I have to admit, stepping out of a 12 year old S2000 into pretty much a brand new car certainly presents challenges in terms of trying to compare apples with apples. Having said that, I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine someone upgrading to something like this from an older hot hatch or older sports car generally.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

I won’t be looking at this car from a standard, run-of-the-mill review perspective. If you want to know about how many litres of cargo space the boot has or how many millimeters in diameter the rear brake discs are, read THIS or THIS. They’re both excellent reviews. I’ll be showing you some cool shots of it, looking at it from an enthusiast perspective, and telling you how it makes me feel. And let’s face it, that’s why you’d be looking at this turbo model over the garden variety NA Veloster, or any other hot hatch anyway.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

When I picked up the car, I walked around it a few times, taking in the bodywork. It’s certainly not a vanilla design. There are lines and angles and curves absolutely everywhere. I quite like its angry little bulldog look personally, but it does polarise people and they either love it or hate it. But it doesn’t leave many people indifferent, and I’m glad that Hyundai had the balls to approve a daring design like this.

Hyundai Veloster

Also, this car is getting WAY more looks than my S2K, which I’m a little surprised by. People seem to dig it, and I’ve had several tell me how much they like it. The pearl white paint, 18″ wheels, rear diffuser, skirts, lip and massive grille on this car really do make it stand out of the surrounding landscape. The only thing I’d do to it is lower it about an inch and put some spacers on it to make those wheels fill the guards a bit better.

Hyundai Veloster

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

I jumped in, and was immediately smacked by the smell of newness and leather despite the car having 7000 (probably very hard) kms on it. Immediately after that was the design of the dash. For the first day or so, I felt like there was a transformer staring straight at me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many lines and angles and curves and buttons on a dash and steering wheel. That said, I’ve certainly become used to it after a couple of days, and everything seems to be laid out pretty logically. Car has sat nav, 7″ touchscreen, MP3 player, 2x 12v plugs, USB & aux in, sunroof, cruise control, leather power seats, bluetooth, climate control, etc etc. I felt like I was living in the lap of luxury, so no complaints at all there. I’ll admit I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out how to adjust the seat and put the key into the ignition that didn’t exist. As it turns out, the key stays in pocket the whole time. You don’t need to take it out to unlock or get in the car, or start it either. You just press the small black button on the door to unlock, and press the Start/Stop button in the centre lower half of the dash. At this point, I stopped for a second to reflect on how far automotive technology has moved in the last couple of decades.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

Started it up, drove it out of the lot and headed home in heavy traffic, opening up to a tunnel run on the way home. Initial impression was overwhelmingly positive. Shifts are nice and short, turbo spools at 2500-3000rpm and pulls very hard for a 1.6L motor, especially in second and third gears. Unfortunately, for a performance car it’s extremely quiet so it doesn’t feel like you’re going very fast, even though you might be. This is the case at both high revs and high speed. What would make the driving experience of this car WAY sportier is a varex exhaust, where a valve opens at a certain RPM and and/or throttle position. This may even liberate a few extra ponies, so it’d be one of the few things I’d consider.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

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The Veloster Turbo comes in both an auto and a manual version, and while they’re different, there’s really no one deciding factor between the two. I thought the auto was going to be rubbish, not even being a dual clutch version like on the non-turbo model, but it’s actually pretty good. You get the tiptronic paddles for selecting gears, as well as a pretty handy sports mode which holds gears longer. The only thing that’d make me lean towards the manual is the $2K price difference. In a straight line, you’re not going to win many traffic light or highway races, but that’s not where this car’s strengths lie (although it IS faster than an RX-8 on the straight). The auto holds boost a lot better, while the manual does drop out of boost unless you’re really hooking. But it certainly doesn’t feel slow at any point. The turbo spools at about 2500rpm, and is seriously pushing the car along by 3000, even in 6th gear from 80kph. Fat gobs of torque from such a small engine. The most fun will be had in second and third gears though, when the turbo is cooking. At that point it really does push you back in the seat and you’ll be hard pressed to keep a smile from your face.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

Suspension is supple but taut. Bumps aren’t a problem. Comfort is never compromised. There’s a bit of turbo lag, but you get used to it fairly quickly and can compensate for it by jumping on the throttle a little earlier and a little harder than an NA car. It’s fun to go fast around corners in, although the Veloster can’t hide that it IS still front wheel drive, and there is only so much grip you can have when you’ve got steering, accelerating and braking to do, all at the fronts.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

It also dives into corners under braking and turning and the decent Hankook tyres will squeal, but in a progressive way. This means that you generally know how much grip you still have remaining. The “warning chime” comes in pretty early, which is not an unpleasant thing by any means. It puts you at ease that you still have probably another 20% grip remaining before you spin off into the scenery. This somehow manages to add, rather than take away from the excitement, but also seems like a pretty good compromise between comfort and daily duties and the sporty feel we all crave.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

When it came to living with the Veloster on a daily basis, it’s quiet, comfortable and fits more stuff than you think. Last Saturday night had me carting a 2.7m long seamless background for a photo job. I put the box next to the car, and immediately started thinking who I could borrow a bigger car from. I attempted to fit it just for a laugh and it worked! Second surprise came when I was grabbing the drinks for last Sunday’s DS meet, where you would’ve seen the red automatic one near the stand. The car swallowed up ~650 cans of drink and didn’t bat an eyelid. Acceleration was affected, but not much. Impressed, yet again.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

Do I like it? Definitely, I’d daily the hell out of it. I’ve been loving driving this thing for the week and a bit that I had it. Would I sell my S2000 and put some money on top to buy one? Probably not at this point, but I’d certainly consider it if I had to cart children around or needed something a little more practical than a 2-seater convertible with a boot the size of a bread bin. Ultimately, the awesome thing about these cars is that you can cruise in them in maximum comfort and convenience, but when you want to let your hair down you can simply downshift a couple of gears and go for a burn around your favourite twisties and have a ball.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo

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Hyundai Veloster Turbo

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