Should you buy a hatchback or a sedan? Which type of car is right for you? Here’s what you need to think about before driving away.
Australians have been buying and selling over 1.15 million motor vehicles per year throughout the 2010s, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016) and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (2014). The hatchback has become the king of the road when it comes to popularity in the past decade.
Australia may be a big country but we still love our small cars. According to industry experts Drive and the FCAI, the Mazda3 was the top seller for two years in a row, and the Corolla, Holden, Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai all report their hatchback models (Cruze, Focus, Corolla, i30) out-selling the sedans that were our national cars in the 1990s and early 2000s (Commodore, Falcon, Camry, i40).
A hatchback is a small passenger car with a large boot. A hatchback’s roof doesn’t drop to meet the boot; instead, it has a rear door that opens upwards so you can reach the entire cargo area at once. Most hatchbacks let you fold down the rear seats when not in use, for even more storage space.
A sedan is a traditional model of passenger car where the roof slopes down to a boot that is separate from the passenger cabin. Sedans are named after the sedan chair, a throne that had a roof and four carrying poles attached, so that royalty could be carried about by their servants.
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Pros
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A station wagon looks like a big hatchback, with a much longer boot that usually has side windows for increased visibility. They often have more grunt power than the little hatch – usually equivalent to your average SUV or all-wheel-drive.
Many small wagons and big hatches fall into a hazy grey category called the crossover. Crossovers may be classed as either a hatch or a wagon by their manufacturer, but essentially they look and function the same.
So there you have it. When you need a small car, a hatchback or a sedan both have pros and cons. The choice is up to you.
Just one more thing before you visit your local dealer – make sure that if you need finance, you get a car loan that will get you up and running instead of slowing your budget down.
CANSTAR takes the hard work out of looking for a good value car loan for you by researching and rating all the products on the market in Australia. Just compare your options on our website and away you go.
