Show & Tell #1: How I got the car.
As part of the 2024 Hyundai Nfluencer program, I've collected some pictures to show you the story behind the one and only Veloster N in Italy.
As some of you may already know I previously owned a 2013 Hyundai Veloster -the boring 1.6 Naturally Aspirated one- and that got me into the Veloster fanbase so hard that I HAD to get the new one… except it was only sold in USA and Korea, sadly.
The quest to find a car and import it from overseas was very time-consuming, but I found out a couple units were previously imported to Europe, and one of those was for sale in Lithuania!
So fast forward 4 months of talking to the owner, figuring out details and planning the trip, here I am sitting on my plane to Lith…nope. There are no direct flights from Bologna, so we had to make a stop in Poland (god bless Polish people for inventing Pierogi) and then, finally, get to Kaunas, Lithuania. Beautiful place btw.
First day was already over, but I was so pumped up for the morning after, as we would have seen the car for the first time! Oh, did I mention I only bought one-way tickets? We had no backup plans in case the deal went wrong. Smart, right?
The morning quickly came and there I was, in front of my new car.
Well, not so fast!
As it turns out banks can have huge issues while transferring modest amounts of money between countries, so it took me an exhausting day and a half JUST to send the money to the owner.
Somehow we managed to solve the problem and there I was, behind the wheel of my Veloster N!
We then began our 20hr-long trip to get back home, driving across Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Italy. Beautiful landscapes everywhere.
It was my longest drive ever, with a well-deserved stop in Poland to get some sleep and A LOT of food in the way, but it was an amazing adventure, and I’m so lucky that I got to experience that with my girlfriend.
So there I was, 2000km and 500$ of fuel later, sitting in my car after a full 5 months of planning everything…
Too bad I couldn’t legally drive the car for another 9 months thanks to Italian laws… but that’s a story for another time I guess!