Subcompact car
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A subcompact car is an automobile in a North American vehicle size class, encompassing vehicles smaller than compact cars (usually not exceeding 165 inches in length). According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a passenger car is classified as subcompact if it has between 85 cubic feet (2,407 L) and 99 cu ft (2,803 L) of interior volume. Many contemporary subcompacts sold in North America fall into the supermini category (as defined by Euro NCAP) in Europe.
In North America, this type of car was first seen in the 1950s with the introduction of the Nash Metropolitan and a number of imported models, notably the Volkswagen Beetle and various small British cars. The subcompact did not see wide adoption until the 1970s with the introduction of the Chevrolet Vega, Ford Pinto and AMC Gremlin that were produced by American automakers in response to the growing popularity of small imported cars especially from Volkswagen, Nissan-Datsun, and Toyota. Later The Chevrolet Chevette and Ford Festiva were offered which were based on smaller European designs.
As of 2009[update], numerous models of subcompacts are sold, including the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, Scion xD, Chevrolet Aveo, Kia Rio, and Hyundai Accent.
