Hyundai has taken its Veloster back to the drawing board. The result? A sporty-looking economy car has become the entertaining hot hatch we’ve always wanted it to be.
This is the 2019 Hyundai Veloster Turbo R-Spec. That means it’s packing a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine making 201 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque. Paired with a slick six-speed manual and B&M shift lever, the powertrain is a wonderful leap forward over the older Veloster.
Here Hyundai has also dialed up the fun through major chassis upgrades. Out front you’ll find MacPherson struts and a 24-mm stabilizer bar. The rear end has a lightweight multi-link setup and a 19-mm stabilizer bar. Also, if you opt for the 18-inch allow wheels they arrive wearing super sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires.
Is the car perfect? Of course not, but it’s such a great leap forward compared to the prior generation car. And it only gets us that much more excited to finally drive the top-tier N Performance version of the car.
[Disclaimer: Hyundai tossed us the keys to the Veloster R-Spec and included a tank of fuel.]
2019 Hyundai Veloster: Time for a proper do over
By Jeff Glucker
Sep 13, 2018
By Jeff Glucker
Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff
Kamil Kaluski 
William Byrd
This made think of the Radio ads for a local dealer, a couple of years, that referred to this as the “Hyundai Velociter”.
It’s still an odd looking car that will keep me from checking it out, for better or worse.
I agree. It’s still ugly.
I think it’s a cool looking car. If I were in that age bracket and looking for something “fun and unique”, this would be one of the first test drives.
To each his/her own. I’m way past the target customer age group, but when I was a young twenty-something, “fun and unique” would have been a warmed-over Volvo PV544 or maybe a Datsun 510. The Veloster has the same predatory catfish mouth that seems to be going onto the front of everything from Camrys to Audis these days.
I will give Hyundai credit, though, for packing a lot of content (and decent performance) into a relatively cheap car.
Is this turbocharged 1.6L engine good?
[and by “good”, I mean “reliable”]
It’s in almost every model Hyundai or Kia makes, so I’m assuming they did their homework on it. I’m very interested in its specs, but don’t know how well it will hold up or how well any of the transmissions stuck to it will hold up (especially the 7-speed DCT).
I’ve heard this current-gen DCT has some major issues. It will overheat when put in a situation where it needs to hold a gear during a stop, like when stopped on a hill.
“I’ve heard’
–Dangerous words, those.
nice video!