I'm getting out on this side of the back seat of the Hyundai Veloster because I can't get out of that side.
One of the keynotes on this vehicle, asymmetrical doors, 2 here, one over there.
That one's longer, this one's small.
There's a lot more to this car than just strangeness.
Let's drive the 2012 Hyundai Veloster brand new model for them and check this out.
Two things struck me about the Veloster the first minute I got in.
First of all the 7-inch color LCD is standard though it doesn't always have NAV.
That's an optional package we'll get to.
And it has acres of nasty plastic.
Hard plastic everywhere with kind of a..
I don't know if that's something in between a full carbon fiber and a little sort of a herringbone, but it's not really attractive, but bear the car's price point in mind at around 18 grand.
To have this full head unit, you got to option of for the tech package 2000 more and it requires something called the style package which is $2,000 as well.
So let's say it's 4 grand to go seen that style like I'm gonna show you.
I like the Hyundai head unit.
I have for a long time.
All your favorite media sources, the AM FM, no HD radio, satellite radio is XM, you get traffic from that as well when you're in the navigation.
This is a nice looking map.
I think this is one of the better rendered out there and for a car at this price range, that's saying something.
It's a touch screen of course and quite responsive.
I don't find it has any lag to speak of and the buttons basically react the way you want them to when you hit them.
You got an optical slot right here for your CD and there's also a USB Aux Classic Hyundai Kia stuff.
They just about all have this, which gives you your iPad USB and anything else by Aux jack.
With the Nav package we've bumped ourselves up to $2,000 tech package, we also get Bluetooth streaming.
I don't believe that that's in the car without that package.
You get decent controls for bluetooth streaming, no advance or back tracking, minimum at a tags and noticed it does have support for Pandora app on your smartphones through bluetooth streaming as well.
And you got the back-up camera here.
Again, that's part of this navigation or tech package.
Pretty basic, just gives you some distance markings.
It also includes rear sensors.
The Style Package, the $2,000 package, you gotta have before you get the tech package which is kind of tricky stuff brings you the dimension audio system like 450 watts.
It's actually sounding pretty darn good for a car on this price class.
Now, this car has Hyundai blue link, kind of an on star on (steroids>) including POI search and download with agent assistance, the usual SOS and road side help, valet boundaries and stolen vehicles slow down in tracking.
You can share your location via Facebook.
Use voice command to compose SMS texts and with an app on your smartphone, lock, unlock, remote smart and blow the horn, and flicking the lights on and off.
You see we have the 6-speed manual here.
At your base gear box, you can also get a 6 (kugg?) dual clutch, the DCT for 1250 (??).
Yes, there's that tail tale click.
It's a direct injection car.
Gas direct injection.
No turbos running on or sense like that.
1.6 liter, kind of small, in fact, about the smallest DI car I think we've tested and one of the smaller in the industry.
Gets a 138 horsepower, 123 foot-pound of torque.
The car only weighs 2,700 pounds, so those numbers aren't as concerning as they seem.
You get to 60 in about 8-1/2 seconds while delivering 2840 mpg with the manual, 40 is the magic number these days.
If you get the DCT, you lose that headline and you end up with 2938.
You pick up one of the city, but lose 2 on the freeway.
Now, let's go see what's it's like on both.
Well, the first thing you noticed in this Veloster is there's not a lot of velocity in the Veloster.
Two words, gut less.
Unfortunately, the numbers on this engine don't lie.
It's lacking some power that it really kind of needs, so that's a little disappointing.
Beyond that, the gear box is a nice one.
The handling is fine.
It's not dramatically sporty, but this isn't a sport trimmed car, but they'll add a turbo sport trim later.
And the steering is a little bit technical, shall we say.
It's electric power steering and certainly around town as you're driving and nibbling around or if you're out on the road, it's...
it's a little numb.
It's precise in a clean linear sense, but it doesn't give you any road free (??).
All in all it's a perfectly nice car to drive, if it had more under the throttle, it really does and it sort of doesn't answer when you get on the pedal not with anything convincing.
That's the main theme I take away from driving the Veloster.
Okay, the Veloster is about an $18,000 ride, but you to get to seen that style, you gotta add the style package for 2 grand which is mostly panoramic roof and upgraded audio.
All the other tech comes in the tech package 2000 more, but you have to have the style package to get the tech package, so assume you're gonna have 4 grand and buy this car for about 22.
