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(Enlarge photo)
Three cars enter. One car leaves. The winner gets the recognition and fame of being first in an Edmunds.com comparison test. Guest appearances on Leno are sure to follow.
(Photo by Scott Jacobs)
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Road Test: Comparison Test
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Load Up and Move Out2002 Sport Hatchbacks Comparison Test
Load Up and Move Out
By
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor
Date posted: 04-18-2002
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.
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