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Supermini is a British car classification or vehicle size class for a small car, usually in a hatchback body style. It an equivalent of the European B-segment or American subcompact categories.The term is also used by Euro NCAP for a size class including B-segment and the smaller A-segment cars.

In the UK the supermini is the top- selling vehicle type. For years the Ford Fiesta has been the leader of the class, and often most-sold car in the UK overall, competiting against the Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Polo, Renault Clio, Peugeot 208, and many others.

History of the term

The term developed in the 1970s as an informal categorisation, and by 1977 was used regularly by the British newspaper The Times. By the mid- 1980s, it had widespread use in Britain.The term was adopted by Euro NCAP as the smallest size class for passenger vehicles for the launch of Euro NCAP in 1997. The first round of NCAP tests was of seven supermini cars. The term is also used by the Euro NCAP system as a size class for A-segment (" mini cars ") and B-segment ("small cars ").

Model development

1970s and 1980s

In 1977, the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Chevette were among Britain's top 10 best- selling cars.

Other superminis of the mid- 1980s included the Austin Metro, Vauxhall Nova, Nissan Micra, Peugeot 205, Volkswagen Polo and Renault 5.