Auto News 5

Once the hero of the downsizing era, the hatchback had its heyday in the '70s and '80s, when gas prices spiked. As Americans rushed into small cars -- most for the first time ever -- hatchbacks allowed them to still bring along lots of stuff. But it was their very success back then, in cars like the Ford Pinto, the Datsun B210, the Plymouth Horizon, the Chevy Monza, and dozens of others, that today makes the body style an unhappy reminder of cheap economy cars past.