I’d have to look it up, but I’m guessing the Chevy Sprint (Suzuki Cultus) was about as cheap as a hatchback one could buy in its time. And that role was was taken up by the Hyundai Excel/Accent, which kept it for some time. And now? It’s back to Chevy, with its Spark, the cheapest new car in the land ($12,943). Well, the Nissan Versa starts at $12,815, but then it’s a sedan. That extra door out back does cost a bit more to make…
One each from before and after the Great Hatchback Drought of the ’90s.
Rent-A-Wreck handed me a “seasoned” Sprint to ramble over Oahu Island in 1996. Seemed like that was exactly what it was made for. Great fun.
I’d commute in an Accent hatch.
The ’07 to ’11 Accents are good solid cars at bargain-basement prices, assuming you can find one that hasn’t been hooned to within an inch of its life.
And they come in fun colors too! Besides this sunny yellow, I’ve seen metallic lime green, some shade of purple, a turqoise-y blue, orange…
When Ford decided to FINALLY bring the Fiesta back to the U.S. market, I was quite happy to hear it. Then they did 2 things I wasn’t quite so happy about: they made the U.S. hatchback a 5 door (my old red on red Fiesta was a 3 door) while giving other markets a choice of 3 or 5 doors, and they made the “price leader” model a 4 door sedan.
It’s the same with the Focus….a 5 door hatch in the U.S. while the rest of the world gets a choice of 3 or 5 door hatchback.
As the owner of a two-door ’09 Accent hatch, I will never understand the appeal of two-door cars. I usually don’t have more than one other person in the car, but sometimes I do want (or have to) take another one or two people someplace, and while the back seat is surprisingly spacious, getting in and out is a mildly embarrassing hassle for everyone involved. Not to mention that at least two people have to be agile enough to contort themselves in and out of the back seat, so no senior citizens. Nobody with kids is going to buy a two-door car, because you kill yourself getting the kids in and out of their car seats. And it’s much easier when you have four doors to just open a back door and throw your jacket or a bag of groceries on it and go on your way. If there’s one thing I wish my car had, it’s another two doors.
So why do some people prefer two doors over four? Is it that they’re more stylish? If I were concerned with being stylish, I wouldn’t have bought an Accent.
I really like the Accent, but my desire for four doors has had me entertaining thoughts of picking up a used Elantra Touring, Versa, Soul, or Cube.
So why do some people prefer two doors over four? Is it that they’re more stylish? If I were concerned with being stylish, I wouldn’t have bought an Accent.
After driving mostly 2 doors for over 45 years, these are the advantages
1-ease of access to driver’s seat. I am tall enough that I usually push the seat back far enough that, in a four door, the B pillar partially blocks access to the seat, so I have to climb around the B pillar to get in and out. In a two door, the B pillar is farther back, so it’s easier to get in and out.
2-ease of access to back seat. Counter-intuitive, but for what I usually put in the back seat: attache case, snow brush, umbrella, the farther back B pillar of a two door means that I can easily toss stuff in the back seat footwell by opening the driver’s door. In a four door, I look like a Chinese fire drill as I open back door to toss stuff in and open driver’s door for my own ingress/egress.
3-better visibility to left rear quarter. Longer driver’s door mean longer window, meaning better view into rear quarter blind spot. In a four door,I have to lean to my right to see around the B pillar and out the back door window, a maneuver made more difficult by new roof strength standards that have combined with side airbags to make the B pillar much bigger and harder to see around that was the case 15 years ago.
Cars owned over the last 45 years.
66 Plymouth 4 door
67 Thunderbird 2 door
70 Cougar 2 door
78 Zephyr 2 door
80 Renault 2 door
85 Mazda GLC 2 door
97 Civic 2 door
98 Civic 2 door
02 Escort 4 door
08 Taurus X 4 door
14 Jetta 4 door
For me it is strictly a matter of style. And the fact that I have absolutely no need for 4 doors. I am a car enthusiast, and cars mean more to me than just transportation. A lot more. In fact they are more toys than anything else. I have never seen any 4 door that looked good (other than maybe older model woodgrain wagons), they are a strictly utilitarian device designed to do a job, not to have fun with.
I completely get where you’re coming from. But at the same time, my guess is that most car enthusiasts like you are not going to be looking at Hyundai Accents. These cars are meant to be cheap and utilitarian, so why not make them as utilitarian as possible?
Meanwhile 3 door hatchbacks are becoming pretty rare in Europe too.
Even the smallest ones, like this Toyota Aygo, mostly have 5 doors.
Meanwhile 3 door hatchbacks are becoming pretty rare in Europe too.
Even the smallest ones, like this Toyota Aygo, mostly have 5 doors.
Like station wagons, automakers have been cutting 2 door offerings to simplify their model lineups. If you walk into a Chevy dealership today, and you don’t want a roadlouse like a Spark, but you need to carry stuff, you have to get an SUV. Cruze, Malibu and Impala are not offered in anything but a 4 door sedan.
Honda is one of the few companies still offering 2 door coupe versions of their compact (Civic) and full size (Accord) models. Ford, Hyundai and Kia offer 4 door hatches, but the two door Accent is gone.
Off the top of my head, if you want a two door hatchback in the US, there is one option.
Steve, what you see now is this.
A Renault Megane 5 door hatchback:
A Renault Megane 3 door hatchback, called a coupe. Less practical, more sporty:
A Renault 3 door hatchback, called a coupe. Less practical, more sporty:
And blind to the rear and rear quarters. The Ford Focus and the Mazda, Hyundai and Kia hatchs are styled the same way.
I much prefer VW’s styling, with a lower, more horizontal, beltline and better visibility.
Ha ! Here’s the VW Golf 3 door hatchback, called the Scirocco:
Ha ! Here’s the VW Golf 3 door hatchback, called the Scirocco:
The Scirocco, has an entirely different body than the Golf. hasn’t come to the US since the 80s. It was replaced for a few years by the Corrado. Since then, the only VWs with sporting pretensions are the GTI and R Line variants of the Golf. Even the GTI is now offered as a four door, as well as a two door.
And the Renault Megane wagon. Choice is good. Of course I selected a brown one…
We haven’t had the choice of a Renault here since the late 80s, but the beltline of that wagon looks about the same as the Volvo V60 that we started getting here a year ago.
I checked out the V60 at the show last year. Blind to the rear/rear quarters. After the show, I headed to the VW dealer.
Thankfully, the new Golf wagon has maintained the virtues of the company’s old school styling
Yes, the new Golf wagons look neat and clean. That’s my neighbor’s car, the 2.0 TDI. His is black, with the DSG transmission.
That’s my neighbor’s car, the 2.0 TDI. His is black, with the DSG transmission.
As you can see, I bought the previous generation, with the gas engine and conventional 6 speed automatic. The VW DSG has an alarmingly expensive service somewhere around 50-60K miles, so I don’t mind having a conventional trans.
He had that gen wagon too, a TDI, also with a DSG. He has been driving Volkswagens since 20 years or so. Mostly Golf, but also a Passat. Always diesels, since he drives a lot (40,000 to 50,000 km a year).
He had that gen wagon too, a TDI, also with a DSG.
Around here, diesel costs more than gas. Sometimes a lot more. Combined with the premium price they charge for a TDI, I fail to see the appeal.
Besides, the short trips I make in the winter would clog up the particle filter in a diesel and cost me a big pile of cash to repair.
The Spark is also a 4 door, disguised to look like a 2 door. If you want a 2 door American car, you are pretty much stuck with a Camaro, Corvette, Mustang, or Challenger. I will be buying used, and any Corvette I could afford would be a project car. It’s beginning to look like a late model V6 Mustang may be the answer for me, and it has the added benefit of RWD.
Toyota does still make the 2 door Yaris, and there is the Fiat 500.
“It’s the same with the Focus….a 5 door hatch in the U.S. while the rest of the world gets a choice of 3 or 5 door hatchback.”
There’s no 2 or 3 door version of the current (since 2012) Focus, anywhere in the world. Europe does get a wagon, though.
Well if it is any consolation, I had a 2012 Ford Fiesta 5 door for a year and it felt like a 3 door hatch with the non existent back seat room. I always kept the back seat down(after removing and safely storing the head rests in a box in a closet) so I treated the back doors as just an easier way to remove stuff from the rear of the car.
My parents 05 Sedona smelled really bad inside when it was new and did so for a few years even after leaving the doors and windows down as much as possible. We even did that in the depths of Winter provided it was a dry day. I noticed at two consecutive Portland, OR Auto Shows that some of the Hyundais/Kias still have a nauseating smell and wonder if this Accent has the same problem.
So I assume the Chevy Sprint is the more reliable of the two given how Hyundais/Kias have longevity problems, but what do you all think? Which one is most likely to last another 30 years?
My parents 05 Sedona smelled really bad inside
iirc, the different “new car smell” of Hyundai and Kia products has been laid to the animal based adhesives used in Korea.
Hyundais in the 90s had another “different” smell when new. That was laid on the cosmoline that was sprayed on the underbody for extra rust protection during shipment to the US. Some of the cosmoline would land on the exhaust pipe. The first few hundred miles of driving would burn the cosmoline off the pipe, with a smell like burning sneakers.
They don’t all have it. We bought a 2012 Forte Koup new, and its “new car smell” was pretty typical. Never very strong, either. We also test-drove a ’12 Elantra, and I sat in a ’12 Optima and had a look around. No objectionable smells detected. Maybe it changed between 2005 and 2012?
I had the four-door Sprint Plus. Owned it for about 6 months. Paid $250 and sold it for $225. That’s significantly cheaper than a bus pass. However, the bus provided a better, more comfortable ride. The Sprint would generally get me where I was going faster than the bus. Which is about all the good things I can think about it.
Look at how much bigger that new low end car is than the old. And it probably weighs about as much as what we used to call a “midsize” car.
My very first car was a 1990 Chevy Sprint 2-door hatch that I purchased in 1995 at age 16. It had already amassed 225,000 km at the time of purchase by the sole original owner, so it was obviously the daily commuter for someone doing quite the trek to work on the highways of northern BC.
It was a lively little tin can with the 5 speed… especially compared to other used cars of the era… and the price was right too. $20 to fill it up and it stretched that fuel for an eternity, or so it seemed.
It had a few drawbacks, of course. The ventilation system was terribly inadequate for the frosty winter climate and this required frequent scraping & wiping of the interior side of the windshield and side glass… and the push buttons for the lights and the wipers liked to launch off the dashboard if you didn’t cleverly keep a finger over top when pressing the other buttons to release.
The hatchback came in handy… you could haul a couple extra buddies around on the backroads if you left the hatch up and they could dangle their legs out the back!
Thats really cheap my 98 Citroen 5 door was 38k new the equivalent current model is much cheaper, We got both of these in a Holden flavour same cars just RHD and different badging.
38k? Wow. I wonder what they listed for in the UK in 1998, or France for that matter.
..well we still daily use a 1987 Suzuki Swift 1.3 litre 3 speed auto three door hatch ..it was NZ-new ..and it has been the most trouble-free car we have ever had ..it came with electronic ignition from the factory and is always a strong first time starter, hot or cold ..the induction is by dual throat carb ..no EFI or injector worries ..it performs as just strongly as the first mid-80’s Honda Civics before they got fat and heavy ..it’s very economical ..it has power front discs and stops well ..there is no power steering or aircond, but a sunroof instead ..steering is still quite light and direct ..an all round great little car ..negative point would be instantaneous death in a bad accident ..it is a VERY light little car ..lol
I had an ’84 Swift. Being a 3 door it had the one litre triple, 5 speed manual, and was plenty fast. Probably the most fun car I’ve ever had, as nobody seemed to realise how quick off the mark it was. V8 drivers HATED being beaten off the line by a Suzuki triple (well, for the first ten car lengths!)
Memo modern car designers and engineers: Weight is STILL the enemy!
..absolutely it is ..saw Clarkson/Top Gear the other night tearing around a paddock in a snowmobile-engined ATV mud racer with a zero to 60mph time under 4 seconds!! the only commonplace regular 4 door car that can match that would be a Swiss ‘Sportec’ modified E55 AMG with 16 pounds of boost – not too many others though
From time to time I try to look at the cheapest new cars on the Canadian market for the fun of it. At some point I have to remind myself that low horsepower is not on my list and I’m not too sure about safety in the subcompact class, plus I like a little style.
In Canada we have the Nissan Micra with a 109 HP 1.6L 4-cylinder engine starting at $9,998. The Mitsubishi Mirage with a 74 HP 1.2L 3-cylinder engine starts at $12,498 (or $9,998 with a cash discount). There is no A/C in these cars and they come equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission. These prices are in Canadian dollars and they do not include taxes or other fees.
I peruse the ads in the paper at the end of model year blitz. The little Accent hatchbacks were as low as $7,777 here in Oregon, back in 2010. The only similar deals that I remember were the last of the (Chevrolet) Metros going for $6488 back in 2000. But each time the temptation was stifled by the adage “don’t spend good money on a stripper”!
The 2008 recession had hit us hard here in Toronto, Canada. But I still remember the 2008 Accent hatchbacks in the newspapers advertised at a $9,995 cash price. They were as basic as you could get. Manual transmission without A/C. I also read that they didn’t have power windows or power door locks.
http://www.autos.ca/car-test-drives/test-drive-2008-hyundai-accent-l/
If I added the extra features on these base model cars such as A/C and automatic transmission, it raises the price to the point where I would rather pay a little more and buy something better like a base model Corolla with those features added. I thought that a cheap, depreciated used Accent might still make a great beater though.
You can get the Chery IQ in Chile for US$6200. I don’t know if it’s the cheapest here, but they won’t go much lower
The Chinese looked like they were going to make a big push in the US a few years ago. They had the lower level of Cobo Hall at the Detroit show a few years ago, with Chery BYD and Geely, among others, showing their wares. iirc, only BYD showed the next year, and none showing in recent years.
I was going to make a snarky comment about the Sprint having better interior volume, but figured I should do some checking first. Good thing I did. The Sprint had 75.6 cu ft as measured by the EPA, and this generation Accent clocks in at 92.2 cu ft. That’s a 22% improvement, and the Accent doesn’t look 22% bigger.
it looks 30-40% bigger. The picture above does not provide you with relative widths. park them side by side at a stop light and look at them at all angles. The Accent looks huge in comparison.
I’d like to see an 84 Caravan & a new one positioned like in the picture above.
A base trim level three door hatch with a stick shift is becoming rare indeed. I bet there aren’t more than 2 to choose from in the USA if buying brand new. I bet there isn’t even one of those available without power steering.
I had an 1985 suzuki forsa 2 door manual…loved every minute of it! The charm of simplicity with a dose fun to drive, ended up t-boned badly. Luckily the bastard stroke the front wheel instead of the driver door, otherwise my life would be quite different right now…Now i drive a 2015 kia rio manual, a much nicer car that still has that light, agile feel and cheap tank to fill! It reminds me of a newer version of that, but i’m less afraid of beeing t-bone in this one! Sometime i think about getting one of the convertible version of the sprint as a cheap convert on wich i could learn the basic of car repair…would have to be manual of course, even if the 3 speed auto was not bad (i have proof picture of an auto of these hitting max speed!!!!, it vibrated like a chopper!!!!)