This is kinda off topic, not much per say, but I remember reading an article about the Honda civic about a few years back. Honda released the "new" civic, but every trim was a hatch (I believe 01 to 06?) and the japanese brass could not for the life of them figure out why it was not selling in the US. Yet, it sold like hotcakes in Japan. After some market research, the older 4 door civics sold like hotcakes here in the US, then the switch to hatch. The US consumer really didn't want the hatch at all.
I believe other companies kinda picked up on this and now have a research team that is region based to make sure that when they do design a car or trim, that it is appealing to the market they want to sell it to.
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