Hatchbacks

Lately, there have been rumors Honda’s version of the Civic compact hatch sold overseas will be offered in the U.S. in the near future, raising hopes that the Civic Type R performance flagship will come with it. Things really heated up when a prototype for the new Civic Type R was spotted...

The latest A-Class saw a major shift in design for Mercedes-Benz’s entry-level nameplate, moving from the tall, MPV-like design of previous generations to a sportier, more dynamic hatchback shape. It proved to be a winning decision, as sales of the A-Class have never been higher. The latest...

While lap times at the Nürburgring Nordschleife have long been a contentious issue for car fans and manufacturers alike—and rightly so—when the new turbocharged Honda Civic Type R sets a new front-drive record, it’s worth paying attention—especially because it was one...

After what seems like an excessively long gestation period for what’s essentially a hotted-up variant of a car already on sale—Honda says the development was five years—the new Civic Type R is finally here. The awesome hot hatch has been revealed at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show and...

The hatchback scene in the U.S. is always in a tenuous position. It feels like, at any moment, the whole thing could unravel and we’d be left with nothing but sedans, crossovers, and pickups. But thanks to good-looking, fun-to-drive mainstream models like the Elantra GT, things are alive and...

Following last night’s leak, we now have official details for the latest generation of the Ford Motor Company’s [NYSE:F] awesome Focus RS. The third-generation model, the first to be confirmed for U.S. sale, features the turbocharged 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine found in the...

Volkswagen has added its sporty R-Line upgrade for its Golf hatchback over in Europe, and with any luck we’ll see it offered at dealerships here in the U.S. The R-Line upgrade adds some minor performance mods and offers buyers on a budget the ability to add a little sport to their Golfs...

The Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] is about to unleash upon the world a new generation of its Focus RS on February 3, however, the car may not be the only high-performance hatchback in the Blue Oval’s fleet for very long. News has emerged that Ford is working on a version of its Fiesta hotter...

BMW’s 1-Series Hatchback has come in for its mid-cycle update and has received new some styling and powertrains in the process. The 1-Series Hatchback isn't sold in the U.S., and we’re not expecting this updated version to arrive either—instead, we’ll get the...

The first 500 2015 Volkswagen Golf R units have been snapped up.

Back at November’s Los Angeles Auto Show we told you that the 2015 Volkswagen Golf R will be priced from $37,415 with shipping, and that the first 500 examples will be made available for pre-order prior to the official start of sales early next year. DON'T MISS: 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT...

Audi’s new RS 3 Sportback, the ultimate A3, has been revealed as the most powerful compact car in production, managing to edge out Mercedes-Benz’s A45 AMG and CLA45 AMG by a nose. The new RS 3, which is yet to be confirmed for the U.S. market, packs Audi’s familiar turbocharged...

UPDATE: A new generation of the Ford Focus RS has been confirmed for sale in the U.S. It will form part of a new portfolio of sporty Ford products grouped under the Ford Performance banner. If you’re a fan of hot hatches, you’ve long been jealous of the hardware Europeans get to play...

MINI’s all-new Hardtop is a lot of fun in Cooper and Cooper S trim but lacking from the lineup is the sporty John Cooper Works variant, which has been revealed today ahead of an official world debut at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. It was at this year’s Detroit event that MINI rolled out...

BMW is planning a subtle facelift for its 1-Series Hatchback sold overseas, as these latest spy shots reveal. The shots include prototypes for both the three- and five-door models, and confirm that the look of the 1-Series is being updated at both ends of the car. An earlier prototype only showed...

A new generation of the awesome Ford Focus RS is no longer the subject of rumors, as prototypes for the car have been spotted for well over a year now. The new Focus RS is expected to be revealed next year and our latest spy shots offer the best indication yet of how the car will look. To date, the...

Even though there have been rumblings that a high-performance RS version of Audi’s entry-level A1 could be coming, the boss of the automaker’s quattro performance division has ruled out the possibility. Speaking with Top Gear, Audi quattro boss Stephan Reil said it’s hard to build...

The current Ford Focus compact has just received its mid-cycle facelift, and that means the sporty Focus ST variant also needed to come in for the update. This time, however, there is also a new diesel variant, although this particular model won’t reach U.S. shores. The cars were first shown...

The latest Nissan model to receive the Nismo treatment has been revealed in the form of the Note Nismo, a sporty compact hatch that goes on sale in Japan this fall. A version of the Note is sold in the United States as the Versa Note, but don’t expect a Nismo version to be gracing local...

Back in 2011, French automaker Renault set the front-wheel-drive lap record at the Nürburgring with its Mégane RS 265 Trophy, which lapped the notorious German circuit in a time of 8:07.97. That record sat comfortably in Renault’s lap until a couple of months ago when Spanish...