What is a hot hatch....
- Thread starter Conanius
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Busted
The VI is very refined, but it's also an absolute hoot to drive when you push it. Best of bost worlds, without being boring.
Soldato
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- 17 Sep 2007
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- West Yorkshire / Market Bosworth
Does this mean my A1 is a hot, warm or lukewarm hatch?
Neither, I see my car as a hot hatch!
Fast and not a family car.
This thread has had me tickled while sitting in my Red Focus ST that is definitely a hot hatch cause it's only ever had me and a passenger in it
Mines a hot hatch 360 days a year, then I use it to take 3 of my mates to Download Festival, then it becomes a family car for those 5 days
Soldato
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- 11,117
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- West Yorkshire / Market Bosworth
But surely if a lupo or a polo is classed a warm hatch then surely the A1 would be the same. Or am I missing the fact that it is a lolskoda?
Granted I don't have a huge amount of experience with them, but I found they were very boring to drive with stability control enabled and with TCS forced off there was some pretty nasty oversteer that would kick in seemingly almost out the blue if you drove agressively.
I saw three people in a 458 Italia last week. It's practically a van!Its a family car. I saw 5 in one.
(Seriously, a woman was lying across the drive and passenger)
Can't say I've noticed the oversteer, but then perhaps I haven't driven it hard enough.
But it's not mine, so I don't want to end up in a hedge
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Does this mean my A1 is a hot, warm or lukewarm hatch?
Warm because there is a hotter version of the A1
See my earlier Cooper vs Cooper S and Cupra vs Cupra R post
The Mk4 GTI was a warm hatch in the sense it had the 4motion and R32 above it (and V5 perhaps), both of which were 'hotter' and had styling parts etc. visible exhausts which the standard GTI didn't get.
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Surprised no one has really mentioned the fact that a defining characteristic of a hot hatch is having proper wheel drive 
Ergo the focus st isnt a hot hatch because the RS exists??
Warm because there is a hotter version of the A1
See my earlier Cooper vs Cooper S and Cupra vs Cupra R post
The Mk4 GTI was a warm hatch in the sense it had the 4motion and R32 above it (and V5 perhaps), both of which were 'hotter' and had styling parts etc. visible exhausts which the standard GTI didn't get.
Ergo the focus st isnt a hot hatch because the RS exists??
This problem comes up a lot on internet forums, the quick answer is that a car can be both a coupe and a hatchback (i.e Toyota Supra) because they are not exclusive terms.
Seriously though guys theres way too much over thinking going into this, "hot hatch" is just a term made up by British car mags in the 80's to try and set a class difference when describing cars like the Golf and the Golf GTi, since then extra terms have been added like "warm hatch" and "luke warm hatch" but their all just small hatchbacks with obvious power differences.
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