Hatchbacks

Details are sketchy, but this prototype testing at the Nurburgring hints at a possible MINI JCW Challenge Edition car to close out the current generation's sales.

MINI recently announced an $800 million investment deal for its plant in Oxford, UK to prepare for production of its third-generation Cooper model. The new model, spy shots of which have already surfaced, will be based on a new front-wheel drive platform dubbed UKL, which will be used by BMW for...

At last year's SEMA show, Honda and its HPD division came to the plate with no fewer than a dozen different concepts. One of them was the CR-Z Racer you see above. Today, Honda announced the turbocharged race concept will strut its stuff in an exhibition event before the start of the 2011 24 Hours...

Now that we’ve had a few days to absorb the controversial look of the new 2012 BMW 1-Series Hatchback’s styling, dare we say it, it's actually starting to grow on us--just a little. Over the course of the last couple of days, BMW has also released some promo videos for its latest...

Volvo showed us its C30 Electric zero-emissions hatchback at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show back in January, which included a crashed example with the car's expensive battery pack fully intact, but now the automaker has confirmed that customer leases are about to start. Unfortunately, those leases are...

Volkswagen's Golf range is already set to get a lot more exciting here in the U.S. with the impending release of the Golf R, but VW may be adding to the mix with an American version of the Edition 35, renamed for our shores. The rename would be a simple matter of counting the years since the GTI...

The high-mileage Lexus CT 200h hybrid has been named an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick. The CT 200h was among a group of 13 small cars the agency recently tested; of those, six (including the Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Volt, and Nissan Leaf) received the accolade. Top...

Over the next 12 to 18 months or so, we’re about to see two new hot hatches from Ford make their debut, the long-awaited ‘ST’ variants of the latest 2012 Ford Focus and Fiesta. While the Fiesta ST isn’t expected to bow in until late next year as a 2013 model, its bigger...

We've previously spied Ford testing its new four-cylinder EcoBoost engine in the U.S., with engineers using a sporty variant of the 2011 Ford Fiesta three-door hatchback as their guinea pig. This sporty variant will be known as the Fiesta ST when it goes on sale late next year as a 2013 model...

Exactly two months ago Honda’s tuning arm, Mugen (more specifically Mugen Euro), announced plans for the development of a high-performance Honda CR-Z hybrid hatch and released a couple of teaser sketches. Today, Mugen Euro has revealed its latest creation, the CR-Z Mugen, which will be making...

Lexus is out to prove the performance credentials of its latest CT 200h by entering the upmarket hybrid hatchback in the competitive VLN race series that runs on the notorious Nurburgring circuit. The CT 200h race car is being fielded by Toyota’s racing partner Gazoo Racing and actually made...

UPDATE: The new Mercedes-Benz A Class has been revealed. Click here for all the details. New images have emerged on the Web today, looking very much like official patent filings, and showing what appears to be the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. Expected here in the U.S. either next year or early in 2013...

According to Mercedes-Benz design chief Gorden Wagener, the lines of the stunningly good Concept A-Class revealed at the recent Shanghai and New York auto shows are virtually identical to what we’ll see on the final production version due late next year. “What you see is...

The funky little hatchback we've come to like seeing at autoshows will finally be making its way onto the street and the showroom floor this week, following a brief delay due to labor disputes at a South Korean plant where it is built. But only in Korea. We will have to wait until the second half...

For better or worse, the new Beetle is here, trading some of its "chick car" rep for a more masculine appearance. Whether that will convince more men to buy the car--or simply serve to drive off the women that flocked to the last generation--remains to be seen, but whatever the eventualities, it's...

We’re already seen the spy shots but now the facelifted version of Kia’s popular Soul hatchback has been revealed following its world debut this week at the 2011 New York Auto Show. The facelifted hatch, coming onto the market later this year as a 2012 model, improves on the...

The 2012 Hyundai Accent looks poised to elevate Hyundai to the same high water mark for small cars that it's claimed in other sedan segments this past year with its compact Elantra and mid-size Sonata. The Accent will be offered in four-door sedan and five-door hatchback variants this time, and the...

On the surface, the respective MINI and Rolls-Royce brands appear to be worlds apart; one sells small, relatively affordable hatchbacks targeted at hip youngsters, while the other is steeped in tradition, costs a fortune to own and is all about big, brazen sedans oozing luxury. Delve a little...

Audi’s next-generation A3 is scheduled to hit showrooms in the second half of next year, in both sedan and hatchback bodystyles, and depending on which market you live in, you may eventually be able to opt from up to six different powertrain types when selecting your model. No, we’re...

We got a pretty good indication as to how the next-generation 2013 Audi A3--the new Sedan variant, at least--will be styled with the unveiling of the A3 Sedan Concept at last month’s 2011 Geneva Motor Show. Now, Audi has released several teaser sketches of the production version, this time of...