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2002 Sport Hatchbacks Comparison Test - Load Up and Move Out
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Through much of the '80s and '90s, the buying public saw hatchbacks as slightly icky cars that were best left untouched. They represented the frugal '70s, back when OPEC was really scary and Jimmy Carter was president. Hatchbacks were items to be forgotten and buried, just like the acid-washed Levis that you wore in middle school.
But here we are in the waxing years of the new millennium. And hatchbacks are back. (They are so back that Mercedes, an automaker traditionally as stodgy as Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men, has come out with one). The cool thing about these hatchbacks is that they are as they have always been: economical, inexpensive, versatile and hopefully a bit fun to drive.
Yes, fun to drive. Everyone knows about the '83 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI, a hot-rodded car that nearly single-handedly created the "hot hatch" genre here in the United States.
Almost 20 years later, a revival has happened, and we decided to round up the latest hot hatches to complement our Econosport Sedan Comparison Test. We ended up with three: the Ford SVT Focus, the Honda Civic Si and the Volkswagen New Beetle Turbo S. We would have been thrilled to include a Mini Cooper S, but one was not available at the time of our test.
As with other comparison tests we conduct, we assigned a crack team of Edmunds.com editors to determine which car we think is the best. We evaluated each car based on price, feature content, performance, a 23-point evaluation and subjective ratings of which cars our editors would put in their own garages as well as which they would recommend to others.
Over the course of two weeks, our editors racked up hundreds of miles and got intimately familiar with each vehicle. In addition to our normal test loops on public roads, we also booked time at Willow Springs International Motorsports Park, a road course located about an hour's drive north of Los Angeles. Using the smaller and more technical 1.5-mile Streets of Willow track, we were able to push the performance envelope of each vehicle further in a safe, controlled environment.
Sometimes, picking a winner for a comparison test is difficult. Not so for this test. Think you know which car won? Best get clicking, then.
Text Source: Edmunds.com : By Brent Romans
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