Hyundai Veloster Turbo review

[Wretched]

Hyundai Veloster Turbo: The Jalopnik Review

Hyundai can be thought of as a group of willful amnesiacs who happen to build cars. Outside of old fellows in Argentina with oddly Teutonic accents, I can't think of a group of people less willing to talk about their past. We all know Hyundai wasn't always a name associated with not-being-a-miserable-piece-of-crap, but they've clearly moved far beyond the days of the Excel/Pony and only want to look ahead.

The result of this is a car company completely unfettered by heritage or tradition, and that gives them the freedom to try some things other companies balk at. The Veloster Turbo is a great example of this.

(Full Disclosure: Hyundai wanted me to drive the Veloster Turbo so much, you guys, that they flew me out to this rich-old-golf-guy resort in San Diego, full of trees and wood and buffet tables brimming with food, including meats from every major phylum. I may have eaten fried planaria. Also, they gave us pens with an iPad/iPhone stylus at the top end. Neat, huh?)

Hyundai's big idea is to have their halo car at the bottom, not the top of the line. I personally adore this idea, as it gives a much bigger range of people the chance to own a marque's most personal and creative effort. You have to admit, the usual halo car concept is kind of a tease— you go in the Ford dealer to gawk at the GT, and come home in a Taurus? That's a letdown. I'd like to see more manufacturers take Hyundai's approach.

The Veloster Turbo generally feels like a real halo car— it's built on a bespoke platform, sharing many major components with other cars in the line, but the chassis itself is unique to the Veloster (well, and the Veloster Turbo). What's also interesting about the fundamental Veloster design is that, according to the product guys I spoke with, it's designed to compete with used cars more than anything else. The goal was to build something that a potential buyer simply could not find an analogue of in a new or used car lot, and I think they've largely done that.

The overall design does actually feel different than most of what's out there now. Not quite as different as Hyundai would like to think, but assuredly not boring. The three-door (plus a hatch), asymmetrical body style manages to be practical and fun at the same time, no mean feat. Hyundai is taking some style chances with this car, and though I think they could go even further, it's a welcome addition to the increasingly indistinguishable mass of cars on the roads today.

I got to drive the Veloster Turbo through normal city traffic, on wide-open toll roads, and, best of all, through a terrific route of twisty, hilly roads by the US/Mexico border. At one of the border patrol checkpoints I accidentally laid a bit of rubber on the way out, so I apologize if I impaired any international relations with my sloppy display of dipshittery. After the road course, we were able to take the Turbo through two autocross courses, one conventional, one technical.

Turbocharging the base Veloster was the right move for Hyundai. It's sort of like making foie gras, except instead of forcing food down a goose's throat and getting gross liver paté, they're forcing air down the throat of their 1.6 L four and getting an impressive 59% more power, 201 HP, with 195 lb-ft of twist. The fact they decided to make a Turbo variant is a little surprising, since I was told their target demographic "doesn't care about horsepower." Well, screw those tweet-addled safety kids — the extra power makes a huge difference.......

The rest of the review is covered in the article.