Where girl meets boy

AMONG the coupés on sale in SA today, the Veloster is a real boy meets girl kind of car.

It has the looks. It’s got the goods. And after boy met girl and they made whoopee, it has a third door on the kerb side. For dropping the dear little ones off safely at school, so that they don’t step in front of traffic, see?

The Veloster is aimed at grown-up drivers. Six long-ratio gears, matched to a high-revving 1,6 engine combine to accelerate the 1,3-ton body in much the same way a boy racer’s aunt does on her zimmerframe.

And yet, the Veloster is surprisingly stable in the corners, despite ye olde torsion beam set up at the back. Low-profile tyres and all 167 Newtons kicking in at 4 850 revs enable the low Korean to enter and exit a turn at pretty much the same speed.

While it is average in turns, the Veloster excells at turning heads.
 Especially heads on women’s bodies. In fact, only in the Landrover Evoque have the motley crew at The Witness attracted so much attention. But as the video shows, the female fans want to drive the Veloster themselves. With all their girl friends.

Good thing then that there is ample legroom front and rear. Even for the seat without a door.

The driver’s seat does tilt forward to allow someone in, but the long door ends up banging into everything and the space is, as they say, “toit”.

It is easier for the rear passengers to use the third door, even if this means one of them will have to get her leg over the centre console. A key point here is that no one minded. Perhaps this is part of the low-slung Korean’s secrect allure?

For our female audience the most memorable thing about the Veloster is not the forced butt-slide across the rear cupholders, but the high resolution screen that shows everything in the rear quite clearly.

The sound system also links easily to Bluetooth devices, making this a car to sit and be entertained in, rather than have an entertaining drive with.

Compared to the other coupés out there, the Veloster is not the cheapest.

R179 900 Chery J3 1.6 TSE 

(87 kW, 147 Nm)

 If it is just the lines you want, consider Chery’s J3, at some R130 000 less with a good sound system and four doors.

Renault’s Megane Coupé 1,6 sells for about R40 000 less, with all the whistles, but fewer bells.

If it is a fast coupé you want, Honda’s CR-Z hybrid (R332 800) gets up a nice turn of speed, while VW’s Scirocco (starting at R318 400 for 1,4 TS Highline) is proving its pedigree with R-cup racing.

R318 400 VW Sirocco
1,4 TS Highline (118 kW, 240 Nm)

R219 900 Renault Megane coupé
1.6 Expression (81 kW, 151 Nm)

Compared to all these coupés, the Veloster offers the best-priced combination of looks and goods at some R260 000. Best news of all, Hyundai in Pietermaritzburg says they “will see you right” if you come and talk about the sales price.

Compared to all these coupés, the Veloster offers the best-priced combination of looks and goods at some R260k. Best news of all, Hyundai in Pietermaritzburg says they ‘will see you right’ if you come and talk about the sales price.

(Impressions gathered in a vehicle sponsored by the manufacturer.)

Coupé competitors:

R179 900 Chery J3 1.6 TSE (87 kW, 147 Nm)

R219 900 Renault Megane coupé 1.6 Expression (81 kW, 151 Nm)

R259 900 Huyndai Veloster (103 kW, 167 Nm)

R318 400 VW Sirocco 1,4 TS Highline (118 kW, 240 Nm)

R332 800 Honda CR-Z hybrid (101 kW, 190e Nm)