Fast Car

Well have a lot more to talk about regarding the Velosters cleanability in forthcoming updates, and were even planning a trip to the Dr. Beasleys office – the company that created the special matte paint detailing kit for the Hyundai – to have their experts show us how its done. For now, lets spend some time talking about what weve learned about the turbocharged hatch during its honeymoon phase here in the Autoblog Garage.As a daily driver, the Veloster Turbo is a pleasant little thing – easy to use while bobbing around town and comfortable enough to not warrant complaint after longer stints behind the wheel. Plus, moving or standing still, this car turns heads like you wouldnt believe. Even to my trained eye, I often find myself doing a double-take when Ive parked the car for the night, just to look back for one more glance. I even got two hearty thumbs-up from fellow Velosters driver (base cars) out on the road. That three-door configuration has proved to be fairly functional thus far – not so much for passengers (ingress and egress is easier than a normal coupe, but less useful than a traditional four door), but having an extra door to throw things in the rear seat is incredibly useful. All good things in terms of the overall package.During one leg of an already long weekend of driving, a friends six-year-old kid was riding along in the back seat. When he got into his car seat, without even being asked, he said, "Its not big enough for my head." In other words, theres not a lot of rear head room in the Veloster.

Only a few of us have driven the Veloster as of this writing, but were already having debates about at least one of the Velosters driving aspects. For example, I find the six-speed manual shifter of our test car to be pretty objectionable in terms of overall user engagement – I think the throws between gears are short, sure, but the act of moving the stick isnt pleasing. Its notchy, and not in a good way, and the short, stubby stick feels flimsy. Its noisy when clicking between gears, too. I seem to be the only person having this issue, however, as senior editor Seyth Miersma has now called me an fool on several occasions – he praises the Velosters box, citing short throws and solid engagement. Ill be curious to see how the rest of the staff regards it as the months progress.One issue, though, is that theres a lot of wind noise inside the cabin while driving on the highway – enough so that when my phone rings via Bluetooth and Im driving above 60 miles per hour, I feel like I have to shout just so the person on the other end can hear me above all the racket. I recently had a phone conversation with editor-in-chief John Neff while driving the Veloster, and he noted that he could barely hear me over all the racket. Some of the issue could also be placement or quality of the mic, too.Since the cars delivery in mid-January, weve added just over 2,500 miles to the odometer and according to our handy-dandy logbook, were averaging 26.8 miles per gallon in relatively mixed cold-weather driving. Thats slightly lower than the EPA-estimated 28 mpg combined rating (24/35 city/highway), but quite admirable considering how enthusiastically we tend to drive. Well see how that changes over the coming months.

Next up on the Velosters docket: A few weeks down in Ohio with boss man John Neff. Stay tuned for his thoughts in next months update, and keep your eyes locked on our Facebook and Twitter feeds for on-the-fly impressions.