Opinion: It’s Chevy’s Game, And Hyundai Is Winning
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And so it came to be that a Hyundai Veloster seemed to be the star of a recently-held small car showing in the Colorado mountains. It was the turbo model, cradling a 1.6 liter direct injection engine good for 201 horsepower and 195 lb.-ft. of torque. And youngsters, including recent high school and college graduates, admired its modernly aggressive styling, tech-laden interior, and street-cred-inspiring specifications. During the almost two-hour-long private gathering, not one person mentioned the Chevy name. At least not when we were around.
And that’s how Hyundai — an automaker that, less than ten years ago, seemed to be the laughing stock of the industry — is taking car buyers by storm, all the while pushing storied brands with heritage, tradition, and culture out of the way. The fact is that car enthusiasts breed sales success. They create passion, buzz, and vigor around an automaker, brand, or vehicle; then, they tell their friends, colleagues, family, and strangers in the subway. And they feverishly defend the brand and its products — whether debating in person with a colleague, or posting on the online forum battlefields.
There is now an entire generation of American car enthusiasts to whom Hyundai, VW, Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi and/or even Scion is performance, and who could care less about powerful, V8-roaring beasts like the Camaro or Corvette… and their respectively high price tags. And for a full-line automaker/brand like Chevy, this is inexcusable.
Perhaps even more eye-opening is the fact that Chevy has the goods! It has a mainstream compact car with a better chassis that offers a much better driving experience than the Veloster or Elantra could ever dream of! That car is called the Cruze; and still, almost four years since its global debut, the Cruze doesn’t have anything to offer to a gear head on a budget. Even worse, GM has a comparable engine to what’s found in the Veloster Turbo; it’s available in a high-performance variant of the subcompact Opel Corsa — the Corsa OPC.
But wait for the 130R and 140S concepts, you say? Who cares when Hyundai has a real, tangible product that is available today? And the Turbo model will hit dealers this summer.
Before we get too far into splitting hairs by bringing up CAFE regulations and the effects of performance models on these fuel economy standards, we should mention the fact that the Veloster Turbo is rated at 38 MPG on the highway. Efficient, power-dense, compact performance? You bet. Somehow, Hyundai — an automaker that doesn’t hold a candle to GM’s revenue, profits, sales volume, or global manufacturing ability — has figured it out. But GM — and Chevrolet — have not. Or at least refuse to acknowledge the market.
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i am a sales rep for hyundai and we cannot keep these velosters here now the velosters are getting turbos on them and the sonata’s that are equipped with turbos pushing 279hp anytime we get velosters in stock they sell in 1 day
Ah, let’s see …. Veloster is a small hatch. Gone in one day? I thought Americans don’t want hatchbacks.
I see that there are other Jims. I’ll have to change my name to something with more meaning…perhaps something pertinent to an issue dear to my heart.
can I ask you (Jim the hyundai salesman) how many veloster do you sell in a month??
It certainly appears that the Sonic is attempting to capture some of the Scion mcloughlin car dealerships oregon through it’s marketing campaign.The marketing is certainly youthful and fun. But then again, a Scion doesn’t have any performance characteristics or aspirations………