Neither coupe nor sedan, the three-door hatchback sports a style like nothing else on the market
Three is a lonely number in the auto industry. It was once used to describe coupe hatchbacks as a "three-door" because carmakers' silly aversion to the word "hatchback."
And coupes, most of which are actually hatchbacks, are rarely popular outside of the sports car segment.
But now Hyundai has put a new twist on the number 3 — creating a sporty compact car that defies logic and description. Technically, the 2012 Hyundai Veloster is not a coupe; it comes with three working doors. Those three doors also mean that it's one opening short of a sedan; though its rear hatch, which carmakers insist is a door, when it isn't, means the Veloster could be labeled a four-door sedan.
The little 1.6-liter direct injection engine gives the Veloster some muscle with 138 horsepower and 123 pound-feet of torque. That's more than enough to tool around town or cruise down the highway. There are paddle-like shifters with the automatic that can help hold gears longer for additional pick up.
The Veloster seems to handle itself on the road pretty well. During a day of driving, the stiff, light body (the manual model tips the scales at just over 2,500 pounds) handled itself very well. The electric rack-and-pinion steering is not as firm as you'd expect in a sports car, but it holds itself well through corners and feels comfortable on the highway.
The manual Veloster will get you 40 mpg highway and 28 mpg city. (The automatic Veloster hits 29 mpg city and 38 mpg highway.)
A look that stands out
But the Veloster is different than all of those compact cars. It has a very distinctive look, like nothing else on the market.
The low, flat roofline gives it a unique profile, and if you opt for the $2,000-style package, the roof looks as if it's entirely made of glass. (It's part of the Panoramic sunroof.) That package also includes 18-inch wheels that look fantastic stuffed up inside its flared fenders.
The low clearance — 5.6 inches — gives the Veloster a mean street look. Its front face is taut and the headlights stretch back and cut into the fenders. The tiny grille and open intakes below the bumper add to that aggressive look.
The rear is equally as mean. The dual glass hatch looks better from the outside looking in than the inside looking out. (You'll see the bar that connects the pieces in your rear view mirror, though your view is not that obstructed.) And the dual chrome tipped exhaust pipes add a shiny jewel to the tail of the package.
The interior is appealing with comfortable, well-bolstered seats, and an asymmetrical dash and lots of gadgets to play with.
There's a nice feel to the front two seats, and the Veloster feels techno-friendly and spacious. There's a 7-inch, high-resolution touch screen at the top of the center stack that is bookended with long, narrow vents.
The controls below the screen are easy to use.
The Veloster also features Hyundai's Blue Link, the next step in telematics and infotainment. It's much more than Bluetooth connectivity and doesn't require a smartphone. There are three basic layers: Assurance, Essentials and Guidance.
Assurance includes safety assistance, collision help (when airbags deploy) and roadside assistance. Think Korean OnStar.
Essentials includes voice-text messaging (which requires the phone to be connected to the car via Bluetooth) and location sharing, which at the touch of a button on the mirror sends your car's location to a predetermined group of friends and your Facebook page. Guidance adds all of the navigation assistance pieces such as traffic alerts, route guidance and the price of gas at nearby locations, as well as turn-by-turn navigation.
Really, none of the ideas are new to the automotive world, but Hyundai has done a good job of packaging them. It will take a few minutes to review and learn them before getting on the road, but it's time well spent.
And of course, there's that third door. The second-row door is on the passenger's side to make it safer for curbside unloading and loading. Really, that makes more sense.
Source: detnews.com
