But that's the whole point of a hot hatch...fun!
Performance means f all especially when most hot hatch road drivers could be beaten by an experienced driver in a much slower car.
People buy based on looks and how it feels to drive not the 0.2s its quicker to 60 etc.
if performance doesn't matter why even buy any hot hatch, train to become an experienced driver and buy the slower car then, it will save you a fortune.!
Some people like to say performance doesn't matter, ( usually the ones who own cars with less of it, lol)but you cant generalise like that, yes you are correct for many people but you are wrong for many more. People have different priorities.
Performance always sells cars though, people read the numbers and it gets the interest raised, why else would every new hot hatch have more power than the last model, its a hot hatch war right now with bhp and ring times, helping to sell cars to thousands of enthusiasts all over the world. Nobody buys a hatch that laps the ring in 10 minutes anymore wether its fun or not.
Perhaps I'm unusual in the fact that performance does matter more to me, its strange though because most hot hatches I meet at the traffic lights definitely seem to enjoy a quick but safe traffic light g.p. There's nothing wrong with that as long as its safe, it doesn't make you a boy racer, the thrill of acceleration Is a large part of the fun of owning a fast car.
Fact is I'm a very experienced driver in cars on track and in karts, so i could drive a relatively slow car quite quickly, so maybe power and performance shouldn't matter much to me, but quite the opposite is true.
ultimate Fun or ultimate performance ?....well ill take performance every day. I understand people are different though.
Fact is we are splitting hairs really, a fiesta ST is a very small percentage more fun, and a clio trophy is a very small percentage more capable.
The ford seems to appeal to the majority, the clio to the minority but both are brilliant, just in slightly different ways.
David