2013 Hyundai Veloster Base Hatchback 3-door 1.6l on 2040-cars

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Hyundai sells its 10,000,000th Elantra

There aren't many nameplates that have sold over 10 million units in the history of the automotive industry. In fact there have only been ten, and now Hyundai has joined the list for the first time with the Elantra.
Launched 24 years ago, the Elantra has far and away been Hyundai's top selling model. Now in its fifth generation, the Elantra is sold as a coupe, sedan and wagon, and under the Avante name in its home market. It's one of the top selling cars in the world, and Hyundai has earned the right to crow that it has sold its 10,000,000 of them globally. That means that, on average, Hyundai has sold more than 45 new Elantras every hour of every day of every year since its introduction in 1990.
Other models in the 10 Million Club include the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, VW Beetle and Golf, and the Ford Model T and F-Series. The latter might still be considered the most impressive, selling over 34 million units - the vast majority in the US - to be America's top-selling vehicle for over 30 years running.

IED Torino students dream up the PassoCorto for Hyundai

Every year the students at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Turin work up something new to unveil at the Geneva Motor Show. It's usually a concept for an Italian automaker (like the Alfa Romeo Gloria, the Cisitalia 202 E or the Abarth ScorpION) or at least something European (like the concepts they worked up with McLaren or the ones they did for Aston Martin). But this time they've wandered a little farther from home in designing a sports car for Hyundai.
It's called the PassoCorto - Italian for "short wheelbase" - and it was designed in collaboration between the grad students in the Master in Transportation Design program (under the supervision of Pininfarina design Luca Borgogno) and the Hyundai's European design center.
The design (theoretically) calls for a 1.6-liter twin-turbo four, mounted amidships and driving 266 horsepower to the rear wheels. It looks pretty promising, and if Hyundai were ever keen on taking on the likes of the Alfa Romeo 4C and Porsche Cayman, this strikes us as a damn good place to start.

2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo: February 2013

I just couldn't bring myself to lead this post with the image you see on the right. The winter months have not been kind to our matte gray 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo, and since you can't just run the thing through your local car wash, our oddly shaped little hatchback has spent more days dirty than clean. It breaks my fleet manager heart to see one of our test cars covered in schmutz so frequently, but let's be honest - the last thing anyone wants to do when it's 12 degrees Fahrenheit outside is play with a hose and spend a good amount of time hand-washing a car.
Moral of the story: If you live in a cold-weather state where you expect to get regular doses of the white stuff, matte paint probably isn't for you. Not to worry, though, as the Veloster Turbo is offered in plenty of pretty, car wash-friendly colors.
We'll have a lot more to talk about regarding the Veloster's cleanability in forthcoming updates, and we're even planning a trip to the Dr. Beasley's office - the company that created the special matte paint detailing kit for the Hyundai - to have their experts show us how it's done. For now, let's spend some time talking about what we've learned about the turbocharged hatch during its honeymoon phase here in the Autoblog Garage.