Description

The 2013 Hyundai Veloster is for the type of person who likes to be different. Maybe she wears colorful shoes or claims her favorite Beatle is Ringo. Maybe he's a Yankee fan who wears a red version of the iconic cap. Such people might want (or can only afford) an economy car, but driving to an indie rock festival in a Hyundai Accent or Elantra would be just too darn ordinary. With the Veloster, you definitely won't be getting ordinary. From the driver side, this funky hatchback looks like a regular two-door. Turn it 180 degrees, though, and it looks like a four-door thanks to the perfectly normal-looking rear door. You can think of this unusual three-door setup as a variation on the mullet -- business on the right, party on the left. It gives you a sporty look like a coupe on one side while delivering practical access for rear passengers like a sedan on the other. Maybe it makes sense, maybe it doesn't, but it's certainly different. Yet like colorful shoes, the Veloster must still serve a practical purpose. Its backseat does sacrifice room for fashion, but it can still fit two people more easily than other different hatchbacks like the Fiat 500, Mini Cooper or VW Beetle. The Veloster also delivers great value, since its reasonable price includes a truly impressive number of standard features, plus a great many more are available as options. As a vehicle to get you from home to the rock festival, the Veloster is perfectly acceptable. If you expect more -- either in terms of refinement or driving fun -- you might want to be different with, well, something different. The base engine does not deliver the velocity this car's name implies, as the standard Veloster is actually slower than subcompacts like the Chevy Sonic or even the Hyundai Accent. The Veloster has even become a little slower for 2013 when equipped with the optional automated manual transmission, sacrificing some horsepower and torque in favor of a fuel economy increase to an EPA-estimated 37 mpg on the highway. There is some extra velocity to be found this year, however, thanks to the addition of a new Turbo model that packs 201 hp. This is a much stronger engine that still gets decent fuel economy, but even with this extra oomph, the Veloster remains slower than cars like the Mini Cooper S or Volkswagen GTI. Its handling isn't as sharp either, while the suspension delivers a harsh and insufficiently damped ride across the bumps. In other words, the 2013 Hyundai Veloster isn't as fun to drive as you'd expect, nor is it as comfortable as it should be. We definitely recommend looking at some of the alternatives, but there's no taking away this funky hatchback's interesting mix of value and practicality. It's also really different.