This niche is still empty in the sense that there's no Compact 4WD vehicle based on a Compact City Car! The LeGran SE Campagne is an American Midsize Wagon (with large overhangs) while the Pigeon/Wigeon are just too small to be doing any work of decent difficulty and they're only RWD, so they don't have decent traction either. The CR-X covers yet another niche while there's also that of the Compact 4-door Sedan. The 1.5/2.0 DOHC engines can be great for the former while the 1.5/1.8 SOHC ones can serve the latter (and the Shuttle) very well.
Aww... I was briefly excited over the idea the game might be getting its third hatchback in the form of an old French rally car. Having some new parts for the Covet is always nice though. I'm glad @Acrain7 pointed out that the new bodykit doesn't seem to line up with the existing door, which seems to indicate a more thorough remaster coming in the future. That's something I would not have noticed on my own.
The Covet was the second or third vehicle ever added to the game, alongside the Grand Marshal. It's long overdue for a remaster.
Thats what I was saying before but I think my initial name muddle up meant nobody actually read what I said
Even before the initial release, the Covet was added in an early dev build just a couple of months after BeamNG came into public existence with the original CryEngine 3 trailer.
Some sort of factory 4WD covet is definitely coming. It's got tons of potential for career mode- Find an abused 4WD covet, thrash it around and race it against 4wd LeGrans and Pigeons. Alternatively, you could rip the transfer case from a wrecked 4wd covet and plop it into another covet, sort of like what Honda guys do with CRVs. I just don't know how it would be implemented. One one hand, a new bodystyle in the vein of the Civic Shuttle and Colt Vista would be the closest thing to a minivan that we've gotten thus far, and might provide interesting driving dynamics (more top-heavy?) On the other hand, something more akin to a Golf Country or a Panda 4x4 would be a lot less effort, but would also miss out on a new vehicle niche.
The Shuttle is a 5-seat vehicle and the Colt Vista is a 7-seater. Which gave me an idea: how about having both such bodystyles as part of the Covet lineup? A Shuttle-like vehicle is ideal for those who want a more versatile vehicle than the standard 3-door Hatchback Covet but they don't need 7 seats. A Colt Vista-like model is ideal for those who want the 7-seater ability of its larger size or just some even more room than what the smaller Shuttle can offer. And both these bodystyles can offer AWD versions too. So we have 5 Covet bodystyles: the classic 3-door Hatchback, the 2-door Glasshatch Coupe, the 4-door Sedan, the 'Shuttle' and the 'Vista'. And, as you said, the 'Vista' is tall, so it's gonna have some interesting dynamic behavior, especially with AWD and the accompanying lifted struts!
What makes you think we're getting a coupe and a sedan? and why would we get both a 5 and a 7 seater?
Good question. Nothing, tbh. It's just some ideas based on what was actually in style back in the 80s. These ideas are also based on the fact that these 4 bodystyles cover many open niches in the BeamNG lore. There's no small and light FWD coupe (we only have the 200BX, which is RWD), there's no small 4-door sedan older than the Sunburst (and smaller than the 1988 VM301 Pessima), there's no 5-door Hatchback older than the FCVs and there's also no MPV (let alone a small, Compact MPV, like the 'Vista' is)!
I think a 4-door hatch is very likely but I doubt that a sedan will be coming, since we already have a Japanese FWD 80's/early 90's sedan in the form of the Pessima.
Well the Pessma is a Midsize sedan, a Covet sedan would be classified as a compact (at least in my opinion). and as far as I know, we do not have any compact sedans.
What you said is an actual fact. The 3-door Hatchback Covet is a Subcompact car and the 1988 Pessima is a Midsize car, measuring ~4.5m in length. There's a lot of room in between for fitting all 4 bodystyles we're talking about. The 2-door Coupe could have the same length as the 3-door Hatch (making it a Subcompact) while the 'Shuttle' could be larger than these two (which is natural since it's got 5 doors) and the 'Vista' could be larger still. And the Sedan could slot in between the 'Shuttle' and the 'Vista'. So we have: Subcompacts (same length and width) 3-door Hatchback Covet 2-door Coupe Covet (preferably with a Glasshatch design) Compacts (smallest to largest) 5-door 'Shuttle' Covet 4-door Sedan Covet Minivan 'Vista' Covet
Well, a lot of people say that it will be the Covet... with maybe an group B homologation. I'm agree that it will be awesome. But, there is a little problem. The time! The goup B is between 1982 an 1986. However, the covet has been made between 1987 and 1991. After the Group B. But it's clearly possible that it will be the Covet. It's just strange when you look about the dates.