Hatchbacks

When does 3 equal 4? When you turbocharge the 3. That's the philosophy with the next-generation Ford Fiesta ST, which was revealed this week at the 2017 Geneva auto show. The most notable change is the switch from a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder to a turbocharged 1.5-liter 3-cylinder engine...

Audi’s RS 3 Sportback has finally received the upgraded powertrain of the all-new RS 3 sedan that debuted last fall at the 2016 Paris auto show. It means the handsome hatch is now extracting 400 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque from its turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-5, all of which is...

It's the day many enthusiasts have been waiting for: The 2017 Honda Civic Type R has arrived in production trim, and it's coming to the United States. Debuting on Tuesday at the 2017 Geneva auto show, and heading to U.S. showrooms late this spring, the 2017 Honda Civic Type R is set to battle the...

Honda is set to unveil its new Civic Type R at next week’s 2017 Geneva auto show but photos have already leaked. These two photos posted to Autocar reveal the new Civic Type R in great detail and confirm the car will closely match the “prototype” version Honda has been trotting...

Audi continues the rollout of its A4 family of cars with the newest model, the 2018 S5 Sportback. A hatchback with a coupe-like profile and a powerful engine in the mold of the larger S7, the S5 is set to make its debut in the United States this spring. The powertrain is taken straight from the S4...

The 2017 Canadian auto show in Toronto is currently underway and one of the world premieres is the 2018 Hyundai Accent. Its debut follows last week’s unveiling of the 2018 Elantra GT at the 2017 Chicago auto show and signals the Korean automaker’s determination to revamp its compact...

Smart is about to become an electric car brand, at least as far as the United States and Canada are concerned. The head of the Smart and Mercedes-Benz brands in the U.S., Dietmar Exler, confirmed in a letter sent to dealerships on February 13 that Smart will no longer offer models with internal...

Hyundai is joining the ranks of automakers with an electric car on offer thanks to its 2017 Ioniq Electric. The compact hatch is Hyundai’s rival to the Toyota Prius and uniquely comes with hybrid (Ioniq Hybrid) and plug-in hybrid (Ioniq Plug-In Hybrid) options too, making it the first vehicle...

Despite the crushing popularity of SUVs, small hatchbacks and wagons have seen something of a renaissance in the past few years. The Honda Civic Hatchback and Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback joined the ranks of the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen, Ford Focus, Mazda3, and Kia Forte5, offering consumers extra...

Hyundai has released the first photos of the 2018 Elantra GT ahead of a debut at the 2017 Chicago auto show. We’ve already seen the redesigned Elantra GT, however, as the car is the Americanized version of the Hyundai i30 (shown below) that debuted last fall at the 2016 Paris auto show. The...

Anyone in the market for Hyundai’s Veloster can look forward to a new value-packed option aptly named the Veloster Value Edition. Hyundai has included many of the most popular options for the Veloster as standard on the Value Edition. With a starting price of $21,350, you’re looking at...

The Honda Civic Type R finally reaches the United States this year, but the car we’re getting is a different beast to the Civic Type R launched elsewhere less than two years ago. That Civic Type R was based on the previous-generation Civic Hatchback sold outside the U.S., and Honda has...

Update: In response to a report that the upcoming Civic Type R will be available with a CVT, Honda has confirmed that the car will be offered exclusively with a 6-speed manual transmission. The confirmation ends speculation that either a CVT or dual-clutch transmission, which has also been rumored...

Volkswagen has a version of its GTI that delivers 306 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. It’s called the GTI Clubsport S and in May the car set a Nürburgring lap time of 7:49.21, at the time a record for a production car with front-wheel drive. Well, VW has been back to the...

Volkswagen in November provided an early look at an updated version of its seventh-generation Golf. Among the changes in store for the popular hatch is a refreshed exterior, a more advanced infotainment, a new dual-clutch transmission system and, in some models, extra power. The Golf R is one of...

Volkswagen’s famous Transparent Factory in the German city of Dresden will soon be churning out cars again. The plant, which features glass walls and an open-plan design, was last used to build VW’s Phaeton. But after production of the flagship sedan came to an end in March, the plant...

The BMW 5-Series Gran Turismo is soon to be phased out, but before you pop the champagne cork over the demise of the ungainly luxo-hatch note that it isn’t completely going away. It’s just being positioned higher, slotting into the 6-Series range for its successor. A prototype for the...

While we disagree on what constitutes a "coupe," the 2018 Audi A5 Sportback was busy breaking cover on Wednesday at the 2016 Los Angeles auto show, ahead of the market launch in spring 2017. The four-door fastback (five if you count the dramatically sloped hatch) sports the same sleek lines as the...

Following the emergence of its diesel emissions scandal, the Volkswagen Group, in an attempt to clean up its image, announced plans to launch 30 electric cars by 2025. But VW has already been selling an electric car here in the United States for the past couple of years. The car is part of the Golf...

The Soul hatchback has been very, very good to Kia. Where some car companies believe in their most expensive products to exemplify their respective brand identities, Kia has turned to the chance popularity of its compact hatchback to embody the image of a brand in transition. The way Kia explains...