2012 Hyundai Veloster

 

The all-new 2012 Hyundai Veloster is at once more practical and more adventurous than a typical sporty coupe—punctuated, from the outside, by an unusual three-door layout that features a larger door on the driver's side and two smaller doors on the passenger side.
Underneath, the Veloster borrows some of its underpinnings from the Elantra sedan, yet a redesigned, retuned suspension gives it a more nimble and confident feel on curvy roads—even though we're still not wild about the steering. Powering the Veloster is a 138-horsepower, 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that, paired with new six-speed manual or six-speed Dual Clutch automatic transmissions, returns up to 40 mpg on the highway. This setup's Achilles Heel is that it, quite simply, lacks low-rpm torque—leading to a rather gutless feel from a standing start. Get the engine revving, however, and the attitude of the car really perks