS (257 kW; 345 bhp)) and Subaru Cosworth Impreza STI CS400 (400 PS (294 kW; 395 bhp)).[9] Evo magazine called these extreme versions "superhatch" in the early 2000s[10] but the phrase did not catch on.
Most hot hatches continued to still be of European origin, with competitive models principally from Britain, France, Italy and Germany. Outside of Europe, Japan is a major exporter of hot hatches. Several hot hatches are exported to Australia and North America where they compete with local sport compact models. During the 2000s manufacturers started to emphasise the sub-brand of their hot hatch derivatives such as Renault's Renault Sport,[11] Opel's OPC, Vauxhall's VXR[12] and Fiat's Abarth.[13]
Examples of post-2000 hot hatches include the Alfa Romeo 147 GTA,[14] Citroën DS3 Racing,[15] Abarth Grande Punto,[16] Ford Focus ST[17] and RS, MG ZR and ZS,[18] Mini Cooper and John Cooper Works, Opel/Vauxhall Astra SRi Turbo, OPC and VXR, Peugeot 207 GTi, Renault Clio RS 2.0 / V6, Renault Mégane Renault Sport, SEAT León Cupra[19] and FR,[17]Volkswagen Golf GTI[20] and R models.


Even more on top of that...

That doesn't make me think they're sick of them, makes me think they crave them.

And the Focus 500 and Cosworth STi are basically unobtainable.

Thanks for your expert input on never having driven any of them.

It's simple economics, there would be be so many offerings if there wasn't massive demand.

I was thinking the same. At least he admitted he hasn't driven any of them.

What I believe he's trying to get at is there's more affordable hatchbacks than coupes now a days? Yes or No? :iono:

@dem00n, you probably should try them out if you can. Hatchbacks are quite fun, but I personally am not a fan of the design though. I prefer a coupe over a hatchback any day.

Well i have driven a few popular ones.

The GTI, all gens cept the first one, I've driven.

The new ST Focus with its fun torque steer and pretty much every Focus that came to America ever made. (My friend is a Focus fan boy...)


But clearly my views that aren't insightful to certain people shouldn't be here, guess i'll just go home and cry myself to sleep.

That's simple. If you can only afford one car a sporty hatchback is infinitely more practical and can still be a family car where as a small coupe like the FR-S can't ever be a family car.

I miss the practicality and power of my old hot hatch everyday.


I think the small coupe segment will grow with the GT-86s obvious success. But it's not got anything to do with all of the overlap in the hot hatch segment.

Thats not true, follow the leader isn't economics, its just follow the leader.

You'd be surprised how disorganized and unraveled a lot of major car brands are.

If you don't want to debate your viewpoint stay off the Internet. It's certainly not personal.

Follow the leader is economics. Almost every major cooperation does it.

If you competitor has X product selling like hotcakes you better have your own product X to bring to market.

Then you follow a more text book approach to economics then i do.

Simple as that.

If you had a car company would you not offer a hot hatch? One of the largest segments for males ages 18-35. All I'm saying is the market saturation is based on demand.

How many tech companies offer a touch screan tablet to compete with the iPad? All of then that matter.

You should probably post this on a Hyundai forum.

I'm sure it would get enough interest there from people that would do the same thing you did. They would get flooded with e-mails asking for them to bring it over here.

I don't want a hatch hyundai! D:

Hope for a sweet Sciricco!
 

The prospects for a U.S. return of one of the ultimate enthusiast unicorns--the Volkswagen Scirocco--are looking better for two critical reasons: VW's American brass want it, and it will be based on the company's widely used global underpinnings.

The reason we have so many of these "angry Dadmobile" hot hatches is because they're utterly cheap to make. Compared to a custom-made RWD sports coupe these things are bargain basement specials. Take a FWD econobox, slap on a Speed Racer body kit, turbocharge it, and tune the suspension a bit. Look, it's the new Velosifocusclio RS-TZR.

I agree that this is indeed simple economics; car companies operate on often-thin margins and being able to leverage an existing economy car platform while still producing something for the enthusiast market is very attractive to them.

I appreciate that these sorts of cars are a nice blend of practicality and performance, which makes them very attractive to a great many people.

They're not my style- I don't need that much practical - but many people have been asking for them and more fun-to-drive cars is never bad.