-- "Americans don't like hatchbacks."
-- "There have been negative connotations for hatchbacks because they were seen as cheap, like you couldn't afford a car with four doors,"
Are these statements really true? I know when Ford redesigned the Mustang in '94, and discontinued the hatchback, their claimed reason was because of the hatch's lack of body rigidity. But did the factors listed above put the final nails in the coffin of a future hatchback Mustang?
What do you think of a future hatchback Mustang? What's your choice?
1) I say good riddance... I hated the old creaky hatchbacks. 2) I wouldn't buy one, and don't think they fit the Mustang image. 3) I'd at least like to have the choice of a coupe or a hatch. 4) I'd probably buy a hatchback model if it was offered. 5) Hatchback Mustangs were the best of both world's -- versatiliy and performance.---------- BY JEFF GREEN BLOOMBERG
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG,the world's No. 2 luxury automaker, delayed U.S. sales of a new entry-level 1-Series car because the initial hatchback model was unlikely to appeal to buyers, the company's CEO said this week.
"Americans don't like hatchbacks, and we are still deciding what the best model for the next 1-Series should be," BMW CEO Helmut Panke said in New York.
Since 1990, sales of hatchback model cars in the United States have never exceeded 4.7 percent and typically don't top 2 percent, Lexington, Mass.-based Global Insight Inc. reports. Hatchbacks, with two passenger doors and a door, or hatch, in the back, accounted for
225,000, or 1.4 percent, of 16.6 million cars and trucks sold last year, Global Insight said."There have been negative connotations for hatchbacks because they were seen as cheap, like you couldn't afford a car with four doors," said Global Insight analyst Rebecca Lindland. "The attitudes are changing with younger buyers, but the automakers still remember they were unpopular."
BMW introduced a 3-Series hatchback, the 318t, in the United States in
1995, and sales peaked at 7,235 in 1996, Global Insight said. Sales fell every year after that to 700 in 2000, the last year for U.S. sales, Lindland said."Our success with the 318t many years ago was less than we expected," said Tom Purves, BMW's North American CEO. "From our perspective, there is not yet a natural hatchback market" in the United States.
Mercedes also will introduce a station-wagon version of a redesigned A-Class, specifically built for the U.S. market, in 2005, spokeswoman Donna Boland said. The A3 is scheduled to go on sale in the United States next year.
Mini sells because Americans don't know it's a hatchback, Purves said.
Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD