Toyota has been hatching hatchback cars, those with a top-hinged rear door instead of a trunk for years. These cars sometimes labeled a wagon, liftback, 3-door, or 5-door have been in our driveways usually as the ugly duckling for 25 years. They're making a comeback, though, and this time driven by a push for roomy, feature filled, fuel-efficient alternatives to larger crossovers or bigger cars.
My one experience owning a Toyota hatchback was purely involuntary in the beginning. From time to time beginning in the early 1970's as a teenager I've bought and sold older cars for fun and profit. About thirteen years ago I bought three older Toyota trades from the mid 1980's to clean-up and sell. Two were Camry models and the third was a Corolla Fx hatchback, blue/gray in color.
The Camry models sold faster than a speeding bullet but there was no interest for the Corolla hatchback. It was a somewhat ugly little car, not one of Toyota's best design moments. My kids said it looked like it should be in Mexico or Cuba. Never the less since nobody wanted it at the time I decided to keep it around as a spare car. I reasoned that it would be nice to have an extra car available when one of the others failed. Such a naive thought from Pollyanna got shattered quickly as soon as my kids and wife announced they wouldn't be "caught dead" in that car.
I began to drive that little Corolla Fx hatchback here and there and it didn't take long for me to realize that this car somehow had Favor with God. It always started, never failed, and consistently delivered 35 miles per gallon. I decided to have it detailed and discovered that it wasn't blue/gray after all but actually silver! I promptly named it The Silver Bullet. One time I left The Silver Bullet in a parking lot in another state for seven months. I meant to get back to get it but things kept getting in the way. When I finally made it back to retrieve it I wasn't even sure it would be there. My wife and kids were praying that it wouldn't be. But like I said, this little car had God's Favor and when I rounded the corner, there it sat, after seven months. I put the key in, pumped the gas pedal three times, it started right up and I drove it home. By now, all of these things led me to a spiritual moment at which time I announced, "The Silver Bullet Will Go When Nothing Else Will!" Besides all of that I discovered I could fold the rear seat down and haul stuff. I believe it was George Carlin that said it was good for us to be able to haul our stuff!
The Silver Bullet Will Go When Nothing Else Will! - That statement came full circle one night with a family emergency of sorts. My youngest son, fifteen at the time, was performing in a Christmas Choral Concert and had a lead solo song in the Concert. I was meeting my wife who was bringing my son to the Concert Hall. I arrived early driving The Silver Bullet that evening looking forward to the Concert. Fifteen minutes before the concert was to begin my wife called from home telling me the battery in her car was dead. I raced home in The Silver Bullet, got my wife and son, and headed back to the Concert hall as fast as we could go. As we raced up the long hill to the Concert Hall, there was nothing but silence inside the car. There I was in The Silver Bullet going as fast as I could go up the hill carrying two people both who had vowed they wouldn't be "caught dead" in that car. My wife rigidly crouched in the passenger seat next to me wouldn't even look at me. My young son, nearly six foot three dressed in a tuxedo was ever so carefully folded up in the back seat, knees almost touching the roof of the car. Taking all of this in and racing to the Concert as fast as I could, I at one point looked back toward my son when our eyes suddenly locked and out of his mouth came these words, "I know Dad, The Silver Bullet Will Go When Nothing Else Will!"...
In 2008 when gas prices reached $4.00 per gallon all of a sudden everybody wanted to buy The Silver Bullet. I got cash offers of over $2,000 for this car, a 21 year old Toyota Corolla Fx hatchback. How about that! I did sell it, to a friend who is a Toyota mechanic. He drives it to work everyday, 70 miles round trip.
So hatchbacks are making a comeback. As a matter of fact hatchback sales from all brands increased 63% from the 2006 through 2010 model years according to data from Ward's Automotive. By comparison, total cars sales fell 21% in the same period.
Toyota offers a variety of extremely reliable hatchbacks that include the Yaris, Matrix, Scion XB, Scion XD, and the TC coupe that is also a hatchback. The upcoming Scion IQ will feature a hatchback. Let's not forget that Prius is also a hatchback model. All of these cars are packed with features, fuel economy, and very rarely hit the used car market for years because original owners keep them around almost for ever. Toyota Hatchbacks Will Go When Nothing Else Will!
