Early Examples
In 1938, Citroën introduced the Traction Avant Commerciale initially with a two-piece tailgate and after 1954 with a one-piece top-hinged tailgate.
In 1946, DeSoto marketed the Suburban, a full-size sedan with a rear accessible door, and folding rear seats.
In 1949, Kaiser-Frazer introduced the Vagabond and Traveler hatchbacks. Although these were styled much like the typical 1940s sedan, they incorporated an innovative split rear tailgate, folding rear seats and no separate trunk.
In 1953, Aston Martin marketed the DB2 with a top-hinged rear tailgate, manufacturing 700 examples. Its successor, the 1958 DB Mark III also offered a folding rear seat. The 1954 AC Aceca and later Aceca-Bristol from AC Cars had a similar hatch tailgate, though only 320 were built.
Read more about this topic: Hatchback
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or examples:
“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)
“In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)