i have been thinking about this for awhile now. dont get me wrong i love the each and every fofo, but why is the hatchback so popular? i have a sedan and i love not haveing to move my seat forward for people to get in and out and you have so much more room in a sedan. what is there more aftermarket parts for the hatch or are parts cheaper or something? [dunno]

In my opinion I think it is just what people like. Some like the sedans and some like the hatches. I am biased to the hatches but there are some sedans that I would not mind driving. I dont think parts or prices are any different really.

i think the hatch is seen as a more sporty looking car. even the scooby sti went to a hatch. and us zx5's have the perk u speak of of not having to move the seats up...lol. and their is more usuable cargo room as well.

Not to point out the obvious, but the SVT wasnt available in Sedan form.[driving]

you can cram a lot of junk into the back of a hatch.

I personally think the hatch just looks hot. The sedans are more responsible. I am a 21 year old american male, I want nothing to do with responsible lol.

Hatch is more euro style and "sportier"
I wouldn't have one though.. I just like 4 doors even if the rear ones don't get used and I try to strive for the "traditional sedan" look (think old school lincoln town car)

ok well a hatch is like Phokus said very "euro" like. With the population of the world growing hatches are a nice change from the long sedans of yesteryear. Their easy to park, pretty fuel efficient and nice to look at. Plus hatches have more cargo room (on average) then normal sedans.

I like the versatility of the hatch. I had a '95 Escort GT hatch and the amount of stuff I put in there was great. So when I went looking for a new car it had to be a hatchback. I have a ZX5 which has the 4 doors of the sedan for easier access to the rear seats with the added ability to put large objects in the back that would never fit in/through the sedan trunk. Take out the rear seats and the passenger seat and there is lots of room to haul stuff (example: 63" long 6 drawer dresser). Between the Escort and the Focus some of the items hauled have been furniture, lumber, sonotubes, screendoor, extension ladder, lazy boy chair, crt televison set, BBQ, Lawnmower, rototiller, large (3'x4'x2') box, put together 6'x7'x8' shed, 9' tree....several other large items commonly found at Home Depot or Costco....

The Space, The Look, the Modifications, and Sound Capabilites (for a Car Audio guy like me thats a big one.)

why was there never a svt sedan? i think it would be a pretty good idea

why was there never a svt sedan? i think it would be a pretty good idea

No there was an ST Sedan in '05 to '07, the '06 and the '07 ST's had the Street Appearance Package (SAP) and looked hawt with a drop.

i see about 5 times as many sedans as i do hatches in my area. but i agree most of the modded cars on the forums and whatnot are hatches. i just think the hatch looks sportier. plus i dont really like 4 doors. lol never have

Smaller, looks better, better for cramming subs in the boot, colin mcrae drove one, the list goes on....

Even before I bought my ZX5, I could easily recognize Focus hatchbacks. At that time I was unaware a sedan version even existed.

The hatchback has a look to it that stands out. The sedan looks like any number of small sedans.....blah. Why Ford dropped the hatchback is a mystery to me, and a big mistake.

to me i see the focus hatch/svt probably the best looking hatchback out.
the other hatch i like is the mkiv r32.
i mean yeah you have your other hatchbacks like some of the rsx's but those arent 'true' hatchbacks in my eye.
i love my svt and i loved my zx3. no matter how much crap people give me.

Hatch's rule!

Sedans, not so much.....

And if you are using the rear seat for passengers, you're carrying too many people in your car.

For me it was the larger doors were the key when i bought mine, i originally wanted a Mazda protege5 or a focus wagon. But being 6'2 and 300lbs getting in and out of any of the 4 door focus' were a bitch.

But now i own a zx3 and a wagon, and have a zx5 in the driveway that my Dad drives. Next up will be a sedan tho! i love how they look when dropped and some subtle mods

To put it simply, a zx3 is an uncommon common car. Foci are everywhere, zx3's aren't. With both the 02 and the 07, I've had no shortage of people asking me "what kind of car is that?" respond with shock when I let them know that it's a focus. You don't get that with a focus sedan.

The zx3's have better side bolstering than the zx5, sedan, and wagons. The visibility in a zx3 is unbeatable. When I've driven focus sedans, I find the b-pillar, c-pillar, and d-pillar to limit my rear visibility.

IMHO - the focus sedan is nice and all, but there are better small sedans out there. Small hatches in the American market - well aside from buying a VW - your options are really limited (especially since ford stopped making the hatches), making the focus hatch one of the best out there. Versatility is amazing - I packed everything I owned and moved from Tampa, Fl to Pittsburgh, PA with room for a passenger in my old 02 zx3, have moved furniture, and brought home a 65" hdtv with my 07 zx3.

The handling is great, the stiffness of the body is amazing, and the small size makes living with it easier. Also, the zx3 looks unlike anything else out there (especially true with 00-04, less so with 05-07). It's the rear quarter view of the zx3 with those quirky tail lamps that made me fall in love with the looks of the focus when it came out in 2000.

I like the VW Golf/Rabbit - but the styling just isn't as great as the zx3. Though, I find the Jetta more attractive than a focus sedan.

I'm on my second zx3 right now, and if it weren't for the fact that I'm married and don't have a lot of space at home - I'd buy one or two more to tinker with. I know the ins and outs of the car, love the way it drives, love the way it looks, and it suits my needs in a way that no other car out there does.

i got the hatch because my sister has a 01 sedan and when i was in the market for a new car i tried to get my bike in the trunk, it was a pain in the ass... so i started looking at hatches... simple as that

I test drove three different ZX3's......... after finding different problems that ranged from higher-than-advertised price to finding a salvage certificate, to a combination of both, I couldn't give up on getting a focus, but the rest were just too expensive and I wanted a car. found a good cheap sedan, an it felt nice, though the whole car had a lot of cosmetic issues with it (lights burnt out, really dirty seats and pillars, crack in the bumper) I've fixed most of that stuff now (bumper still sucks, but it's better) odd thing I noticed was how much more solid the sedan felt (contrary to posted earlier lol) but maybe it was because of the choice of foci I test drove

so yeah, don't get me wrong, I was stuck on getting a focus hatch, but I got a sedan and I still love it [thumb]

I personally like hatches better! Can't really justify it right now but a lot of others have said things that made sense to me.

I guess it's all about personal preference. Love having my hatch because you can (on occassion) drive friends around. But you can also fold down the seats and lug around furniture and boxes.. I don't think the weight difference between hatchbacks and sedans is all that much but the look is night and day.

The saloon (sedan) Focus is in my opinion, god awful! The hatchback was the most popular car in the UK for many years and you can see why! The boot space is fantastic and when you put it into cargo mode... it's like having a van! Oh and the issue with putting seats forward... easily solved by getting a 5dr Hatch ;)

I just feel so sorry for you Americans who have to put up with that AWFUL rear bumper!

CMIW, but I think the sedan design was an afterthought designwise, spawned for the American market where hatchbacks have never had great popularity. I really hate the tacked on appearance of the first generation sedan tail lights. They have zero visual consistency with the awesome and at-the-time unprecedented headlights.

I have an 06 sedan and my mom got an 07 hatch, and personally, I prefer the sedan for the most part. Sure, I can't get tail lights without reverting back to the older-gen rear end, but I like having a trunk and four doors. Guess that stems from my experience with my first car... an 89 Lincoln Town Car... I also like the way my car looks with a spoiler, and I'm not too big a fan of spoilers on hatchbacks. The only thing I really like about the hatch is that there are far more customization options for it.

I see more sedans but I thick hatches look more sporty like the SVT.

my first car was an 89 pontiac sedan and i had a bad experience with that one. then it was a 2 door sunbird coupe. wasnt too bad but not too sporty either.
then i got the focus. i jumped ahead 15 or so years in tech and styling plus i can pick my car out from anywhere (besides a sea of hatches that are french blue) i think it has something to do with the way it was formed at the plant.
the body line moves up at an angle and the trunk curves down to meet it. it looks like its ready to pounce or bite at you,lol.