Hyundai Veloster vs Kia Cerato

What's the difference?

Giant carmakers seem like pretty sober sorts of places. Everything goes through endless committees, every decision has to be signed off, sent in, sent back, subjected to endless scrutiny to make sure it will make money.

Sometimes, a brand will do something odd like BMW's i3 which is like sending up a flare to get people talking.

Hyundai, for many years, seemed to be trying to emulate Toyota. After a brief flourish in the '90s when it did for curves on cars what Kim Kardashian did for curves on grubby internet sites, the company lost its bottle and tried to go full mainstream. Never go full mainstream, that's for the old folks.

Then, out of the blue, came the Veloster. It's probably one of the most wilfully weird cars in decades (apart from various Citroens, but that's a special case).

One long door on the driver's side, two shorter doors on the passenger side. When BMW did something similar with the Mini Clubman, right-hand drive markets didn't get their own version of the kerb-side door, but Hyundai isn't like that.

Making the Veloster properly in right-hand drive is a wonderful gesture from a company that worked out being itself was a better idea than being Toyota.

Three years after the fourth-generation Cerato small car rolled into Australian dealerships, Kia launched a mid-life facelift for the sedan and hatch range in mid-2021.

It ushered in styling tweaks including new headlights and Kia’s new logo, as well as more safety tech and a multimedia upgrade.

At the top of the range sits the warmed-up Cerato GT. It’s not quite Hyundai i30 N-level performance, more i30 N-Line. In other words, more than enough performance to keep most people satisfied and enough poke to get away quickly at the lights.

But is the updated version of Kia’s Cerato trying to be something it’s not, or is it a performance bargain?

Read on to find out.