The 10 Best Hot Hatches of the Past 10 Years

We've talked about how much we love hot hatchbacks a number of times before. The reasons are pretty obvious too: Hatches are small, and therefore efficient and easy to drive in a cramped city, yet packaged well enough to be genuinely practical, with seating for four or five and plenty of cargo space. The light weight and small size means that a small boost in power and a suspension tune can also turn this practical car into something fun, something special, sometimes even something race-worthy.

Many of these wonderful creatures are denied to us, and are only available abroad, but even here in 'Murica, land of the trunk, the numbers of hot hatches are increasing. These are The 10 Best Hot Hatches of the Past 10 Years.

Year: 2011-2012

There's something magical about an Audi with a turbocharged I5, and the 335 hp RS3 is certainly no exception. Think of it as a fancy, comfortable, German Lancer EVO and you won't be far off the mark.

Year: 2010

Ford had to work some miracles to keep the 345 hp Focus RS500 from simply torque-steering into every tree in the world. That work was done, and the EU was treated to a beast of a car as a result.

Year: 2008-Present

The VW GTI is a great hot hatch, but from a stylistic point of view, it leaves a little (or a lot) to be desired. The third-generation Scirocco is the fix to that problem, giving the beloved mechanics of the GTI a sexy new body. It's like dropping Einstein's brain in Marilyn Monroe's body.

Year: 2012-2013

We'd wager that a lot of people in America turned away from buying the BMW M135i on account of it just not having useful rear seats. In the EU, people were enjoying a powerful and precise RWD hatchback that was also called the BMW M135i. All the speed, but with none of the sacrifices... well, it was an ugly little blob, but we'll forgive it.

Year: 2011-Present

After years of looking over at Ford's fun hatchbacks in the UK—like the previously mentioned RS500—and being jealous, Ford finally decided to grant its own country access to its cool cars. We're very happy about it too, since the Fiesta ST is easily one of the most gratifying to drive affordable cars in the world right now.

Year: 2013-Present

AMG stepped away from its usual formula quite a bit by making a small, FWD-based hatchback with a 2.0L I4. The FWD was upgraded to an AWD system, and the sheer amount of boost on that 2.0L pushed it up to 355 hp, a world record for a production car. Here we can only opt to buy this car as a tiny sedan, which is a shame.

Year: 2010

Yeah, we love all Rex STIs, but they are just a bit sloppy (except the new one, but it's not a hatchback). For one brief shining moment in 2010, Subaru turned the STI from something great into something fantastic. The company got rid of a bunch of crap nobody cared about (like the six-disc CD changer) to shave off weight and tightened up the suspension. The result was a razor-sharp STI that was even a few grand cheaper than the regular STI.

Year: 2004-Present

The Megane RS 275 Trophy-R just set a FWD Nurburgring lap record at 7 minutes and 54.36 seconds. That's right—this is a sleek front driver that can lap the 'Ring in under eight minutes. We're impressed.

Year: 2008-Present

No, it's not fast. It does, however, feel very fast, and sound about as fast as a Ferrari 458. The result is a car that is just straight-up fun to drive. For once we, in America, actually get the best version too. Our engine is more powerful and has a better torque curve than the Euro equivalents.

Year: Future

No, it's not out yet, so we can't provide a definitive word on the Golf R 400, but the idea of a 400 hp, AWD super-Golf is fantastic. It's not as fantastic as a 400 hp AWD Scirocco would have been, but we've already ranted on that topic.