Because they just are. And while they are, there's a vicious circle, and younger, keener buyers will stay away unless something drastic happens to change their perception. Well, if this new, seventh-generation Civic doesn't do it, nothing will.

Generation six was tall and spacious and logical. Its morphing into the slightly lower, three-door Type-R was ingenious, but the staid streak remained. There's no sign of it this time, though. Here's a concept car made real: rare enough even in the world of coupes (TT, Brera) but surely unprecedented in mainstream hatchbacks, unless you count the metamorphosis of Ford's Probe concept into the first Sierra.

Look at it. That wedgy body looks like a coupe, with its reduced-size rear side windows and Alfa-esque hidden rear handles. The nose features the biggest strip of transparency since the Citro