An econosport is a sport-performance version of a small economy car. It has also been referred to as a "sport compact" and, if the car in question has a hatchback design, a "Hot hatch."
Volkswagen is credited with inventing the market segment with the Volkswagen Golf GTI, a high-performance version of its bread-and-butter Golf model. The GTI was introduced in Europe in 1976 and offered the practicality and versatility of a small hatchback design with room for four adults, combined with the high performance of a sport model. It was an isntant success in Europe, leading Peugeot, Fiat, Opel, Ford, and Renault, among others, to develop competing models.
In the United States and Canada, the typical "econosport" of 1970s and early 1980s was merely an economy car with cosmetic applications designed to make the car look sporty; the car's mechanicals were no different from a base model. When Volkswagen introduced the Rabbit (the North American name for the original Golf) GTI in the fall of 1982, however, Detroit quickly set about giving VW real competition; by the mid-eighties, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Dodge, and Chrysler-Plymouth all offered econosports of some kind. The Japanese soon offered similar models as well.
The 1990s saw a change in the econosport market, as many small-car buyers in North America opted for trunked cars rather than hatchbacks. Again, VW led the pack; as early as 1984, it offered the Volkswagen Jetta GLI, a high-performance version of its popular four-door sedan. This model was absent during the nineties, but a Jetta GLX, with Volkswagen's innovative VR6 engine, was available. A Jetta GT became available later in the nineties as well. Chevrolet and Pontiac had long since dropped the hatchback models from their Cavalier and Sunbird lines, respectively, and concentrated on sport versions of the two-door sedans in each model line. When a second-generation Chevrolet Cavalier and an all-new Pontiac Sunfire were introduced for the 1994 model year, Pontiac put a greater emphasis on sportiness in its 2-door Sunfire than Chevrolet did with its Cavalier counterpart. Ford still offered an Escort model, and its sport version was the Ford Escort ZX2; Chrysler's Neon, sold at Dodge and Chrysler-Plymouth dealers, briefly featured a two-door model with a sports package. The most visible econosports from the Asians were from Nissan - namely, the Nissan 200SX and Nissan 240SX coupes, complemented by a Sentra SE-R. The 240SX was available in notchback and hatchback form, but otherwise, in keeping with North American tastes in general and U.S. tastes in particular, these cars were all trunked models.
In the two thousand zeroes, econosports have been a smaller part of the larger U.S. car market, but they haven't entirely disappeared. Along with an all-new Jetta GLI, Volkswagen has introduced an all-new GTI hatchback that many believe recalls the spirit of the original. VW, however, appaears to be the only manufacturer committed to the "hot hatch" sector of the econosport market; after years of offering its Civic Si as a hatchback, Honda now sells the 2006 Civic Si in the U.S. in trunked form only. Still, the future for econosports in North America looks promising, as sporty cars that deliver economy and practicality may come to be seen as attractive qualities in an era of rising gasoline prices.