U.K. car enthusiasts have always had a much broader range of engine choices in their vehicles than we've been able to buy here in America—not to mention entire vehicles as well. The Audi A3 isn't a particularly great car; the sister VW Golf is a newer design and less expensive. But CAR magazine's latest review highlights how a small hatch powered by an engine normally not available in America —a 1.4-liter turbocharged four cylinder— could still be an entertaining drive while being much better for the environment.

"Think of this engine as punching above its weight, spinning sweetly but with plenty of overtaking urge," the article said. "It'll get you to 62 mph in less than 10 seconds and carry on to a maximum of 128 mph, so it certainly isn't slow, and it pumps out 154 g/km of CO2 and returns 43.5 mpg, so it's pretty clean and efficient too. All of which points to the 1.4TFSI being a sweet spot in the A3 range."

I still remember the hot hatch battles of the late 1980's, where car magazines routinely pitted CRX Sis against VW GTIs, Lotus-tuned Isuzus, and Toyota Celica All-tracs. I don't remember any of those cars being all that boring. A return to smaller, lighter vehicles with today's electronics, smoother engines, and better fuel economy could be much more fun than some camps are making it out to be.