Saloon car vs hatchback

Are saloons more practical than hatchbacks? What is a hatchback car? A saloon is a three-box design and a hatchback is a two-box design.

A saloon ’s boot lid is attached below the rear window and a hatchback ’s is attached at the roof. The hatchback ’s boot tends to be more practical for carrying things compared to a similarly-sized saloon car. Saloon boots tend to have narrower, more restrictive openings.

This means it can be hard to reach items at the very back. By contrast, a hatchback boot is a more flexible space. As a family car , the saloon makes a lot of sense.

For a start, there’s more bootspace – 4litres compared to 3in the hatch. In fact, the hatch is hardly best in class, and definitely lacking behind rivals like the Ford Focus or the Volkswagen Golf. Of course, whether this is good for you depends on how you’re planning to use it. The saloon has slightly less rear headroom than the hatch but significantly more than the CLA, because of the shape of its roof.

With the rear seats up, the saloon has the bigger boot: 4litres. Saloons are often described as ‘three-box’ cars – meaning they have an engine bay (box 1), a cabin (box 2) and a separate boot (box 3), compared to a hatchback ’s two boxes. Models range from the Mercedes C-Class and Audi Acompact executive saloons , to full-size luxury saloons , such as the Mercedes S-Class. Saloon cars are generally less practical than hatchbacks because the boot opening is usually small: the boot lid opens upwards but the rear screen stays in place. With a large tailgate opening, estates are always more practical than a booted saloon derivative, but compared to a hatchback the differences are less clear cut.

Most hatchbacks have a more sloping tail design than their estate equivalents, meaning the tailgate – and consequently the opening – are often larger, making it easier to manoeuvre cargo into the boot area. In a mid-sized four-door saloon or, indee estate car. So, it’s certainly powerful, but there are a few small niggles to report of the ES, too. Despite switching to air.

Which do you favour? The saloon sits on the longer of the two Corolla wheelbases, so it should offer the same slightly larger rear cabin as the Touring Sports estate. It’s the same price as the hatchback, to the penny,. The Civic Saloon only costs a few hundred pounds more than the hatchback , so like that car , prices are reasonably achievable without being particularly cheap. Importantly, prices are bang-on with those of its only direct rival - the Mazda Fastback – so from that point of view, prices are competitive.

In general hatchbacks are uglier cars (in fact most hatchbacks are ugly cars). Hatchback cars are the ones with the fifth door in the back. Some are the lift up types and some are the swing out types.

In British English, a car of this configuration is called a saloon. An equivalent term for Sports sedan in the United Kingdom is super saloon. The latest Prius is an easy car to live with, too, thanks to a pleasantly large boot and the quiet motoring you’d expect from such a car. Just a firm ride and limited rear passenger space count.

The only meaningful difference the plug-in hybrid offers, besides a socket via which to plug it in, is a bigger drive battery (kWh vs ) – so there’s no extra electric performance.