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Hot Hatch Saga


desertdude

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Sorry to say outside of Europe no one really gives two hoots about hatchbacks, and if France's only claim to fame are a few outdated hatchbacks no wonder globally they have been left behind or more like they were never really in thr global race in the first place.

Maybe time to tap into the Luxury Sedan and SUV. Wait I think they did try the Luxury Sedan segment but failed. 

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3 hours ago, desertdude said:

Sorry to say outside of Europe no one really gives two hoots about hatchbacks, and if France's only claim to fame are a few outdated hatchbacks no wonder globally they have been left behind or more like they were never really in thr global race in the first place.

Maybe time to tap into the Luxury Sedan and SUV. Wait I think they did try the Luxury Sedan segment but failed. 

I disagree that no one outside Europe gives two hoots about hatchbacks. UAE is full of hatchbacks but it's all small engined, generic Jap crap.

What I would agree with is that no one outside Europe gives two hoots about hot hatchbacks. And the simple reason for this is the price of petrol. A liter of petrol in UAE is 2.20-2.30. Go to Europe, a liter of petrol will cost you maybe 7-8 dhs. This is why these cars are popular in Europe. Light, fast, economical and fun to drive. Europeans come here and realize they can run a Mustang or Camaro and do burnouts and donuts for what it costs to run a Citroen Saxo VTS or a Peugeot 106 GTi at home. Then there's the lack of dealer support. Honestly, French car dealers here suck. If you have to wait 2 weeks for a part, then you tell all your friends, that's the dealers reputation ruined. All because they wanted to save money by putting parts on back order rather than just keep some stock. 

Peugeot have built some fantastic luxury sedans, the 607 for example. The reason cars like this never took off here is because people are brainwashed into thinking if it ain't jap, it's crap, so these cars don't even come onto their radar. Oh that's nice, but I'll buy the Camry, my friend says it's good. Look at the 406 coupe. Thing of beauty, designed by pininfarina, one of the worlds premier car designers. All over Europe. But I haven't seen a single one here.

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I agree Barry on fuel cost and size of engines we can afford here are remarkable. Last night I drove with my visiting school friend from Delhi and when I floor the pedal he was like which version RR is this? Haven't seen this one in India, as they only get 2.0 and 3.0 liter Diesel in India.

Secondly, I totally agree on the Jap-crap theory that everyone who wants to have zero problem car turn to Jap due to their ancient reputation, which has totally changed now and I see Jap and Koreans made out of plastic and metal+plastic sh!t of substance.

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Let's root for each other & watch each other grow.

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Sorry when I said hatchback I actually did mean hot hatch. I totally forgot thats what they are called, the sporty hatchbacks that is. Shows how much I care about them! Lol.

I do agree about the if it aint jap its crap attitude most people have and thats also evident here on the boards, when ever someone asks for a recommendation for a car, he is advised to go for jap crap.

But fortunately there are enough people here to negate that too, which is evident from the sheer numbers of non jap Luxury sedans and SUVs on the roads. Mercs, BMWs, Porsches, RRs etc etc and if you zip around New Dubai its not totally uncommon to spot a couple of super or even hypercars in a single outings. Something still very rare even in the west. Sometimes we take things for granted. Idunno how it is now but I remember many a times German tourists ogling Porsches and I was like what, these are made in your country! Yeah but we hardly ever see them on the road here.

A friend visiting from Canada remarked that Dubai has more Range Rovers than New York has yellow cans! Lol

So yeah money, cheap-ish petrol and and abundance of used cars for sale, no one here really gives a crap about hatchbacks.....oops I meant hot hatches ;)

 

P.S : The Peugeot not only did not take off here, it didnt take off anywhere, hence was discontinued.

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A big part of the problem is that hot hatches were never really marketed here. Let's just take one manufacturer for example. Honda. They built the Civic type r and the integra type r. Civic type r is world famous. The integra was considered one of the best handling fwd cars ever alongside the peugeot 306 gti-6. I've driven all 3 and was suitably impressed. But how many people in UAE know about these cars? And how many are on the second hand market? Sure, there's the odd Filipino guy who sticks type r stickers on his 1.8 civic but where are all the real hot cars? The brainwashed sheep are plenty to blame along with the manufacturer.

lets go retro into the mix, Toyota Corolla gti or ae86 as the kids call it now. Huge all over the world. But crap. 1.6, rwd, but had lsd. Massive in Ireland since they were released. Everyone knew they were fun because they were marketed properly. Now the kids in UAE want them because they have watched initial d anime and seen keeichi tsuchiya in YouTube videos. But they were never marketed here.

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My brother had an integra, the one with the four round headlights. Its not entirely the manufacturers fault, its the laws, anything fast or thought to be fast or with a turbo was much banned here. 

I remember the time when there were skylines on the road (Im talking early 80s), supras and celicas here but then everything got clamped down. Even today you pay almost double in insurance for a coupe because its considered a "sports cars" 

So a lot of factors contributed to this. Plus tiny hatches really arnt for this place, with big open straight roads all over the place, and specially when for lesser money you can get big V8s 

The sad fact is a 2000  V8 mustang is cheaper or the same price as a similar year Corolla. So what would you get between the two.

Only die hard fans are into hot hatches here as they really dont make mucb sense here.

Alrhough having said that I wouldnt mind having a fully loaded 1990 prelude, integra and civic. Purely for nostalgic value though. 1st two my brothers owned and my first car that I bought with my own money was a fully loaded one owner 4dr Civic sedan.

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Oii when did this topic get split into two! Anyways I replied in the original thread and to add to that yes barry you are right. Kids want them. Im in my early 40s I have no affection for them, even though I saw the real deal roaming the streets here back in the day.

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There is actually some people using hot hatch here. Focus ST group is pretty impresive.Other than that also i can say there are many Golf GTI and Golf R around the town. But when you compare with other type of car communities they are not much. 

 

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P.P.S : I actually had a golf once, and the only reason I liked it was because of its frugality with petrol. And these were the times when a gallon cost something like 3.75 a pop

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