The Renault Arkana range from starts from £25,300
It depends on the way you count it, but the C-segment market is Europe’s largest – think family-sized hatchbacks such as Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Peugeot 308, Renault Mégane, Hyundai i30; you get the drift. This segment occupies almost 40 per cent of all new-car sales and of that figure 55 per cent are SUV/crossovers – hatchbacks comprise only 28 per cent, estates nine per cent, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) 4.5 per cent and cabriolets one per cent.
So, before you trash the general move into high-riding, faux 4x4s, it’s worth recalling that you’re trashing the buying decisions of almost a quarter of the 15.5 million folk who bought a new car in Europe in 2019 – can the buying public be