Extracting 45.6 percent more horsepower from the same 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine lets this car live up to its edgy looks, while still getting outstanding fuel economy.
Goosing the performance of this unusual little front-wheel-drive subcompact improves its marketability, too. It's what Hyundai calls a "reverse halo," offering a fun car at the bottom of the lineup, rather than an expensive tease at the top.
Starting at $21,950, the Veloster Turbo is $4,500 more expensive than the regular Veloster, but it comes with standard heated leather seats, a 7-inch in-dash touch screen that can play video games when the car is stopped, a 450-watt, eight-speaker audio system with satellite radio and Bluetooth compatibility for smart phone integration and audio streaming from portable devices or Pandora. It lets you verbally respond to text messages.
The Turbo edition is more expensive than a box-stock Mini Cooper S, less expensive than Volkswagen GTI, Mazdaspeed3 and Ford Focus ST, and about the same as Honda Civic Si and Fiat Abarth.
A Veloster Turbo with every available option tops out at $26,320, which is less than any fully loaded competitors.
To handle its 201 horsepower and 195-pound-feet of torque, Veloster Turbo rides on a firm, sport-turned suspension, bigger disc brakes, standard 18-inch matt-finished alloy wheels with alternating shiny chrome spokes, and performance tires rated for up to 149 mph.
Will the car go that fast? I didn't get a chance to find out while driving on back roads from Superior Township — near Hyundai's technical center — toward the rolling Irish Hills, but the Turbo Veloster is a lot more fun than the standard 138-horsepower version.
The Turbo Veloster's power compares with the Civic Si and GTI. It bests the Mini and Fiat. The 250-horsepower-plus Focus ST and Mazdaspeed3 are the performance monsters among front-wheel-drive hatchbacks. The Veloster Turbo, however, sips regular gasoline while the others burn premium.
Built for economy
The standard Veloster with its six-speed automatic transmission was introduced last year with an EPA-rated 29 mpg city and 40 highway. But the car's edgy looks appealed to enthusiasts who ordered almost a third of all Velosters with six-speed manual transmissions. Hyundai's response to this crowd is the more powerful engine.The best option with the turbocharged version is the six-speed manual transmission that gets 26 mpg city and 38 highway.
The six-speed automatic transmission costs $1,000 extra and manages to kill the sporty feel while dragging highway economy down to 25 mpg city and 34 highway.
Hyundai says the new suspension is sport-tuned, but this is not a race car. The electric power steering is light and quick. The turning radius is tight. The firm suspension and low profile tires can deliver bone-jarring pothole hits.
The torsion beam rear suspension can get loose on rough roads.
The tail end jumped sideways when I hit some chatters while accelerating through a couple of sweeping turns on the roads between Ann Arbor and Michigan International Speedway.
At the racetrack, I got to hustle the car through a parking lot gymkhana course restricted to no higher than second gear speeds. It was easy to produce both understeer and oversteer. But that's easily controlled. Just don't corner that fast. And if you do, the car can be tossed with enthusiasm. I was smiling the whole time.
The face of the turbo model got the current industry standard treatment for a "sporty" car: a giant open black maw of a grille. There are new fog lamps and projector headlights surrounded by LED markers. Aerodynamic side fairings complement Veloster's prominently flared fenders. Getting past Veloster's odd but useful asymmetrical three side doors, the Turbo model's exterior design is most interesting in the back.
A pair of chromed exhaust pipes juts through the center of what looks like a diffuser panel under the rear of the car.
Hyundai says the exhaust note is improved over the sound generated by the standard Veloster's trapezoidal exhaust ports. An interesting rear spoiler bridges the rear window.
Leather door panels
The surprising second door on the passenger side is actually pretty handy, especially if you have a young one to strap into a child seat. Watch your head, though. The roofline slopes dramatically downward for a hatchback. The rear seats provide some foot space, but little headroom. This 6-footer didn't fit. The front seat area is roomier than I expected. The wheels are pushed to the corners and the cabin is pushed to the wheel wells.
The interior features soft-touch leather-like materials on the door panels, but only hard plastic on the dash. The comfortable and well-bolstered black leather seats come with gray or bright blue panels.
Hyundai also is offering a trendy, matt-gray paint job. This kind of finish has been offered by the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. But Hyundai requires the buyer to sign a waiver after receiving extensive instructions on special methods and products needed to clean the surface. It must be hand-washed; wax will ruin the finish.
Hyundai is doing something right. The South Korean manufacturer is selling cars in the U.S. as fast as it can make them. Sales are up 13 percent, with 357,000 sold through the first half of the year.
June was a record sales month, with 63,813 cars sold, moving Hyundai ahead of Ford to place fourth in U.S. car sales behind Toyota, Honda and Chevrolet.
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