There was a time when there were three basic types of vehicles on the market. And it was easy to tell them apart. Today, there are ten basic types of vehicles on the market. Of these, sedans and hatchbacks are included in the passenger car category. This means that they are not trucks, minivans, or SUVs. You’d expect that it would be easy to differentiate between a hatchback or a sedan, and in most cases it is. But you’d be surprised how often you could get the classification wrong. We’ll let you in on the details to figure out what’s what.
Sedans
The definition of sedans hasn’t changed since these types of cars were first defined as sedans. They’re passenger cars with four doors and a trunk. The trunk is a separate, enclosed space to hold cargo that is separated from the passenger compartment by the back of the rear seat and an immovable parcel tray below the rear window. A lot of sedans offer fold-down rear seatbacks that allow people to store longer objects that normally do not fit in the trunk. But when the seatback is in its normal upright position, the trunk is completely private, and its contents cannot be seen.
Hatchbacks
In the recent past, hatchbacks were cheap, boxy, small, economical cars. As opposed to the three-box sedans, these were two-box cars. The first box was the engine bay in the front, and the second box was the passenger and cargo area. These cars do not have a separate trunk like sedans. Hatchbacks could have two or four doors for passengers. They also have a one-piece flip-up tailgate, which is the hatch. And they have squared-off rear ends. Early examples of hatchbacks included the VW Golf, Renault Le Cars, Ford Escort, and Dodge Omni. Market demands meant that hatchbacks had to evolve. While some are still basic and cheap, many are sleek, stylish, and sporty. They’re well-built, have excellently designed and equipped interiors, and can be very expensive too. Examples of such new hatchbacks include the Mazda 3, Honda Civic Sport, VW Golf, Hyundai Elantra GT, and Toyota Corolla hatchback, Subaru Impreza hatchback and more.