Yesterday I had about an hour with a 6 speed Manual (Black) Veloster + (the top version in Australia until the Turbo arrives in a few months time)
Performance very "underwhelming" and less than I expected. (will elaborate further shortly)
However, the rest of the car impressed me greatly...
Very Comfortable seats (if maybe a little firm - Full leather in this model), great driving position and lovely steering wheel.
Beautifully screwed together (felt solid as a rock) Not a rattle or a creek to be heard and very quiet as well.
Direct steering with nice feel ( but no nasty kickback through the 18" wheels)
Nice positive gear change .. not at all notchy but heavier than Trish's CW (the car feels really solid all over)
Good effective brakes, again with good feel ...
Now the highlight . The ride (in particular) and the handling as well (as much as I could tell at our speed limits of 80Kph -110Kph)
was absolutely amazing.. Drives like it is on rails and yet soaks up the bumps really well.
With the sunroof, headroom is a bit tight in the front even for a guy of my height (about 5'9" - 175cm) and access to the back is tricky even though there is an extra door on the passenger side...
Rear Vision is better than you would expect..
...and minimal Tyre and wind noise (was almost as quiet as my Hybrid which is somewhat of a benchmark in that area)
So, overall extremely impressed... I was surprised after getting used to the comfort and quietness of the Hybrid that I would happily be able to drive a Veloster on a long (say 300km) drive without feeling uncomfortable or too drained..
Now for the downside ... It desperately needs that turbo which would make a good car brilliant (in my opinion)
The 1.6 GDi motor in the veloster is nice enough.. it is not overly noisy at higher revs and is happy to rev (although they take a while to build) But, there is no push in the back in any gear...
Accelerating from rest in 1st and 2nd it feels like a heavy car with a very small motor .. to accelerate past another car on the highway you need to come back from 5th or 6th gear to 3rd or 4th (which will go to the 110 Kph speed limit no problems) but even when you do this there is no push back in the seat feeling
After a 1.6 Crdi i30 or our Hybrid Camry the accelerator pedal feels dead in pretty much any gear..
The average fuel economy showing on the trip PC after my 50 Km drive was 8.8 Lph. I don't know when / if had been reset as the car had only done about 600 kms but I imagine anyone trying to get any sort of performance out of it would struggle to get the 6. something average that it is rated for.
Very impressive car but no big grin factor like you get from an i30 CRDi (even a 1.6 Getz or 2.0 Petrol i30 would eat it for breakfast.. as both these cars can be fun to drive if you are in a hurry)
Now for some photos ...
Got lots of looks and a few beeps and waves..
Like the back better than the front or side..
Headlights look great with the DRLs
The interior is almost perfect in my opinion...
