SEAT ends production of three-door models

Production of the three-door SEAT Leon has now stopped. Image: Newspress/Seat via AFP Relaxnews

The three-door car is starting to look increasingly in danger of extinction as SEAT, owned by Volkswagen, announces an end to three-door production.

Under the Volkswagen umbrella, it’s not just SEAT that’s gone cold on the three-door format. There are now just three models left in the entire portfolio of the Volkswagen Group with three doors.

This isn’t much of a surprise, as sales of three-door models have been nosediving for some years now. The SEAT models are just the latest of the genre to be ditched by the Volkswagen Group.

The SEAT Mii city car saw its three-door variant discontinued a few months ago, and the manufacturer recently told the United Kingdom’s Autocar publication that the three-door Leon has now been discontinued due to a lack of demand.

Over the last two years, the Volkswagen Group has culled the three-door variants of the VW Beetle, Polo, Scirocco and the Up. The Audi A3 was another casualty. That leaves just three models remaining, and even those are circling the drain right now.

The next generations of the Audi A1 and the Volkswagen Golf will be five-door versions. That leaves only the Skoda Citigo, which is also coming to the end of its life cycle.

The Volkswagen Group is not alone in going down this route. Most automakers have been getting rid of their three-door models over the last couple of years, because buyers who still want hatchbacks instead of SUVs increasingly prefer models with a full complement of five doors.

Land Rover has dropped three-door versions of the Range Rover Evoque, Vauxhall/Opel has withdrawn the three-door Astra GTC, and the three-door Kia Proceed will shortly be relaunched as a five-door shooting brake body style. JB

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