Test drive: Hyundai says its oddball Veloster is 'playful'
HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The most exciting car yet from South Korean automaker Hyundai is the 2012 Veloster, on sale since September.
The Veloster (ve-LOS-ter) is an oddball, three-door hatchback that fills a niche not apparent to most folks. The small car has a big door on the driver side and two smaller ones on the passenger side. The styling is show-car wild. The $18,000 starting price and 40-mpg highway rating are tantalizing.
Hyundai calls it "playful" and says it's a "reverse-halo" car — a low-price model, instead of the more typical high-price one, that casts a glow over the whole brand. Hyundai says Veloster is aimed to attract "a new generation of Hyundai customers."
It's also a billboard for Hyundai's first use of a direct-injection gasoline engine mated to a dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT).
Ford Motor and Volkswagen also use similar gearboxes on small cars, with mixed success. Veloster's version, while flawed, seems the best-tuned, so far.
Also known as "manumatic" or "dry-clutch" gearboxes, the transmissions work like manuals internally, but are automatically shifted by the car's computer. The driver has no clutch pedal and doesn't need to move the gear lever to shift.
The gearboxes eliminate the fluid coupling, called a torque converter, that's used on conventional automatics. It's a source of fuel-using drag, but also is smoother in traffic and from a dead stop than the manumatics.
One Veloster test car had the DCT and was aggravating in traffic. As is the case with a pure manual, it's hard to creep gently ahead. You're on and off the brakes a lot to keep the DCT Hyundai easing forward.
It works fine once up to speed, though.
The other test car was a base model with manual transmission. It was easy to shift, satisfying the hand and head doing so, and was abetted by a clutch pedal neither too light nor too firm. It seemed to be no problem, either in traffic or on the open road.
Veloster's manual was quite a bit easier to use and smoother to engage than several other small cars with manuals tested lately.
Also worth noting:
•The three-door design is unusual but not unique.
General Motors' now-defunct Saturn brand sold a "three-door coupe." Mini Cooper's Clubman model has two doors on one side, one on the other.
Veloster's rear door is hinged at the front, like most doors, and opens without requiring you to open the front door first.
The design gives the presumably hip young owner of the car an eye-pleasing view of a graceful coupe when approaching the driver's side, and supplies riders with easier access to the back seat as they approach from the other side.
About the Veloster
•The optional 18-inch-diameter wheels, and their tires with very short, stubby sidewalls, are a huge mistake unless you live in the Land of Always Perfect Pavement. The 18s will slam you hard over even small bumps and road patches.
Standard 17s, by contrast, are smooth-riding, and handle tight corners well.
•Space is tight in the back seat.
That's normal for a car this size, but rear headroom is also iffy. There's even a sticker warning that closing the hatchback could whack taller rear passengers' noggins. Hyundai puts just two seats in back, rather than dishonestly trying to convince you there's room for three across.
•Plenty of standard features mean you're getting not only an unusual car but also a nicely appointed one.
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