"the engine's sump of BMC Austin Morris and later Peugeot PSA X engine, until the only car in production with this transmission layout by the 1990s, was the then long obsolescent Austin (Rover) Mini. The Simca 1100 was also the first small car, that was designed from the outset, with an angled single piece hatchback tailgate to enter large scale production. The earlier Renault 4 tailgate was near vertical like an estate car, and the Austin A40 originally had a split tailgate. The Simca was successful in France, but less so elsewhere due to 'tappety' engines and body corrosion. A"
"rear tailgate of the first British hatchback car the Austin A40 Farina Countryman. The Be-1, Pao, Figaro, and S-Cargo were attempts to create cars with designs as desirable as those of Panasonic, Sony, and other personal electronics products. The engine was the March/Micra's 1.0 L (987 cc) MA10S, coupled with a three-speed automatic transmission or a five-speed manual transmission, the manual being the more sought after. The engine produced at 6,000 rpm and at 3,600 rpm. The chassis included rack and pinion steering, independent suspension with struts in front and 4-links and coil springs in back. Brakes were discs up"
"added to the Kadett lineup the common lineage became apparent. The Chevette was the first British-built hatchback of this size,; Ford did not respond with a similar product until the following year (their similar-sized offerings all having conventional rear boots). Sales began on 1 May 1975 from a price of £1,593. From 1975 until 1978, the Chevette was the UK's best selling hatchback as UK branded rivals failed to respond to the challenge of the imported Peugeot 104, Fiat 127 and Renault 5 until the arrival of Ford's Fiesta at the end of 1976. Chrysler UK did not launch its"
"front-wheel drive hatchback, the Horizon, which was the first car of its kind to be built in Britain, similar in concept to the Volkswagen Golf launched in West Germany four years earlier. It gave buyers a modern alternative to the ageing rear-wheel drive Avenger saloons and estates, which continued in production despite falling directly into the category of cars that the Horizon might be expected to replace. This meant that the carmaker was in the unusual position of offering rear-wheel drive saloons and estates as well as a front-wheel drive hatchback at the same time. While the British Ryton plant"
"front-wheel drive, considerably later than their continental rivals. For instance, the arrival of the front-wheel drive Volkswagen Golf hatchback in 1974 came four years before any of the four British-based carmakers had launched an equivalent car. By the time the first small British-built hatchback, the Vauxhall Chevette, was launched in 1975, the French Renault 5 had already been in production for three years. However, British Leyland's larger Austin Maxi had been sold with a hatchback and front-wheel drive since its 1969 launch, although it sold similar-sized cars like the Morris Marina and Triumph Dolomite alongside it as a rear-wheel drive"
"hatchbacks still only accounted for a minority of sales. There was no 3-door version of the Horizon. To fulfill this need, the Simca 1100 remained on sale in continental Europe, while the rear-wheel drive Chrysler Sunbeam was sold alongside the Horizon in the United Kingdom until 1981. The car was the first British-built hatchback of this size — launched two years before the Vauxhall Astra, three years before the European Ford Escort Mark III and five years before the Austin Maestro. Although it didn't officially replace any of the British Chryslers – despite being a similar size to the rear-wheel"
"The first production hatchback was released by Citroën in 1938: the Citroën 11CV Commerciale. The tailgate has two pieces, a top section hinged from roof level and a bottom section hinged from below. When production of the Commerciale resumed after World War II, the tailgate became a one-piece design which was hinged from roof level, as per the design used on most hatchbacks since. In 1949, Kaiser-Frazer introduced the Vagabond and Traveler hatchbacks. These models were styled much like a typical 1940s sedan; however, they included a two-piece tailgate as per the first Citroen 11CV Commerciale. The Vagabond and Traveler"
"station wagon / estate car version; and, following the demise of the Humber Hawk, the UK market for large estate cars quickly came to be dominated by the Volvo 145, introduced to the UK in March 1968, and its successors. Humber Hawk The Humber Hawk is a four-cylinder automobile manufactured from 1945 to 1967 by British-based Humber Limited. The Hawk, a re-badged Hillman 14 (1938-1940) was the first Humber car to be launched after World War II. Slightly longer because of the new bootlid superimposed on its fastback tail and narrower having shed its running boards it also managed to"
"models also had folding rear seats, and a shared volume for the passengers and cargo. The design was neither fully a sedan nor a station wagon, but the folding rear seat provided for a large, long interior cargo area. These Kaiser-Frazer models have been described as ""America’s First Hatchback"". In 1953, Aston Martin marketed the DB2 with a top-hinged rear tailgate, manufacturing 700 examples. Its successor, the 1958 DB Mark III, also offered a folding rear seat. The 1954 AC Aceca and later Aceca-Bristol from AC Cars had a similar hatch tailgate, though only 320 were built. The British Motor"
"of sheet metal in bodyshells was reduced to the minimum needed for structural integrity. However, corrosion prevention / rustproofing, that had not previously been significant because of the thickness of metal and separate chassis, had not kept pace with this new construction technology. The lightest monocoque economy cars would be the most affected by structural corrosion. The world's first hatchback, the 1958 FR layout Austin A40 Farina Countryman model that was a co-development of BMC and the Italian design house Pininfarina at a time when this was unusual. It had a lift up rear window and drop down boot lid."
"Notchback Notchback is a marketing term used to describe cars with a three-box design where the trunk (boot) volume is less pronounced than the engine and passenger compartments. Many models of sedans, coupés or hatchbacks could be potentially classified as notchbacks, however the use of the term is typically limited to American car manufacturers distinguishing the three-box models from other body styles in the same model range (for example, the Chevrolet Vega range included both a notchback coupe and a fastback coupe). One of the first cars marketed as a notchback is the 1938 Cadillac Sixty Special. In 1952, a"
"very small numbers. Styling was also getting distinctly old-fashioned and this caused Leonard Lord, in an unusual move for him, to call upon the services of an external stylist. In 1958, BMC hired Battista Farina to redesign its entire car line. This resulted in the creation of three ""Farina"" saloons, each of which was badge-engineered to fit the various BMC car lines: The compact Farina model bowed in 1958 with the Austin A40 Farina. This is considered by many to be the first mass-produced hatchback car: a small estate version was produced with a horizontally split tailgate, its size and"
"Hillman Imp The Hillman Imp is a small economy car made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. Revealed on 3 May 1963, after much advance publicity, it was the first British mass-produced car with the engine block and cylinder head cast in aluminium. Being a direct competitor to the BMC's Mini, it used a space-saving rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout to allow as much luggage and passenger capacity as possible in both the rear and the front of the car. It used a unique opening rear hatch to allow luggage to be put into the"
"the first Honda car to be sold in Britain when it was launched there in 1972, at a time when the sale of Japanese cars from Honda's competitors Nissan and Toyota were soaring. Its compact design and economical engine ensured that it sold well in Britain in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. The four-door sedan version of this bodystyle was never available in the United States, and the five-door hatchback did not appear until 1978, just before the introduction of the second generation model. It was presented in Japan in September 1977 and the four-door was retired in"
"Golf-like family hatchback. Ford had switched to front-wheel drive hatchback format for its MK3 Escort in 1980, soon after General Motors had adapted that concept for its latest Opel Kadett (Vauxhall Astra in Britain). Austin Rover (formerly British Leyland) did not enter the small family hatchback market until the launch of its Maestro at the beginning of 1983, although it had launched its larger Maxi hatchback as long ago as 1969 and in 1976 had taken the then unusual step of launching a hatchback bodystyle on a luxury car (the Rover SD1). Peugeot would not launch its first Golf-sized hatchback"
"be the ""first compact hatchback"" manufactured by U.S. automaker. General Motors' first hatchback model was the Chevrolet Vega, introduced in September 1970. Over a million Vega hatchbacks were produced for the 1971–1977 model years accounting for about half of the Vega's total production. The Vega hatchback was also rebadged and sold as the 1973–1977 Pontiac Astre, 1978 Chevrolet Monza S, 1795–1980 Buick Skyhawk, 1975–1980 Oldsmobile Starfire and 1977–1980 Pontiac Sunbird. In 1974, the larger Chevrolet Nova became available in a hatchback body style. The Nova hatchback was also rebadged as the Chevrolet Concours, Pontiac Ventura, Pontiac Phoenix, Oldsmobile Omega, Buick"
"1960 602 cc Citroën Ami and hatchback 1967 Citroën Dyane. Also in France, in 1966 Renault launched the midrange Renault 16 - although it was not an economy car, it is widely recognised as the first non-commercial mass-market hatchback car. The hatchback was a leap forward in practicality. It was adopted as a standard feature on most European cars, with saloons declining in popularity apart from at the top of the market over the next twenty years. Small economy cars that were more limited in load carrying ability than larger cars benefited most - long light loads like furniture could"
"United Kingdom, some five months before the Vauxhall Astra Mark 1, the British version, was launched in April 1980. The cars were designed as three- or five-door hatchbacks and estates or station wagons. There were also two- and four-door sedans featuring separate boots/trunks, which shared the silhouettes of the hatchbacks: in the United Kingdom, the sedan versions were soon withdrawn, until the 1986 launch of the MKII-based Belmont. For the first time, since 1965, there was no coupé bodied Kadett in the range: the previous Kadett C coupé was indirectly replaced by the three-door 1.3 SR sports model. Technologically, the"
"notchback version of the Nash Ambassador was introduced. In 1971, Chevrolet marketed the three-box sedan models of the Chevrolet Vega as a ""notchback"", in order to differentiate them from the fastback Vega models. For the 1973 model year, the car's name was changed to ""Vega Notchback"". The term notchback is seldom used outside of North America. Many car models have notchback characteristics, however their body style is described using other terms. For example, a three-box sedan is more generally known as a saloon in British English. ""Notchback"" has appeared in a few British English publications, however it is not a"
"marque being introduced across Europe from 1 August 1979. It was effectively replaced by the Talbot Solara – a four-door saloon version of the Alpine hatchback – which was launched in April 1980. Commencing in 1967, Chrysler Australia Ltd assembled the Hillman Hunter from imported CKD packs at their Port Melbourne factory, which they inherited as part of Chrysler's acquisition of Rootes Australia. Designated as the HB series, the range comprised two models, the Arrow (with a trim level corresponding with the United Kingdom Minx, but with a front bench seat), and the Hunter. A Hunter Safari wagon was added"
"mainstay of this sector. Between 1973 and 1980, medium-sized hatchbacks were launched across Europe: the Chrysler/Simca Horizon, Fiat Ritmo (Strada in the UK), Ford Escort MK3, Renault 14, Volvo 340 / 360, Opel Kadett, and Volkswagen Golf. These cars were considerably more economical than the traditional saloons they were replacing, and attracted buyers who traditionally bought larger vehicles. Some 15 years after the oil crisis, hatchbacks dominated most European small and medium car markets, and had gained a substantial share of the large family car market. Before the energy crisis, large, heavy, and powerful cars were popular. By 1971, the"
"first time, and model lineups now included compact and mid-sized cars in addition to full-sized ones. The popular modern hatchback, with front-wheel-drive and a two-box configuration, was born in 1965 with the introduction of the Renault 16，many of this car's design principles live on in its modern counterparts: a large rear opening incorporating the rear window, foldable rear seats to extend boot space. The Mini, released in 1959, had first popularised the front wheel drive two-box configuration, but technically was not a hatchback as it had a fold-down bootlid. Japanese cars also began to gain acceptance in the Western market,"
"and so the Talbot version never made it into production. The car was available on the left-hand drive continental markets from its launch on 2 October 1986, as a three-door hatchback with 1.0, 1.1 and 1.4-litre TU-series belt driven OHC engines. A range of five-door models was added in 1987 and a 1.4 litre diesel engine was introduced in 1988. The latter was replaced by a 1.5 litre unit in September 1994. The right-hand drive version for the UK market was launched in August 1987, initially only as a three-door hatchback, with a five-door version joining the range a year"
"in 1979 but was due for an imminent replacement by an up-to-date third generation model. The Hillman Avenger continued to sell well as a Chrysler following the 1976 rebranding and as a Talbot after the sale of Chrysler's European operations to French carmaker Peugeot in 1979, in spite of the 1978 launch of the Horizon front-wheel drive hatchback. One of the first foreign cars to have a major impact on this sector in the UK was the Golf - a Giugiaro-styled front-wheel drive hatchback launched in 1974. The sporty GTI version sparked a huge demand for ""hot hatchbacks"" in the"
"term that is used in common parlance in Britain. Notchback Notchback is a marketing term used to describe cars with a three-box design where the trunk (boot) volume is less pronounced than the engine and passenger compartments. Many models of sedans, coupés or hatchbacks could be potentially classified as notchbacks, however the use of the term is typically limited to American car manufacturers distinguishing the three-box models from other body styles in the same model range (for example, the Chevrolet Vega range included both a notchback coupe and a fastback coupe). One of the first cars marketed as a notchback"
"the traditional ""boot"". This was the first time that Ford had produced a car with a hatchback, adopting this new concept which had first been patented by Renault in the mid-1960s. Ford launched a Ford Escort (Europe) at the start of 1975, with a heavily restyled exterior and more spacious interior, but an almost identical mechanical design. The entry-level 950 cc engine, which was rare in any country, was discontinued. In 1975, Ford overtook British Leyland (the combine which included Austin, Morris and Rover) as the most popular make of car in the United Kingdom. 1976 saw Ford Europe enter"
"a then conventional bootlid, the rear window remaining fixed. The Countryman hatchback appeared exactly a year later in October 1959, and differed from the saloon in that the rear window was marginally smaller, to allow for a frame that could be lifted up, with its own support, while the lower panel was now flush with the floor and its hinges had been strengthened. It was a very small estate car with a horizontally split tailgate having a top-hinged upper door and bottom-hinged lower door. October 1959 also saw the standardisation on both cars of self-cancelling indicators and the provision of"
"Rover 2000 saloon was the inaugural winner in 1964 while the Austin 1800 was victorious in 1965. The Rover won over another British contender, the rear-engine Hillman Imp. The Renault 16 was the world's first production hatchback car and unsurprisingly won the award for 1966, having been launched at the beginning of 1965. A year later, the award went to the Fiat 124, which won more than twice as many as voted as its nearest competitor, the BMW 1600. Fiat missed out the following year, however, when its 125 was pipped to the award by the revolutionary new NSU Ro80,"
"hatchback - at a time when the hatchback was becoming increasingly popular in Europe after first being patented by Renault in the mid 1960s. By the standards of the mid 1970s, the Capri II was a very well evolved vehicle with very few reliability issues. For Germany the Capri now offered 1.3-litre (), 1.6-litre (), 1.6-litre GT (), or 2.0-litre () in-line four-cylinder engines, complemented by a 2.3-litre V6 () and the UK sourced 3.0-litre V6 with (), available with either a four-speed Ford Type 5 manual transmission or one of Ford's new C3 three-speed automatic transmissions available on all"
"five-door hatchback, which by the end of the year was joined by a five-door estate and a sporty three-door hatchback called the Sport Hatch in the UK. The Sport Hatch had the option of a ""panoramic windscreen"" (unique for a production car at the time of its launch) which extended the windscreen into the roof area. The main variants were Life, Club, Design, SXi, SRi, Elite, and the flagship VXR (Sport Hatch only), which had 240 bhp. However, special edition models included Active, Energy, Breeze and VXR Nurburgring. The latter was only available in white with a distinctive black (and"
"names. Faced with fierce competition from up-to-date designs from Volkswagen, General Motors moved to a front-wheel drive hatchback in 1979 with the latest version of the Opel Kadett, followed in 1981 by new Ascona (which retained the Vauxhall Cavalier name for the British market). In 1982 it opened a new plant Zaragoza, Spain, to produce the new Opel Corsa supermini; this car was later imported to Britain as the Vauxhall Nova. Production of the Kadett/Astra and Ascona/Cavalier models was divided between factories in Germany, Belgium, Spain and Britain. The Vauxhall Carlton was briefly built in Britain from its 1978 launch,"
"hatchback body styles. The Chevrolet Chevette was first launched by General Motors (Brazil) in 1973 as a two-door sedan. A four-door sedan followed in April 1978, and then a three-door hatchback was added in November 1979. The hatchback had unique bodywork for Latin America, longer than the European Kadett City and with a notch at the base à la the period Ford Escort. A three-door station wagon version, called the ""Marajó"" in Brazil, was added in September 1980, as was a sporting version of the hatchback called the 1.6 SR (with a mere four more horsepower, achieved by a somewhat"
"the front, which was a first for this class of car in the French market. The Renault 14 may have been one of the first front-wheel drive hatchbacks of its size to be produced in Europe, but within four years of its launch it was facing fierce competition from a growing number of similar products from rival manufacturers, particularly the Ford Escort MK3, Opel Kadett (Vauxhall Astra in the UK), Fiat Ritmo/Strada and Talbot Horizon. It was joined in the Renault range by the award-winning Renault 9 in 1981, the car which spawned the Renault 14's direct successor (the Renault"