New Hyundai Veloster

Hyundai shows how far it's come - with a sexy new coupe of sorts. Riddle me this: when is a coupe not really a coupe? The answer, when it comes to Hyundai's adveunturously-styled Veloster, depends on which side of the car you are standing when the question is posed.

Seen from the driver's side, it's a true coupe with one big, long door. Walk around to the kerb side, though, and it looks for all the world like a hatchback with two shorter doors.

Hyundai prefers another C-word - crossover - to describe the Veloster. It's an annoyingly vague term but also works rather well as an analogy for a car that marks a step-change in the Korean company's product strategy. Boring conservatism has been banished; whatever you think of the Veloster's polarising styling, it's a signpost to the company's new-found maturity. Hyundai, already inside the top five car marques for global sales and top 10 for customer quality perception, is clearly ready to become a design leader rather than a follower.

The company says the three-door received rave reviews from Korea's Generation Y after its debut as a concept car at the Seoul motor show in 2007. That's probably no ambit claim. Check out the low-slung, hunched stance; the abundance of creases and vents; and especially the exquisitely detailed rear end with its centre-mounted dual exhaust. Taken as a package, it's certainly fussier and probably not quite as arresting as Renault's Megane RS250, the car it most resembles. But that's a bit like saying Ghandi wasn't quite as saintly as Mother Teresa - and just as open to debate.

Most rational comparisons between the two cars end there, however. The pair share a massive blindspot courtesy of their steeply rising window line and enormous C-pillars, but after that the feisty Renault - Drive's reigning car of the year for performance cars under $60,000 - leaves the Veloster eating dust.

The Hyundai has been saddled with a 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder engine making just 103kW of power and 167Nm, albeit mated to the choice of a six-speed manual or the company's first-ever dual-clutch automatic (also six-speed).

In a couple of acceleration runs at Hyundai's proving ground in Namyang, South Korea, the Veloster's pace could best be described as leisurely. The 100km/h mark inches past in somewhere north of 10 seconds to the wailing soundtrack of a put-upon engine. The dual-clutch auto on our test car - the manual version was unavailable - was a treat, though, shifting seamlessly up the gears by itself or guided by steering wheel-mounted paddles.

Hyundai has indicated it is considering installing a turbocharged version of the four-cylinder engine to create a racy "R" version of the Veloster that would give the car the performance its looks seem to suggest it capable of.

Two loops of the Namyang proving ground's 1.9km-long ride and handling track was not nearly enough time to develop definitive driving impressions of the little Veloster, but one outstanding trait was the way it hunkers down in corners. A low centre of gravity and wheels pushed towards the car's outer extremities lent surprising stability, while the steering - something of which Australian motoring journalists in particular have been critical on other Hyundai products - was a little light and lacking for feel but generated reasonable feedback.

We'll save comment on the way car rides for another day, when we're not on Hyundai's smooth proving ground roads and we've got more than a scant two-kilometre circuit to listen and feel for the car's responses to the uniquely challenging Australian roads that Hyundai in particular seems to struggle to master. Inside, the Veloster features an evolution of the very familiar Hyundai/Kia dashboard layout, featuring clear and simple instrumentation and switchgear that's easy to use and falls readily to hand.

Textured plastics that are slightly soft to the touch help the ambience and our test car - set up for the US market, with Australian specifications still to be confirmed - featured sat-nav, a sunroof, partial leather seats, keyless entry and start, parking sensors and a reversing camera and Bluetooth and iPod connectivity. Stability control and six airbags will be standard for Australia, and the car is expected to score the maximum five stars in crash testing.

The sunroof is a touchy subject because, with it fitted, six-foot-plus drivers and passengers will struggle to find a comfortable driving position due to the confined headspace.

Despite the not-inconsiderable effort taken by Hyundai to fit a single rear door, this isn't a car built for back-seat passengers. A four-seater, it has a dividing plastic console in the middle of the rear seat that passengers entering via the kerbside door will need to clamber across.

Leg- and toeroom are relatively tight, requiring taller passengers to splay their knees either side of the front seat. The major issue, though, is again head space. Not only will passengers' heads sit under the rear hatch's glass - potentially subjecting them to sunburn on sunnier days - but anyone taller than six foot will have a sizeable roof section just in front of their forehead that could literally become a headache under heavy or sudden braking.

Boot space is adequate for overnight bags or the weekly grocery shop, but a space under the floor in our test car disappointingly contains a tyre repair and inflation kit rather than a spare. The Veloster will certainly appeal as an image statement for young car buyers, and could also have appeal with the young-at-heart.

Hyundai Australia won't reveal its pricing strategy yet but a starting point of $US17,000 in the United States points to a bargain-basement Australian entry price of around $25,000 when it arrives in September.

source : http://english.kompas.com/read/2011/06/23/10085583/New.Hyundai.Veloster