Rare Body Styles of Mundane Cars: Part 2!

"Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available" (whoistheleader2) 01/28/2020 at 10:32 • Filed to: Rare Body Styles of Mundane Cars

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Inspired by my post on the short lived Altima Coupe, I noticed something.

As the 90s waned and the 2000s bloomed, cars were getting more and more expensive to build. Fewer and fewer cars were offered in multiple body styles because they cost more to design, build, and certify for the road. The last of the body on frame passenger cars were also dying off, soon to be replaced with unibody sedans and SUVs, which were more difficult to modify.

As a result, fewer manufacturers built lower volume body variants, even as people shifted towards the extreme practicality of SUVs. That era produced quite a few forgotten body variants of normal cars, some of which will be listed here. Thanks to the comments section, who suggested some of these.

Its unnatural habitat

Envoy XUV

Thank you, Ash78, for suggesting one of the strangest of all. Everyone is familiar with the incredible utility of the Chevy Avalanche, but one more vehicle got the treatment; that vehicle is the GMC Envoy.It had a retractable roof and a tailgate that folded/swung for maximum ease loading bulky objects that ordinarily wouldn’t fit. These never sold that well, and are pretty thin on the ground now.

Elantra Coupe

Thank you to Punkgoose to beating me to it. This two model year only vehicle ran from 2013 to 2014, which Hyundai seemingly forgot to tell anyone about, or even build any for that matter. I have only ever seen one (1) in the wild, and they are so dramatically smaller than their sedan counterparts I can’t imagine I missed many. Merely viewing this vehicle in person is known to cause anger, distension, hushed deliberations, and eventually revolution and war. The US employed this tactic back in 2018 when it drove a fleet of these through [recacted] and later dropped pictures of the Elantra Coupe on [redacted], leaving chaos and confusion in its wake.

(Mitsubishi) G4 Sedan

Based on the Mirage, this woeful pile is proof once again some cars are only good as hatchbacks. Hatchback Mirages far outsell G4s in a twist almost unheard of in the US. These have such a weird tiny trunk and thin rear wheels that I laugh out loud when I see one. The Versa sedan is similarly unfortunate, but most Americans still bought the sedan for the previous generation where the Versa Note Hatchback was available. Another rare body style of a normal woeful car.

Mazda Mazda6 Hatchback Sedan

Thank you Feather-Throttle-Not-Hair for reminding me of this. Virtually indistinguishable from the sedan, the first generation Mazda Mazda6 offered a stealthy hatchback version. I cannot say whether this or the rather attractive wagon was rarer, but both are uncommon sights. I simply do not understand why they made a traditional sedan body style to begin with when they already developed a much more practical and almost identical alternative. I also find it funny how the rear wing remains constant, which is a fun way to tell a V6 apart from an I4.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 10:45

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I don’t get why hatchback sedans are so uncommon here. They are way more practical. It’s actually one of the reasons the Kia Stinger is at the top of my next car list.

I mean look at this , nearly as practical as a wagon with the looks of a sedan (which is apparently what Americans want)

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 10:49

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Don’t know if these got posted before, but a few favorites of mine:

Co lorado ZQ8 - A factory lowering and handling package with sweet wheels.....for the colorado! While not a true “body” difference, it is odd that it exists and functionally changes the truck’s characteristics

To yota Tundra Flareside - I’m just as confused and concerned as you. But you could even get it as the TRD edition!

Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback - Not gonna lie, I dig this one.

Isuzu Rodeo convertible - WHen you want a wrangler, but only have blazer money.

Mercedes G63 AMG convertible - When you want a wrangler but have “fuck you” money

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 01/28/2020 at 10:52

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god i wanted a lancer sportback ralliart so badly in high school lol

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 10:55

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The Skoda Superb Mk2 ‘twindoor’ had a dual tailgate.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 11:00

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The best reason to have a trunk’ed sedan is if there is additional trunk space behind the “normal cutoff” of where the hatch would operate on a hatch version, so that you can still have a reasonably tight passenger compartment to heat and condition - but *more* space, or if the car is so low-profile that a hatch is futile.

If you start with the old “sedans” having been merely the family car variants with rear baggage space you can watch the development of the modern trunk in real time (using Chevrolet as the example marque):

As you can see, the progression was extremely logical from tall cars with add-on boxes and seats at the rear perimeter of the body to lower and more sleek cars with longer and lower profiles and more and longer space behind the rear seats stretching out - until we reached the popular sedan format and trunk.

What we’re seeing now in the favoring of hatch styles over sedans is just reversing this - vehicles getting taller, vehicles having more vertical space, vehicles needing less longitudinal space for the same total cube , and anybody that wants longitudinal space buys a truck as a “safety valve” on the market. With customers no longer prioritizing the feeling of more security from a long trunk and the visual/conditioning advantages of a short greenhouse (modern cars address things differently and are taller, so...), and the styling favor having passed, the only remaining reason is the space, which is negated by taller profiles in most cases.

All this is a very long-winded way to say that the 6 Hatchback Sedan was on a platform that hadn’t yet gotten sufficiently tall to make being a sedan pointless, but it’s really marginal. It should have offered a bigly longer trunk to have a reason to exist... but then nobody would have bought it. It arguably only exists because there still existed customer taste for sedans to a degree.

Also, your first paragraph is full of “less” where “fewer” is correct, but that’s nitpicking.

Roundbadge > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 11:02

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A friend of mine bought a used Envoy XUV. He was telling me how awesome it was, and like a year and a half later he had dropped it like a bad habit.  He fell ass-backwards into some money and, needing a non-shit vehicle, he traded it on an Acura SUV of some sort.  Maybe 2 years later, that one was gone too.  It was a weird period for him.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 11:06

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I don’t know many of the deets, but one for the list might be the previous gen (2005-2008) F-150 with a flare side bed.

I’ve seen very, very few in person.

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 11:08

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Saw one of those Envoys just last night on my commute, wanted to snap a pic but light turned green.

Envoy in general was never something I paid any regard to, but cool to see those things every so often!

Come to think of it, also saw a minty fresh red Mazda 6 hatch like that at Costco on Sunday as well. 

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > Svend 01/28/2020 at 11:24

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The BMW 5 series GT does something similar, just less good.

CalzoneGolem > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 11:24

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My SIL had an X UV. It’s really easy to break into. Which was fortunate when she left it running in the driveway with her baby in the back and the doors locked.

Milky > Svend 01/28/2020 at 11:26

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BMW took a few   years to make it worse.

Svend > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/28/2020 at 11:43

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Yep, inter estingly, BMW pays rights to Skoda for that tailgate. 

Svend > Milky 01/28/2020 at 11:44

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In my reply to TheTurbochargedSquirrel, I mention that BMW pay rights to Skoda for this. 

Milky > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 01/28/2020 at 11:48

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You beat me, I am ashamed.  

Ash78, voting early and often > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 11:54

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That Mazda6 was way ahead of its time, at least for the US...seems like most of the new 4-door “ coupes” like A5, Stinger, or BMW Gran Coupe are doing the same basic thing.

I have no idea why they didn’t just make that the sedan. Would have been a nice hedge against future trends.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 01/28/2020 at 14:03

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I already featured the Tundra on the previous version and came this close to including the sportback (and IS300 equivalent ). We are on the same page today.

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/rare-body-styles-of-mundane-cars-1841240365

The two door versions of the rodeo (wow) and the Rav4 are also pretty interesting but I have never seen a G63 two door in person.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 01/28/2020 at 14:07

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I do not take offense to spelling corrections (but bigly longer, really? You are one to talk. ) . This is interesting to see the progression all at once, and the 6 certaintl y meets the requirement of a low body that allows trunks to be practical, but the interior volume was perfecly fine and I really wouldn’t want it to be much larger (1st hand).

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Ash78, voting early and often 01/28/2020 at 14:10

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One thing that wasn’t advanced about them was their crap interior and cheap feel (poor dampening, missing “luxuries” like a trunk or glovebox light) that made it clear they were a budget sport sedan.

Based on my brother’s experience with a V6 6 sedan, the hatch would have been so much better.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 01/28/2020 at 14:11

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I actually think that last flareside was one of the best executed modern interpretations. No doubt Toyota had the worst.

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/rare-body-styles-of-mundane-cars-1841240365

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Milky 01/28/2020 at 14:16

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That non-hatch way looks like this to me

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 14:16

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I forgot you’d mentioned this in passing in the last list with the Tundra. The biggest problem with the Tundra’s rear is that it’s from the same school as the PT Cruiser (and nearly a carbon copy) - retro-gauche. I like ‘40s sedan style partially-floating streamline fenders, but the proportions are awkward and the light is just not quite right.

The Ford is the kind of gawky I’m not sure will age well, but is at lea st harmonious with the semi-flat-surface “razor” styling on the rest of the truck.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/28/2020 at 15:37

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HHR

SS

PANEL VAN

When you absolutely, positively, need to deliver something NOW but also AT A REASONABLE COST

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 01/28/2020 at 15:58

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Good one. I haven't seen one in quite a while.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 01/30/2020 at 12:22

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The Elantra Coupe is a really good looking car. One lives near me, or used to, at least. That and the Focus Coupe are my main “hey wait a second that exists” cars. Double takes, every time I see one. 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker 01/30/2020 at 14:22

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The Focus and Elantra coupes both have good proportions, but they are just so rare. I think I’ve seen only 1 Elantra coupe ever.