Overrated: Every mega-hatch ever built

Mega-hatches. On the surface they should appeal to a Neanderthal like me perhaps more than any other breed of car. They are fast (ridiculously so on some roads, surely a quality to still relish) they are furious in the way they sound and respond (ditto) yet they don’t occupy much space on said roads and are, as a result, proper weapons cross-country. Or around just about any track.

So why do I have such a problem with them? To avoid any confusion here, I’m talking specifically about cars such as the Mercedes-AMG A45 S and the latest Audi RS3, although inevitably others will be caught in the crossfire of this exchange.

It depends where you draw the line between excellence and excess. And it’s a thin line that meanders around the inner machinations of the mind, occasionally alighting in a different place from one day to the next. Even during the course of a single journey. But stick with me for a bit and I’ll try to explain why I believe the mega-hatch deserves no place on our roads. I’ll even try to explain why I think it has dented the reputation of the legitimate hot hatch by its mere existence.