TEST DRIVE: Inhabitat Drives The Futuristic Three-Door Hyundai Veloster Coupe

Inhabitat recently had the chance to test the new <a title="Hyundai Veloster" href="http://www.hyundaiusa.com/veloster/" target="_blank">Hyundai Veloster</a>, which is available for purchase as a 2012 model for the first time - and we absolutely loved it. The all-new Veloster is a wonder of design made affordable, and it's the closest we have ever seen a <a title="Inhabitat: concept car" href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=concept+car" target="_blank">concept car</a> come to holding its best features through to production. What's so great about the Veloster? Well first of all, it has one door on the driver's side but two on the passenger side of the car, making it a unique three-door coupe with a hatch in the rear. The shape of the Veloster also makes it stand out, with rakish angles that essentially slice the entire top off a normal compact hatch. The front doors are so angled at the top that they are welded together from two pieces of metal - something we have never seen in a modern production car. This lends the car a sporty stance and lowers its center of gravity for better handling than you would expect from a compact car. But best of all, the Veloster manages to pack a <a title="Inhabitat: Honda Insight Hybrid Test Drive, Laura K. Cowan" href="http://inhabitat.com/test-drive-inhabitat-tests-the-real-world-mileage-of-the-2012-honda-insight-hybrid/" target="_blank">start-stop button ignition</a>, <a title="Wikipedia: manumatic" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manumatic" target="_blank">manumatic</a> gear shifting, and a world-class infotainment system into a little car that only costs $17,300 to start. We had a hard time giving up our little tester when the week was up, and we expect to see the Veloster change the way people view Hyundai.

We took our tester to downtown Ann Arbor, where the historic Michigan Theater made a nice backdrop to our unique little city car.

The Veloster marks a new design language for Hyundai, which is moving up in the world in terms of exterior and interior design.

Note the new front end shapes and unique headlights. Everyone who asked us about this little car was surprised to learn it was a Hyundai.

The Veloster is compact, but it still manages a muscular stance in the front.

While on the left side there is only one driver door, on the right the Veloster sneaks in two doors. The beauty is in the fact that the line of the windows is exactly the same.

The Veloster defies categorization, as it is not only a three-door coupe but also a hatchback, with the sharply angled rear window of a Prius.

The rear hatch makes use of a split rear window for maximum visibility, just like the Volt and Prius, but has a slightly more hatchback look from the rear.

The roof of the Veloster runs smoothly down to the rear taillights. While parked next to a Prius, we couldn't help but notice that the super streamlined Veloster is 2 inches shorter than the petite Prius.

Is it us, or is this the font from Cars the movie?

On the driver's side, the Veloster works just like a standard coupe, with a driver seat the pushes forward for rear seat access. The front passenger seat does the same, but the rear passenger can enter from a small but standard-style door on the rear right of the car.

The interior door handle betrays the low price level of this car, but you won't mind a few lower-end trim bits when you only pay $17,300 to start for such a sporty little runaround.

The Veloster has such sharp angles on the top of its doors that they are welded from two pieces of straight-edge metal at the top of the windows.

There is the rear passenger door handle, so subtly blended into the lines of the car you might miss it.

The hatch opens wide and lifts the grocery cover off the cargo space, which is shallow but wide.

You could fit groceries and plenty of other gear in the back of the Veloster, so long as it isn't bulky in more than one dimension.

A state-of-the-art cockpit is more than we expected from such an inexpensive little car. The start-stop button that brings the Veloster to life is located in the center stack below the infotainment system.

The steering wheel is pretty standard, except that it has manu-matic shifters on the back, a feature usually reserved for more luxurious vehicles. You can also manually shift via the gear lever, or leave it in automatic.

The Veloster is not a hybrid or electric car, so the instrument cluster stays pretty simple. We averaged the expected 31 miles per gallon during our travels, though you could do much better with careful driving.

Every function of the infotainment system is condensed into one easy-to-use system on the center stack. While many newer cars seem to be spreading the HVAC system controls all over the dashboard, the Veloster keeps them in one location under the navigation screen.

We love how this image of a spunky little Veloster pops up whenever you turn on the car. Ready, racers?

Satellite and AM/FM radio are controlled via the info screen.

Hyundai must have been working on this navigation system for a while, because it functions seamlessly, a good sight better than most nav systems of just a couple years ago.

Select your route from a variety of options on this screen, then proceed to the highlighted route.

The Veloster allows you to choose your route via the map or by inputting the address manually or from a list of favorites.

A subtle test of the navigation system is to see if the map is updated enough to register the fact that a road near home does not connect through to the north, a common mistake on Google Maps that has only been updated in the newest of vehicle navigation systems.

The Veloster backup camera marks out the safe space you have to back up, then highlights the danger zone behind your bumper. The Veloster has slightly large blind spots due to the shape of the back pillars behind the passenger windows, so this feature came in handy.

That start-stop button makes you feel like you're powering up a little race car. We love how it is located front and center in the dash, instead of in its legacy position by the steering column. If you don't need keys to turn on your car, why not put the button anywhere you want?

A fabulous feature of the Veloster is its one-and-a-half sized sunroof, which gives your head a little breathing room in the rakishly shaped car. Rear passengers can enjoy the window on top, too. This is the largest sunroof that would fit this roof, and it extends over the back seat.

Good thing the sunroof has an electronic cover and the rear hatch has a sun shade fading out over the rear seat, or your passenger might get a little too much sun back there.