Endangered Species: Hatchback

For quite a while now I've noted the total domination of sedans in the Auckland car population. It wasn't that long ago that everyone was saying the hatchback is the car of the future because of its balance of handling and versatility, closely followed by so-called "crossovers" which I interpret to mean vehicles like the Toyota Spacio. So where are they all?

Taking a closer look at the cars on our streets, I noticed a few things:

- there are lots of older hatchbacks, say early nineties

- a large proportion of the hatchbacks I see are non-Japanese makes - Euro or Aussie marques.

Try selecting hatchbacks in www.autoselect.co.nz! Not a single Jap is displayed.

- the styling of new hatchbacks often lacks any subtlety compared to the sedan of the same model.

Check out the Mazda3 hatch, it reminds me of those revolting overdesigned chrome stereo systems you get on one side of Noel Leemings, while the other side has the classy black minimalist stuff that doesn't cause involuntary retching. By contrast, the sedan looks fairly ordinary.

So what do my observations amount to?

Hypothesis #1: the Japanese don't like hatchbacks.

We import a colossal quantity from Japan and these end up constituting the bulk of our cars. And it appears that relatively few of these imports are hatchbacks.

But what about all those old hatchbacks? Aren't they imports too? My suspicion is that more Japanese cars were NZ built back then. Or it may be that Japanese tastes changed for some reason.

Hypothesis #2: ordinary people don't like hatchbacks.

The design and marketing of new hatchbacks suggests to me that auto makers realise they're popular with younger drivers who like to soup up. An essential requirement for this buyer type is the ability to fill the boot with stereo equipment, hence their predilection for hatchbacks.

However this demographic also feel the need to overcompensate with loud public displays of both vehicular and musical noise. This has alienated them from most of the rest of the driving public and it may well have turned the average driver off hatchbacks.

A corollary factor may be that hatchbacks have become highly desirable to the doof-doof contingent, making them theft targets which is also a turnoff to the motoring public.

Highly paid idiots crawl out of the Susan Wood-work

• Unsurprised at zero public sympathy for Susan Wood ($450k/year)
• Disgusted at the buck passing tactics perpetrated by her managers Bill Ralston (???k/year) and Ian Fraser (300k/6mths)
• Disgruntled at the failure of the TVNZ HR department to produce a watertight contract. Ultimate responsibility: Sidney Smith (???k/year)
• Consterned at observations about the general public's failure to accept massive salaries ventured by Leon Robinson (???k/year)
• And finally, cynically amused that Susan Wood had the opportunity to claim a penalty from TVNZ for failure to inform her that she should take independent advice about her contract, but this was missed by top lawyer Mai Chen (?????k/year)