Tested: 2008 Hot-Hatchback Street Fight
From the Archive: It's street runts vs. smooth cruisers with the Dodge Caliber SRT4, Mazdaspeed 3, Subaru Impreza WRX, and Volvo C30 T5.
From the December 2007 issue of Car and Driver.
It seems like mere minutes since we were shocking and awing the 1578 residents of Bagdad, Arizona, with a similar assortment of giant-slaying subcompacts. However, since that test in May 2007, and identifying the Mazdaspeed 3 GT as our favorite little hooligan, the auto industry has birthed a few more turbocharged street runts.
Compacts Tested and Compared
These new torpedoes break down into two gangs, we discovered. The Sharks take reasonable compromise and trample it under stiff suspensions and fat rubber, flaring with eyeball candy and simmering with just-try-it styling. The Jets just play it cool, boy, with less pushy graphics and a lighter, quieter step to their sprints. Like the brawling punks of Bernstein and Sondheim's 1957 West Side Story, each gang has endearing qualities as well as social diseases.