Mini Cooper S 5-Door V Hyundai Veloster Turbo

One of these is a revelation; the other a masterclass in knowing your audience. Which is which?

- Andy Enright

We’ve all been there. Trying to make a bad idea good is something most of us experience every day. It never starts out as a dumb idea, of course, but as we learn more, the seed of doubt is planted. From there, we create ever more tenuous justifications before finally admitting defeat. It’s tempting to think of the original Hyundai Veloster as that bad idea. It was a lukewarm front-drive coupe with two doors on one side and one on the other and, to be honest, was never a particularly great car.

Here’s the odd thing, though. As mundane as the Veloster’s execution sounds, it was hugely successful. Its biggest market was the US where it sold a total of 169,411 units between 2011 and 2017. By contrast, in the same market for an equivalent duration from launch, the Toyota 86 found 72,762 homes. Add the Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S versions and the total creeps up to 106,580. The Mazda MX-5 shifted 51,854. Therefore, it goes without saying that in terms of cash through the front door, the second-generation Veloster has a lot to live up to.

Given the fact that Hyundai now has one of the best vehicle dynamics teams in the business, responsible for developing the impressive N-badged sports models, it’s fair to say that our expectations of this latest Veloster had been ratcheted up a bit. Not through the roof, though, as we don’t get the full-on Veloster N here in Oz given it’s left-hand drive only. That car has proven such a hit in the US that it walked away with Road & Track magazine’s prestigious 2020 Performance Car of the Year award, beating the likes of the BMW M2 Comp, Lamborghini Huracan Evo and Porsche 911 Carrera S. You can’t do that with mediocre underpinnings.