The Dual Clutch transmission ruins a really good car.
The car is comfortable, nimble, fun, and attractive. There is so much to enjoy about this car that I'm upset that I dislike it so much. I do all city driving and get all of 17 mpg, no I'm not driving like a maniac, that's 100 percent on the DCT. Acceleration is anemic at best, auto shifting is smooth but comes at terrible times. When it downshifts into first from second, it rev matches so slowly that I think it's waiting for me to change my mind that the throttle position and speed of the car is really a first gear want. My wife has a 2012 Elantra where horsepower, torque, and weight are similar enough to be close in performance but it's nowhere near. I have talked to her about trading cars, legitimately, and she wants no part of driving the Veloster every day (because of the transmission.) Nearly every car I have ever owned, I'm 43, has had lower horsepower than the Veloster so, I'm plenty familiar with the performance I should expect. Now, for those of you that are still skeptical of my credentials as someone to tell you to stay away from any Hyundai DCT, I've driven a manual since I was 19, I deliver pizza and have for 25 years, and have been an avid car guy my whole life. What the DCT does is fully engage the clutches at idle and it has to build up steam from there, no other transmission does this. In a manual transmission you usually slip the clutch until fully engaged at say 1000-1200 rpm for a normal takeoff and a performance take off would have the engine speed higher. A regular automatic transmission would have the torque converter to serve that same function, resulting in the engine using more of the available torque to get going. The DCT could actually do this, it is in fact using clutches to do its job and the computer could be programmed to provide a slight slippage to put it in a better position to putting down the torque it does have. They don't do this because it would cause those items to more of a maintenance item, like a regular clutch is, and removing the whole setup and digging into it would cost thousands of dollars, so they do it the safe way. What this means is that a DCT transmission is so bad that it provides all the terrible traits of both the automatic and manual transmissions, while not really having an upside because speed of shifts isn't even particularly good on these economy cars because the standard public doesn't like that fast and hard shifting. I was positive they would get rid of them in the newer models, because it's so terrible of a transmission that it's not worth even trying to fix, but they have doubled down and put them in even MORE of their lineup. I wasn't aware of all of these downsides when I purchased this car, the test drive doesn't provide a way to see how the car will work in traffic or in an emergency situation where you have to accelerate quicker than you expected (remember that stupid downshift issue, that WILL get you in trouble.)
Buy a Hyundai, stay FAR away from any vehicle with this God awful transmission.
Verified Owner
