Once upon a time ... the notchback
09/15/2023
If you're not hunched over looking at your cell phone at the streetcar stop, but rather observing your surroundings with attentive eyes, you'll quickly notice: only weird people around me! Of course, this doesn't refer so much to the cell phone gawkers waiting in the wings, but mainly to the cars whose rear ends pass you by at different angles of inclination, but always without a kink between the edge of the roof and the bumper.
Between all the compact cars, estate cars, vans and SUVs of all shapes and sizes, you suddenly ask yourself: where has the classic saloon actually gone? The body shape that once represented the standard for passenger transportation, when practical large hatchbacks were still reserved for less impressive commercial vehicles.
A hatchback with a large loading hatch may be more practical, but it is also significantly less elegant. Even an Opel Kadett B with its small rucksack looks a lot more stately than a modern Astra with a steep tailgate. In the past, notchback versions of small cars were even built specifically for the Spanish market because they looked more like a "real" car and were better suited for representation.
A sedan is still the most elegant way of wasting space. While a modern SUV still feigns usefulness with its hatchback, the traditional notchback is open about its lack of load volume: "I can afford to do without the storage space above the fender line." That's why the Opel Kapitän was never available as a caravan. Those who drove it didn't have transport problems - they had staff to deal with them.
