I wouldn't be caught dead in it

But it’s not door count or horsepower or weight that disqualifies the Veloster from second-coming-of-CRX status. It’s that the Veloster just isn’t that much fun to drive. It feels heavier than its roughly 2700-pound curb weight suggests. And its feel-free steering, although accurate, brings no joy. The steering happens to have the least amount of self-centering that we’ve felt in some time. After a turn, the wheel is apparently content to lie on its side, lifeless, instead of preparing for its next assignment.

That’s a shame, because the chassis it commands is competent. Maybe not spritely, but at least the MacPherson-strut-front and torsion-beam-rear suspension does an admirable job of snubbing roll without beating the driver senseless. The Veloster circled our skidpad at a mediocre 0.82 g. The Scion tC, which Hyundai lists as a Veloster competitor, returns 0.86 g of grip. It’s a nice middle-ground tuning that should satisfy those looking for an economy car wearing a snazzy outfit.

But it’s not your left leg you’ll be worrying about. It’s your right leg that will be tired at the end of a drive, what with you trying to cram the accelerator through the floorboards. The so-called Gamma 1.6-liter direct-injection engine is a kindly enough motor, but it’s small and has low peak torque—123 lb-ft—at a high 4850 rpm. You have to work it over to make decent progress, and in our testing, the car needed 8.5 seconds to get to 60 mph. That’s more than 1.5 seconds slower to 60 mph than the Scion. The Veloster trundled through the quarter-mile in 16.7 seconds at 84 mph. A turbo is on the way within a year’s time.


On the upside, when you’re not beating on the Veloster, the EPA reckons it will return 28 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway when equipped with the manual. With the dual-clutch tranny, the Veloster is predicted to return 29/38 mpg. In an attempt to keep things fun, our foot-to-the-floor driving style yielded a not-very-impressive 25 mpg average.