If form ever met function in the biblical sense, their offspring would undoubtedly be a five-door hatch. And it could be one of these.

Before the automotive world accepted the term 'crossover' into its vocabulary, the hatch already existed as a class of car equally adept at functioning as an economical people mover and as a useful commodity carrier. I personally moved a home or two's contents using an Opel T-car, so can spiritedly testify. Times have changes, and in today's B-segment offerings the car industry is arguably pulling off its biggest trick yet. Essentially shrunk versions of their respective C-segment halo cars, these small big hatches still offer surprising luggage and living space. Some seem more directly related to their bigger brethren than others. Ford's Fiesta, despite being a clean slate design, could best be described as a mini Focus. Honda's Jazz, now in its second iteration, continues the hatch-met-baby-MPV trend it started, so looks bulkier than the others. Suzuki's Swift, which undercuts these rivals by R10 000 and adds 100cc to their under-hood credentials, is the wildcard in this deck. So it could easily walk this shootout. Or could it?
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