By Paul Gover.
When the Hyundai Veloster first arrived it was most notable for having one door on the driver’s side and two for passengers.
The asymmetrical design was unique and different, but didn’t do enough to compensate for the lacklustre driving experience.
It had sporty styling, but . . .
Now the Veloster is new and (vastly) improved and more than worthy of a second look.
It’s still not a flaming fast sports car, or an open-air delight like the Mazda MX-5, but as a warm hatch with good looks and a solid chassis it’s a car that is both fun and relaxing to drive.
The 2020 Veloster can be relaxing in traffic or on a highway cruise, with the ability to shift up a gear when you tap into its 1.6-litre turbocharged engine and cornering grip on a favourite twisty road. Shifting up a gear is also easy with a six-speed manual gearbox, a rarity in today’s showrooms.
The Veloster is available from $26,490 as a cute coupe but in that case it’s more about a design that is a throw-back to the early Toyota Celica. It’s nice enough, but under the skin it’s nothing particularly special.
The Turbo, with a force-fed 1.6-litre engine, frees the car from the basics of the i30 hatch and takes it into a different world of driving.
Hyundai is doing great work these days, something also banked by the Kia side of the South Korean conglomerate where Hyundai-Kia is one company with two sets of cars.
The engineering is good, the designs are classy and the final finishing – things like paint and cabin equipment and assembly – is as good as Japanese cars.
But Hyundai Australia knows it needs more to pull itself out of the rut of cheap-and-cheerful cars, something it began at the back end of last year.
The new Veloster is one of the first cars to arrive as a well-thought-out and well-executed package, and is only under-performing in showrooms because there is not enough money in the advertising budget to tell people about it.
In the next 18 months there will be an incredible 18 new models from Hyundai, from a pocket-rocket i20 N hatchback through to the giant Palisade family SUV, as the brand works to sell on its strengths and not the weaknesses of others or its cheapness. It also has to accelerate away from Kia, which is capitalising on shared engineering and selling better because of sharper prices and a better warranty.
So, back to the Veloster, because it’s not just another hatchback and is good to drive.
The extra door on the passenger side, although it sounds silly, makes the Veloster considerably more practical. It’s easy to load ’stuff’ instead of throwing it onto the front seat or floor like most coupes, and there is no need to wrestle kids through the front seats and into the back.
My son, a hulking 11-year-old, likes the practicality and enjoys sitting in the back with one of his mates. He also thinks it’s fun to help with changing the manual gears from the passenger seat.
The Veloster is a light-and-easy drive in the city and suburbs, but can wind up to speed in the countryside. The ’sport’ button on the centre console also makes the engine response far sharper, and allows the engine to boost up to 275 Newton-metres of torque for overtaking and twisting uphill climbs.
In the end, the Veloster of 2020 is unique and different in a very good way.
THE BASICS
Hyundai Veloster Turbo
Price: from $35,490
Power: 150W/275Nm
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Position: hot hatch with a twist
Plus: smooth styling, nice driving
Minus: not cheap, not charismatic
THE TICK: definitely
Score: 7/10
