2019 Hyundai Veloster: First Drive — Cars.com

do you like small sporty fun to drive compact coupes well if you do just knowthat right this very second there are probably fewer of you than there wereabout ten minutes ago the segment is shrinking and everyone seems to beflocking to compact SUVs but Hyundai says not so fast there are still anumber of people that like to drive and like to drive small cars and for themthey’ve made this this is the new 201909 inside and out and if you like a good value and you like cars that arefun to drive you do need to check this out the changes from the 2018 to the2019 are subtle in terms of styling it looks very similar to the outgoing onebut it is a little bit different you’ve got a wider grille up front you havedifferent headlights standard LED running lights and optional LEDheadlights you have something in the front they call air curtains what aretheir curtains I don’t know what era curtains are I think it’s a word they’vemade up to now describe the fact that it’s got vertical slats in the frontbumper down the side you’ve got much more prominent fenders than you didbefore it gives it a longer look despite thefact that it really isn’t any longer than the old car the wheelbase isexactly the same you get 17-inch tires and wheels standard these are the 18inches you have three different kinds of 18-inch wheels as options depending onthe trim level that you have the velocity looks lower than before but theheight really isn’t any different it’s the same height as the outgoing carthey’ve achieved this through a little bit of a trick and design the rooflineslopes a little bit faster than it did before when that’s led to this smallerrear window and taillights that are up a little bit higher as well so they’vechanged the proportions of the car but it still has quite a bit of cargo roomback here you’ve got more cargo room behind the rear seats than you view in aJeep renegade or a chevy trax so it actually can carry quite a bit ofstuff and when you put this rear seat down even more while all of the stylingis subtly different there is one element that is exclusive to the Veloster thathas remained there still one door on the driver side and two doors on thepassenger side they’ve updated the Velocity’s interior as well as theexterior and they’ve really rearranged what it’s like in here it’s asymmetricallike the outside of the vehicle is wonder on the left two doors on theright one theme on the left different theme on the right front seat comfort isacceptable I’d say the seats are mostly supportive the backs a little supportivethere’s two different kinds of seats depending on what trim level you getsome have cloth some have leather some that power lumbar adjust like this onein the turbo ultimate some dunk but overall up front it’s not badHeadroom is a little bit limited when you get the sunroof but not bad at allwhen you don’t have the sunroof in back it’s tight there’s really not a lot ofheadroom back there it’s meant for sometimes bringing people along oroccasional friends or friends you don’t really like that you’re gonna take on along drive and hope to never see it again frankly either way it’s reallyjust meant for an occasional use the third door on the right side is moreabout convenience you could put things in a lot easier than you could in atwo-door it’s a cargo feature more I think than a passenger feature but it’sdefinitely unique and it’s a I think a selling point for the Veloster thisbeing Hyundai’s sporty coupe they’ve given it a sporty option you can stillget a manual transmission in the Veloster it comes in two of the modelsyou could either get it in the base model 2-liter or you can get it in the1. 6 litre turbo now if you do get into the turbo you can only get it in ther-spec which is the entry-level model for the turbo but that’s actually kindof a really neat deal for just under twenty four thousand dollars you get amanual transmission you get pilot sport for tiresyou get sports suspension you get all the racy details in here that’s a reallydecent price for that now the transmission itself the manual is prettygood it’s pretty Snicket e it’s very precise it’s actually a lot of fun toshift I only have a couple of issues with it it’s located on the centerconsole pretty far forward so anybody who’s taller who’s sitting back from thesteering wheel of a decent ways in order to be comfortable really has to stretchin order to get to fifth gear or even sixth gear I mean it’s it’s a bit of aways out there the other issue I have with it is thatthere’s not a whole lot of room in the footwell the pedal box area is actuallykind of small so I keep hitting my foot on the bottom of the instrument panelwhen I’m transitioning from the dead pedal to the clutch and back it’s aminor annoyance and if you don’t have size 12 like I do it probably won’t bean issue but this really is a vehicle for someone who is smaller in statureHyundai is priced the Veloster to be what they call their entry-level halovehicle it’s a downward halo as they’re calling it which I don’t know whatthat’s the circling on the anatomy but still it’s something that’s supposed tobe aspirational for first-time buyers so if you can afford to get in somethingreally cool and desirable the base model has the 2-liter non turbocharged enginebut for a few dollars more you can get this turbocharged model which hasconsiderably more horsepower and a lot more scoop to it now for the price ofthis one this is the r-spec model it’s just under twenty four thousand dollarswhich is a pretty decent price for an entry-level sports coupe you’ve got themore powerful motor you’ve got the manual transmissionyou’ve got aggressive summer tires you’ve got all the looks and race eNOSthe seats actually look fantastic you’ve got standard apple carplay or Androidauto depending on which system that you have which personal piece of electronicsyou own that’s really an excellent deal quite frankly for a car that is a lot offun the driving position is actually quitegood you’ve got decent forward visibility theproblem is the visibility out back the low roofline means you’ve got a very lowrear window and frankly I don’t think I can see anything more than about ahundred feet beyond the back of the car most vehicles behind you you’re going tosee the bumper and that’s really pretty much it if there’s a cop coming up onyou from the horizon you’re not gonna see it until it’s actually on you thecar makes all the right noises too and it’s kind of interesting in terms of thenoise that it’s generating because you can adjust how it sounds now the enginenoise is piped into the interior but you can turn it off or you can turn it onyou can turn it louder if you really want to that’s there’s not many cars outthere that let you adjust just the noise usually that comes with adjusting theexhaust as well but it sounds pretty good and the reason they they pipe thesekinds of sounds in is because frankly these engines don’t make a whole lot ofnoise unless you put a great big exhaust on them there are two possible powertrains for the 2019 velocity first we’ve got the base model engine a 2-literfour-cylinder engine making 147 horsepower and the optional engine is a1. 6 liter turbocharged motor making 201 horsepower now that’s the one you wantthe biggest model engine is fine but the 201 horsepower turbo engine that isreally a lot more entertaining there are three possible transmissions the baseengine comes with either a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic and theupgraded one comes with either that 6-speed manual or a 7-speed dual-clutchtransmission like we see in this one here Hyundai has thoroughly reworked thesuspension in the Veloster gone is the torsion beam in the back now there’s amulti-link suspension back there it really does create a much moreentertaining platform everything really very tight the suspension is firm butnot punishing the steering is actually very direct it’s got a very quick ratioas well so you get a lot of responsiveness when you’re changingdirection it’s also got an adjustable steering feel you’ve got three differentdrive modes in the automatic two in the manual transmission model the ride onthe more aggressive turbo model is firm I mean it’s a little bit bouncy but it’sreally not uncomfortable it is appropriate really to the sportiness ofthe vehicle the handling is really quite goodyou’ve got a multi-link rear suspension now instead of the torsion beam and thatreally has enabled them to open up some options in terms of balancing the rideon the handling this thing really is a proper little sports coupe when you putthis car on the Michelin Pilot Sport four tires that you get as part of ther-spec package that handling is even better it is a little bit loud thismodel does have quite a bit of road noise tire noise and out on the highwayyou’re gonna find yourself talking at louder than normal volumes but franklyit’s a sports coupe if you didn’t want a little bit of noise in the interior andyou should have bought something a little bit more cushy acceleration fromthat 1. 6 litre turbo is really quite enjoyable 201 horsepower is nothing tosneeze at and it makes a lot of its torque down low as well right around1,200 to 1,300 rpm which is really quite reasonable there isn’t really any turbolag at all and the DCT really ships quite quickly there’s no lag there’s nospringiness there’s no rubber band style feel that we saw in the original DCT inthe velociter they’ve really retuned this well they’ve created somethingthat’s frankly a lot of fun to drive I keep saying that the velocity er is funto drive and it really is it’s frankly a lot more entertaining than the previousmodel it’s more comfortable it handles better the steering feel is better thebrakes they’re firm they’re progressive we haven’t gotten too rough on them andI urban drive around Detroit and some of the suburbs but you know we have tothink that under the track to really see how they hold up under serious sport usebut overall this package especially for the money it seemed like a winnerso for all of you out there that still like to drive cars and a fineentertainment value in a small sports coupe you need to check out the 2019philosopher and Veloster Turbo they start at right around nineteen thousanddollars and fully loaded you’ll go up to just under thirty grand which is a heckof a lot of car for not much money these days if you’d like to learn more aboutthe Veloster look us up at cars calmyou

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