QOTD: What’s The Best-Looking Hot Hatch Of All Time?

To me, the answer to this question, is crystal clear; the best-looking hot hatch of all time is a white 2014 Ford Fiesta ST with a little bit of curb rash on the front driver-side wheel and it’s only a coincidence that’s the car I own.

It’s a lovely little apostrophe of a car that not only looks like the punctuation mark but acts like it in traffic. With just enough visual enhancements over the regular Fiesta to look special, but not so many enhancements that it writes checks it can’t cash, it’s a subtle little car that leaves the unnecessary unwritten and makes me feel cooler in the process.

But really, the world of hot hatches is full of spectacular-looking designs. There’s the brutalism of the Lancia Delta Integrale, the French quirkiness of the Renault 5 Turbo, and the classic good looks of the Mk1 Golf GTI. In many ways, hot hatches got it right immediately, and the cars in the late ’70s and ’80s still look great today and will no doubt get a lot of love in the comments.

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Having become aware of cars in the early 2000s, though, I’ll always have a soft spot for that generation of hot hatches. The Golf R32 is a classic in my eyes, as is the Renault Clio V6. And who could forget the first Focus RS? Although they don’t carry quite the same status as those early hot hatches, I suspect that the market’s current fervor for modern classics will see their values climb ever higher.

I would argue, too, that, although we still talk about ’80s design trends, the ideas set in the early aughts carry more influence today than those squared-off designs. A look at the Focus RS shows widened wheel arches that were better incorporated into the design of the vehicle than the delightful unsubtlety of box flares. The lowered side sills and big wheels, also continue to hold a grip on us today, though electric vehicles and their battery packs may be changing that.

But what do you think? Which hot hatch is the best-looking hot hatch of all time? And for extra credit, can the new hotness, the spicy crossover, ever look as good as a hot hatch?