Maine bans sales of new VW Disels

You don't seem to have a firm grasp of memory, or history.

Hatchbacks were everywhere from the mid 70s to the late 80s, from the Pinto, Vega and early Civic to the Rabbit. Rabbits (ie, Golfs) were style leaders, and the GTI was the hippest thing you could drive. Chrysler even had a Rabbit copy with a Rabbit engine. Mazda, Sterling (nee Honda) and Merkur had 5 door hatchbacks, and don't forget Saab. All of these were brought to the US because hatchbacks were fashionable and automakers thought they would sell. Don't forget GM and Ford either -- the standard midsized American car was a Chevy Citation, a big, square, ugly hatchback, and the standard small car a hatchback Escort. There were even cars that looked like hatchbacks but weren't, like the Audi coupe.

After awhile, every car was a hatchback so they were nothing special anymore, especially because most economy cars were hatchbacks. So people started buying sedans because they looked more upscale. Automakers responded by cranking out more Jettas and 4 door GLCs, and finally 2 door sedan/coupes like the Civic coupe around '90 or so. So while the GTI was the style paragon of 1975, the hatchback was dead by around 1990. I'd say 15 years was a pretty good run. Now the Mini is bringing it back, as are the Prius and 5 door Mazda and Lexus...

Actually, station wagons have been selling better and better in recent years. Everything, and I mean everything, eventually comes back into fashion.

Matt O.

And, let's hope, the A5...

-- Mike Smith

I'm to young to remember this stuff, other people who were alive during this era might argue hatchbacks being the "hip" thing though. My father seems to remember differently. Regardless, the plain and simple fact of the matter is that hatchbacks have not been as popular as consitantly or for as long here in North America as they have been in Europe, where they still maintain a much greater market presence than they do here in the U.S. The fact that they were popular during much of the 1970s is somewhat of a double edged sword. The gas crises of the early 70s sent people out to buy economical European and especially, Japanese cars. Many of those were only avaliable as hatchbacks, so that's what ended up on U.S. streets. Had there been a sedan alternitive right off the bat, hatchback sales might have quite different.

Yea, it's the comeback. But they still represent a fairly small portion of the total yearly sales in this country. My parents vividly remember being children and 9 out of every 10 moms owned a station wagon. Hatchbacks may make a comeback too. But with the ever increaseing popularity of compact SUVs, it seems unlikely.

I won't argue that.

Geez...you make it sound soooo long ago...makin me feel like an old fart. I bought a 78 rabbit new, so I must be old!

Hatchbacks were indeed hot. After the GTI came out and sold well, all of them also had a juiced models that led to such weird stuff as a ford escort GT turbo, like the turbo colt, turbo fuego (renault), a Shelby Omni/Horizon (dodge/chrysler) or Omni GLH. Maybe your Dad is just blocking out bad memories...most were pretty crappy economy cars. When they turboed them the torque steer could snap your wrists.

Now I gotta get back to the senior citizens center for my bowl of mush. (;^P)

It may depend on where you live, but dig up some old auto magazines at the library and you'll see what I mean. Everyone from movie stars to European royalty were driving GTIs. In a way it was like a rebirth of the original Mini, which was the hot thing in Britain in the 60s.

Most of them were pretend pro rally cars, which were the only interesting thing going on in motorsports in those days. Muscle cars had come and gone. All the car nuts were into small European cars, in the same way kids are into Hondas now. 2 Fast 2 Furious of the day was VW.

Matt O.

Yup, so my boss's F-350 Dually Power Stroke Diesel that pollutes considerably more than a TDI is acceptable. Whereas a fuel sipping TDI is not. Lucky guy, he is a Chief Technology Officer, not a builder that hauls lumber. You oughta see that thing in the parking garage, you could hide a Jetta TDI under the bumper.

Steve

I can't say I make a comprehensive canvas of the California roadways, but I'm not sure I see (m)any Ford Focuses. Lots of VW's, but not much in the way of Focuses... rick jones