Have you ever had to find a way to survive and you knew your choices were bad but you had to survive?
Irving Rosenfeld, " American Hustle "
The car rental lottery is a fun thing. Some days you win; Other days, you end up having your olfactory receptors attacked by an invisible army of chemical vapors forming plastic.
Faced with choosing between a Dart Dodge, Chrysler 0, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Veloster last Monday, I called our fearless leader, "Which of these things do we need a review of"
After Mark did a quick reading of the history of the site, we agreed that, since our last review Veloster was over four years, I would grab the key visual, uh, interesting Hyundai.
This is a decision that I was sorry for.
My first leg with the Veloster was two hours drive along I-96 from Detroit to Grand Rapids, a stretch of road that no one will ever confuse the dragon's tail. Compounding the joy of this highway the car was a particularly nasty winter storm, spewing freezing rain and snow alternating the Wagnerian symphonic movements. Large facilities highways Michigan plowed by precipitation with nary a care, followed closely by Tahoes and Suburbans First ubiquitous GM family-Plan purchased, all happy to spit their wake slushy directly in my path.
The Veloster - that is, for all purposes, a bigger emphasis - rebelled against all my entries. The 132 horsepower, the 1.6 liter engine mated to a dual-clutch six-speed transmission has refused to do anything to help move a considerable weight of the car on the way to my companions. This DCT comes with what might be the most useless game of paddle shifters in the history of humanity; so well hidden behind the wheel even Hyundai does not want you to know that they exist. I do not blame them, because damn pallets do not make a difference in stroke. As the heart of Selena Gomez, the DCT wants what he wants, and your desired speed selection is just not that important.
I have not instrumented tests to back this up, but the Veloster perhaps the slowest car 50-70 mph I have ever driven. You can just not do in the Veloster what you used to do in the other car - like, I do not know passing -. because neither the power nor the necessary reactivity are present
Fortunately, you can not see out of it.
This is what it looks like when you turn your head to look through the rear window. Do not bother using the mirror; it is completely unnecessary. The passenger side mirror literally could not be placed in a safe driving position. In its most extreme setting, the rear fenders of the bulbous Veloster take about half of the mirror when viewed by a man 5 feet 9 inches. I think the safest thing to do was to simply draw my course in the right lane, set the cruise at 70, and that all these Tahoes roll by.
arriving in Grand Rapids, I found myself in the middle of a snow storm a little better with big soft flakes covering the ground. The snow was pretty cool that most of it quietly asked, but he was falling fast enough to have covered almost all surfaces completely. It reminded me of the days of my youth when, aged 12 baby-faced year, I sat laughing in the passenger seat of Volkswagen Fox of my elder brother as he performed e-brake donuts in parking lots Dublin, Ohio.
What - I thought -. might as well have fun in this thing
I disabled the traction control of the Veloster, headed to the parking lot behind the Mexican restaurant boarded up on 28th Street, and proceeded to make some snow art with the Veloster. I remembered how much fun at low power car four-wheel drive can be when combined with a little reckless behavior. In fact, if I took the Veloster directly to the car rental counter at GRR airport and dropped it off, we could have parted as friends. Alas, I still had to keep the damn thing for the rest of the week.
The quality of the Veloster ride can be described as absent. I would have suspected that there was something broken in the suspension, if it were not a new car. He turned as its front struts have been disconnected, communicating absolutely no feedback to the driver. And the combined sound of the engine and the tires looked like mechanical hamster reports
The small sedan Hyundai's interior is the prototype Strobelight Honey -. It is quite attractive until you look closely. Each surface is strong enough to cause bruising. The steering wheel is downright unpleasant to grasp. The seats offer little or no support to the driver, even if they have a certain elegant stitching them to remember that it is in fact a Veloster, and not an Accent.
The rear seat is small enough to be essentially useless in practical applications. No one except the little children will be comfortable in the back of the cabin for any length of time, and even they could complain. I get that the Veloster is a little weird and interesting with his third door on the passenger side door and no rear driver's side, but I would say that the function is overwhelmed by the form. Put another door on this thing, or get rid of the third.
The just in the base Veloster stereo flat sucks, and "bass boost mode" only makes it worse. However, the 7-inch touch screen is a highlight, and the system is easy to use and navigate. In addition, there is some fuel economy fun game you can play if you are bored enough, who - let's face it -. You will be
In typical Hyundai / Kia mode, Bluetooth and XM Radio are standard, as well as a USB charging port, but the floor mats are optional . My rent was less than a thousand miles when I picked it up. After a week of winter, the floors looked like the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Can we get some floormats up here? This is simply disgusting. Go, Hyundai.
The only place that the Veloster has not disappointed was in the storage space. The hatch opens to reveal a lot more room in my Fiesta ST, and more than in any comparable car. He easily swallowed my suitcase and a 26-inch laptop bag without complaining. The rear seats can be folded flat to almost even more space if necessary.
But let's be honest. The real reason why everyone buys a Veloster is because it looks like the car a cool, younger person. It is not intended to be driven by grumpy men in their late 30s it is intended to be purchased by children in their early 20s to mid, maybe even their first new car ever. In this sense, it reminds me of another Hyundai, and your humble author possessed: the Tiburon
The second generation Tiburon was similar to the Veloster in many ways - sporty, not if . -sporty inside - and 22-year-old Bark thought it was cool enough to buy an example of a manual transmission in black. It was slightly more powerful than Veloster, and perhaps a bit faster, but the general intent was the same. So maybe I'm being a little harsh on this modern version of shark inspired coupe from Hyundai. But I'm probably not.
My Veloster rent, even without mats, the specifications for $ 19,935. I guess that Hyundai done this way so that it can announce the original compact to be under $ 20,000, because every single Veloster within 500 miles of me had the optional carpet lead the sticker price up $ 20,050. The car I think the most logical against-shop against the Veloster, Scion tC, 21155 $ clocks, and it does not take into account the excellent chance that you will be able to buy a discount versus Veloster the strategy to a Scion tC for the price. However, the tC has an honest to God real engine; although the tC is not a true sports coupe, at least it looks like a
The recommendation Bark :. if looks calling Veloster to you (and it's frankly the only reason to consider buying one), you should pony extra money for the R-Spec edition that includes a turbocharged version the 1.6 liter engine with 201 horsepower, better suspension, Torque Vectoring Control and real stereo system, all for about $ 22,435. However, at this price, you get into territory Fiesta ST and the Veloster does not part of the FIST when it comes to driving dynamics.
In other words, the base Veloster is in no way, shape or form a good car. I'm not just happy to make it, I'm totally looking forward
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