Currently reading: Geneva motor show 2013: Small saloons to make big comeback
Audi believes small saloons will become increasingly popular; new A3 saloon due in the near future

Smaller saloon cars will make a big comeback over the next few years, according to Audi design chief Wolfgang Egger.

Audi itself is set to launch an A3 saloon, possibly as soon as at the Shanghai motor show next month. BMW is also set to launch a saloon variant of its 1-series, while Mercedes has recently unveiled the compact A-class-based CLA saloon.

Speaking at the Geneva motor show, Egger said “Saloons are coming back, and it’s a trend you’ll see from us soon. I personally love saloons and think they are due a renaissance.”

He believes that saloon cars have become too conservative in recent years, and drifted away from what originally made them so popular.

“The image of saloons has become too conservative,” he said. “Saloons used to be small, fun, compact, dynamic. We’ve lost that in the last 15 years.”

Egger said there is “now an opportunity” to make a “very modern car” in a saloon bodystyle with “compact dimensions”.

“You can take what’s become a conservative design with the saloon and turn it into something very modern,” Egger added.

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Mark Tisshaw

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Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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optima 5 March 2013

Small saloons rule.

I have to agree, saloons look so classy. Its a pitty more manufactures don't sell their saloons in the UK and only sell hatch backs here. They do sell their saloons in right hand drive markets for example Eire and Cyprus so why not here.

sirwiggum 5 March 2013

As much as I dislike audi, I

As much as I dislike audi, I do prefer the shape of saloon cars to 2 box hatches. (Fastback shapes such as the Insignia or Xantia aren't too bad).

In Ireland (the South) you can see a good many small saloons, where they remain popular. Corollas, Focuseses, Astras, Fluence (non-EV).

Hopefully they will make a comeback, C segment saloons replacing D segment cars that are getting increasingly culled.

catnip 5 March 2013

“Saloons used to be small,

“Saloons used to be small, fun, compact, dynamic. We’ve lost that in the last 15 years.”

Is that because all the manufacturers kept making each successive model larger and larger?

For me, a good example of a recent compact saloon was the 1999-2005 Bora, ok , not the most dynamic, but, certainly in my area, a very popular model.