Driven to Extinction: Hyundai Veloster

Did anyone ask for a sports coupe with two doors on one side and one on the other? It’s not really a buying criterion that leaps out to me. Designers have periodically toyed with asymmetry, but it’s rarely been successful. Details like the Ferrari Testarossa’s single mirror or the Porsche 924 Turbo’s offset bonnet NACA duct add visual tension, but the asymmetric door thing? Against all odds, Hyundai made this gimmick work.

The problem with such stylistic curlicues is that they tend to dominate the vehicle’s public perception. Beneath the sheetmetal the Veloster evolved into a very good driver’s car. But by then it had perhaps garnered a reputation for style over substance.

When Wheels first tested the 103kW atmo version back in April 2012, it lost to a Honda CR-Z.

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It was only when we got our hands on the punchier 150kW Veloster Turbo that things changed, the Korean coupe easily rolling over the Holden Astra GTC Sport in March 2013.

The Veloster’s problem at this point is that the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ twins arrived, and it ceded pole position in the sales charts to the Toyota until 2016, to the Ford Mustang thereafter and then to almost everything.

In the US, the first-gen car shifted a total of 169,411 units between 2011 and 2017. By contrast, in the same market for an equivalent duration from launch, the Toyota 86, Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S combined to sell a total of 106,580. The Mazda MX-5 shifted 51,854. Game, set and match, Namyang.

The second-gen JS Veloster arrived in 2018 and it was a far better resolved driver’s car than its predecessor with an improved cabin and a whole load of safety updates built in, but its Aussie sales were mediocre.

It was a shame that Australia missed out on the Veloster N that won Road & Track’s 2020 Performance Car of the Year award, sending the Lamborghini Huracan Evo, the BMW M2 Competition and the Porsche 992 Carrera S packing in the process. Nevertheless, the Veloster Turbo had quietly morphed into a very competent corner carver.

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With 150kW on tap, a sub-7 second sprint to 100km/h is possible, and it’s a sleeper of surprising elan. It’d be fun to take one to a track day on a testing circuit and watch supercar drivers tie themselves in knots trying to drive away from it. It’s almost Honda Integra Type R-like in terms of resistance to understeer, which is high praise indeed.

Unfortunately, the price had crept up significantly, and when we tested the Turbo in July 2020 against a Mini Cooper S five-door, it felt as if the Korean car was starting to exhaust its brand equity a little at just over $42,000, especially when the i30 N existed. In becoming a better car, it contrived to price itself into obsolescence.

Towards the end of its life sales slowed to a trickle, the Veloster becoming something of an outlier for a company that was rapidly garnering a reputation for building some of the most exciting, progressive and ruthlessly targeted vehicles in the business. The answer to a question nobody asked? Think of it instead as something underrated and surprisingly refreshing.

With 150kW on tap, a sub-7 second sprint to 100km/h is possible, and it’s a sleeper of surprising elan.

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The one that got away

The 202kW Veloster N was offered in the US with a choice of a six-speed manual or an eight-speed dual-clutch that came with an overboost function lifting peak torque from 353 to 377Nm.

Thus equipped, it was capable of a 0-100km/h time in five flat on a prepared strip. It’s similar to what we expect from an i30 N hatch, but the US didn’t get that car so no wonder the Yanks got a bit excited.

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Aussie Hyundai Veloster sales