Three-door hatchbacks were quite popular in the 1990s and early 2000s, but now it seems that customers are much more interested in more practical vehicles. The all-new fourth generation Ford Focus, for example, won't be offered with less than five doors, and apparently, SEAT will follow suit with its Leon model.
According to a new report from Autocar, the Martorell-based (Catalonia, Spain) automaker is ditching the three-door Leon, known in some markets as the Leon SC, due to the extremely low customer demand. The three-door Mii, the automaker's smallest vehicle on sale today, has also been canceled due to slow sales. SEAT is also not offering a three-door version of the latest generation Ibiza.
Volkswagen's analogue to the Mii, the Up!, is also not available with three doors, and the only Volkswagen Group's model of that size with just three doors, the Skoda Citigo, is nearing the end of its production. Aside from the Citigo, VAG has only two other three-door hatchbacks. These are the current generation Volkswagen Golf and Audi A3, but both are expected to be five-door-only models in their next generations.
In the last two years, Volkswagen has also ended sales of the three-door Polo and Scirocco, while the retro-inspired Beetle is not planned for a new generation. It's also safe to assume the automaker won't be developing a three-door electric vehicle anytime soon.
Sales of three-door cars from all segments, except for the sports coupes, are continuously declining. Land Rover, for example, axed the three-door body style of the Range Rover Evoque, but, weirdly, kept the niche Evoque convertible on sale. Earlier this year, Opel decided to drop the three-door Astra GTC from its portfolio, while Peugeot canceled the three-door 208 hatch. In 2016, Mini axed the crossover-ish Paceman hatch.
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