Top Ten Forgotten Hatchbacks
May 11, 2009
- Chevy Corsica Hatchback
- By all accounts, the Chevy Corsica was never a very good car. In fact, it was downright horrible. General Motors first began selling the Corsica back in 1987, and somehow the nameplate lived on all the way until 1996. For a few short years between 1989 and 1991, The General offered the unloved Corsica in a five-door hatchback bodystyle, which at least made the car a bit more useful.
One of our fondest childhood memories of the Corsica and its coupe-shaped sibling, the Beretta, is a sign that we remember from a local automatic car wash prohibiting just these cars from entering its facility. It seems the paint quality was so bad on these twins that the high-pressure spray was sufficient to send it flying in multi-colored chunks. Click above to see our next forgotten hatchback.
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- Chevy Corsica Hatchback
- By all accounts, the Chevy Corsica was never a very good car. In fact, it was downright horrible. General Motors first began selling the Corsica back in 1987, and somehow the nameplate lived on all the way until 1996. For a few short years between 1989 and 1991, The General offered the unloved Corsica in a five-door hatchback bodystyle, which at least made the car a bit more useful.
One of our fondest childhood memories of the Corsica and its coupe-shaped sibling, the Beretta, is a sign that we remember from a local automatic car wash prohibiting just these cars from entering its facility. It seems the paint quality was so bad on these twins that the high-pressure spray was sufficient to send it flying in multi-colored chunks. Click above to see our next forgotten hatchback.
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- Fiat Strada
- In most parts of the world, the Fiat Strada is best known as a small pickup truck. Here in the United States, Fiat first applied the name to a small hatchback that was otherwise called the Ritmo. Underneath the Strada's interesting Bertone-designed bodywork was the chassis and running gear from the plebeian Fiat 128, which meant the car wasn't all that entertaining to drive in standard guise. In any case, Fiat stopped selling the Strada hatchback in the United States at the end of 1982. Click above to move along.
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- Mitsubishi Cordia
- Joining the aforementioned Ford EXP and Mercury LN7 in 1982 was the Mitsubishi Cordia, a car who's name was reportedly a strange amalgam of the words cordite (a mineral) and diamond. The front- or all-wheel-drive Cordia was available with a base 1.4-liter engine with 68 galloping ponies, a larger 1.6-liter that put out 74 horsepower and a high-output turbocharged version of the larger 1.6-liter engine that offered up an impressive-for-the-time 112 horsepower. By the time 1985 rolled around, the Japanese automaker had introduced a new 1.8-liter engine that was again offered in turbocharged form with 135 horsepower. The fun lasted all the way until 1988 when the spunky little Cordia was dropped from Mitsubishi's U.S. lineup.
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- Oldsmobile Firenza
- Back in the early-to-mid '80s, every division under the General Motors umbrella was bestowed with its very own J-body subcompact. Oldsmobile was no different, and it's version was known as the Firenza. Until 1987, the Firenza was available with a hatchback bodystyle, which was generally marketed as the sportiest version of what was generally a completely unsporty car. Throughout the course of its life, the Firenza was available with nearly every four-cylinder engine GM had available, but the 2.8-liter 60-degree OHV V6 engine was also offered with as much as 130 horsepower underhood. The basic J-body would go on to live all the way until 2005 when the final Chevy Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire rolled down the assembly line. Click above to see another '80s hatchback from another (soon-to-be) expired GM nameplate.
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- Renault Encore
- Back in the mid-'80s, AMC was on the ropes and didn't have the development cash to bolster its aging line of rear-wheel-drive coupes, sedans and wagons. Enter Renault, which offered up its Alliance subcompact. Starting in 1984, the car was also available as a hatchback known as the Encore.
Initial sales were strong after the Alliance and Encore took home major awards from both Car and Driver and Motor Trend. A few years later, however, it became obvious that the Encore was not a very well-built machine and its reliability was, to put it mildly, horrible. Earlier this year, Car and Driver went so far as to apologize for naming the unloved Renault to its 1983 10 Best Cars list. Click above to continue.
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- Subaru GL
- No list of obscure hatchbacks from the '80s would be complete without a mention of Subaru's interesting line of vehicles from the era. Before there was an Impreza, there was the Leone, which was a replacement for the front-wheel-drive 1000 series. This is one of the models that popularized Subaru's use of the horizontally-opposed "boxer" engine and all-wheel drive.
For whatever reason, Subaru referred to this line of vehicles in the '80s only by its two-letter trim level designation, which included the GL-10 hatchback shown here. Available equipped with four-wheel drive and a turbocharged 1.8-liter engine producing 115 horsepower, the little GL was an interesting model that lasted until 1990 when Subaru replaced the line with the re-named Loyale sedan and wagon.
