It was a sad day for fun, affordable motoring when the Honda Civic Coupe went away. Now, get ready to break out the car funeral attire once again because Hyundai is discontinuing all versions of the Veloster except for the high-performance Veloster N for the 2022 model year. Brought to our attention by Car and Driver and confirmed via press release, the base Veloster 2.0, 2.0 Premium, R-Spec, Turbo, and Ultimate are all falling by the wayside reportedly due to low market demand, but officially “due to expanded SUV lineup that includes Venue and Kona.”
In case you weren’t aware, the regular Hyundai Veloster was available with a 147-horsepower, naturally aspirated 2.0-liter or a 1.6-liter turbo making 201 hp. The N takes the best of both, turbocharging two liters of internal combustion to a Civic Type R-rivaling 275 horses fed through a six-speed manual transmission or that newly available eight-speed dual-clutch.
Naturally, the Veloster N was a lot more expensive than the lesser models, starting at more than $33,000. The base 2.0 model can be, er, could’ve been had for a hair under $20,000. The mid-grade Turbo, meanwhile, came in around the mid-$20,000s.
While it’s tempting and easy to say “Meh, the N was the good one anyway” to this news, I’ve always been of the mind that the more affordable, fun cars there are available, the better. Sure, the N might’ve always been the one everybody actually wanted but $33,000 is still a decent chunk of change for many. With a bargain-basement starting price that still started with a “1,” the standard Hyundai Veloster may just have been the last truly affordable, manual, front-wheel-drive, two-door hatch made for the masses.
If only manual, front-wheel-drive hatches were what the masses wanted.
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