Published:
9 October 2013Without challenging the class leaders in the comfort stakes, the Hyundai Veloster rides in a crisp, respectable style. There’s a firm edge to the body control, which occasionally makes it seem busy over particularly coarse ground, but by and large the car adapts to British roads with little real fuss. Its basic compliancy, together with breezy steering, light pedals and perky engine, make the Hyundai a straightforward and undemanding prospect at regular speeds.
Issues only arise when you attempt to apply a coupé-like sense of energetic progress to proceedings. Hyundai has seen to it that the insubstantial steering acquires some weight at speed, but it has failed to find any real feedback through the first few degrees of input on the slow, elastic rack.
The paucity of initial feel is exacerbated by the Veloster’s lack of bite on turn-in, which is allied to a tendency to fritter away traction like a diesel locomotive on icy rails. The net result is a frustrating shortage of confidence in the car’s capacity to accommodate the enthusiastic driver.
That’s unfortunate, because there are indications that Hyundai has made some effort to embellish the model’s responses. An unexpectedly reactive rear end has been engineered into the Veloster, making it possible to adjust the wayward nose’s line through judicious throttle modulation. However, the outcome can be precarious under heavy braking from high speeds, where the car displays a worrying propensity for waywardness.
