It’s not a great time to be in the sedan business.
SUVs, crossovers and pickup trucks are selling as well as they ever have, but anything smaller than a Kia Soul is quickly becoming product non grata.
Yet, Honda still manages to sell the Civic at a high clip, better than any other in compact sedan segment and better than every sedan that isn’t the Toyota Camry (which it trails by a slim margin). Perhaps it’s because of this against the odds mentality (or the fact that seemingly anything wearing a Civic badge will sell) that Honda will introduce another underdog model to its U.S. lineup this year: a hatchback.
The Honda Civic Hatchback, a long-time staple in the European market, will make its U.S. debut this fall for the 2017 model year, accompanying the Sedan and Coupe versions of the car.
For whatever reason, be it manufacturing practices, government regulations, customer preferences or (most likely) some combination of the three, hatchbacks have never been as popular in the U.S. as they are on the other side of the Atlantic. But maybe things will be different this time around, maybe it’s not a coincidence that the Civic Hatchback is debuting at the same time as Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback, maybe Honda knows something we don’t.
By: Kyle Campbell (New York Daily News).
Photo: Car And Driver.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, FLAGSHIP RECORDS.
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