Is the Hyundai Venue as exciting to drive as it looks? Paul gets behind the wheel of the top-specification Hyundai Venue Elite to see if Hyundai has finally nailed the small SUV proposition, or whether it ultimately falls short. Watch to see what he thinks!
Read the full expert review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-hyundai-venue-elite-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:00
Interior: 03:05
Infotainment: 05:00
Features: 05:46
Practicality: 07:49
On the Road: 11:05
Verdict: 14:45
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
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Read the full expert review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-hyundai-venue-elite-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:00
Interior: 03:05
Infotainment: 05:00
Features: 05:46
Practicality: 07:49
On the Road: 11:05
Verdict: 14:45
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you! #hyundai #review #venue
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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@hyundaiaustralia
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Now, if you got into a time machine, went back 15 years and told somebody that in Australia
00:05 Hyundai's entry-level car is going to be an SUV,
00:08 they would have laughed at you. And that is what has happened.
00:12 This is the all-new Hyundai Venue, and this one in particular is very, very,
00:17 very yellow. This here is the Elite, which is the top-spec model.
00:21 It is just under $26,000 and it comes in auto only.
00:25 You can scroll down to the comments to see the rest of the Venue pricing,
00:29 but what does it go up against? We're talking about cars like the Mazda 2, Toyota Yaris,
00:33 Vitara, Suzuki Swift. You're talking about cars that are hatchbacks, but then also cars like the CX-3,
00:39 which is a bit of an SUV hatchback. Also, if you do want to jump ahead to other parts of this review,
00:44 you can see some time codes up there, or if you're on YouTube,
00:47 just scroll down to the description and then you can use the links to jump ahead.
00:50 And if you haven't done so already,
00:52 please make sure you subscribe and also press the bell icon because that's going to tell you every single time
00:57 we publish a new video.
00:59 Let's talk styling. So you can choose from eight different colors.
01:02 This crazy color here is called Acid Yellow and all but the white is going to cost you about $500 extra.
01:09 Have a look up the front here. LED daytime running lights. They look really cool.
01:13 The actual headlamp is in here and it's a gross halogen projector. So it's a pretty nasty looking light.
01:19 It's a shame you can't get LED or bi-xenon here, despite the fact this is the top-spec model. Check out this grille.
01:24 That is a whole lot of grille and the interesting thing is because the engine in here is so damn tiny,
01:30 you don't need a great deal of cooling. So most of this is actually blocked out.
01:34 You've only got a few open slats there and I'll run through the engine a little later on.
01:38 This car is available with other engines in other markets, but we get a pretty nasty 1.6 litre.
01:43 Air dam down here.
01:44 You've got some other air pocket things with textures on the front there. Makes it kind of look cool. Around the side here,
01:50 17-inch alloy wheels. You can see that they've kind of built this car for a younger demographic because you've got these
01:56 clad wheel arches with plastic. They kind of make the car look like an off-roader and they've done an interesting thing here and have a
02:02 cutout. So you're getting a little bit of green as part of your black, which is kind of cool.
02:07 The wheels look really sort of textured and nice as well.
02:09 They've got that sort of chrome finish there and then like a brushed chrome there. So they're a pretty cool looking wheel.
02:15 What about the size of this car?
02:17 So it's about 130 mils shorter than a Kona and 300 mils shorter than an i30.
02:21 So despite the fact it actually looks big and muscular, it isn't actually that big.
02:27 So it's just an appearance thing that they're going for. You've got these cool black mirrors. You've got a two-tone roof.
02:32 So different colour to the body. You've got roof rails there as well.
02:36 It is a pretty classy looking car and if you come around to the back here, Igor,
02:40 you've got the big proud Venue badge on there. I love the fact that this has the white lettering as well.
02:45 It really makes that stand out nicely.
02:47 And then you have full LED taillights here for the Elite as well.
02:51 And then again those textured things down there, which really sort of helps this car stand out in traffic.
02:56 Let me know in the comments below.
02:58 What do you think of the design?
02:59 And if you were going to buy one, would you get a crazy colour like acid yellow or are you gonna go for something a
03:04 little more sedate? Okay, interior styling. Let's talk about it and the demographic.
03:08 There are people that are about half my age, I think, and you're going to be targeting a younger person,
03:14 which means you want a cool looking interior. And I think Hyundai's fit the bill there.
03:18 Have a look at this. All of these controls have highlights that are colour-coded.
03:22 So it'll be the same colour as the outside of the car and it really makes the interior look
03:27 trendy and it kind of breaks up all the black and they've kind of done that here with a lighter colour as well.
03:32 Same story on the seats. You get that stitching and the seat material itself is nice.
03:37 So even though this is the top spec model, you're getting that cloth with the sort of faux leather on the sides of it.
03:42 So it presents really well. But when you start looking at it a little bit closer, it looks really cheap.
03:49 A lot of these materials are very scratchy.
03:51 Every sort of surface you're coming into contact with really doesn't feel very premium. And for a top spec car,
03:58 I would have thought they put a little bit more effort in. Now, I'm gonna get a tool out.
04:01 This is my hardness tester. This is the ultimate tool for a motoring journalist.
04:05 I often joke that only motoring journalists care about how soft touch materials are in a car.
04:09 So I thought let's put a number on it. It goes from 0 to 100 and we are able to test how hard a surface is.
04:16 So let's give it a shot up here where this scratchy stuff is.
04:20 Wow, it's always maxing out. 95.
04:23 Let's try this as well. The center console lid.
04:28 Okay, that's marginally better there. I'm also curious to try the door. You're not gonna be able to see this but
04:34 that's 98.
04:37 Virtually maxed out. So that goes to show you that the surfaces around this car, literally aside from the center console and perhaps the steering wheel,
04:44 are all incredibly hard and just not very soft. Now, obviously. What about build quality?
04:51 So I noticed here this thing's a little bit shaky. It doesn't really feel too good. The rest of it's okay though.
04:57 It's just minor things like that that are a little bit frustrating. Enough about styling. Let's look at infotainment.
05:02 This is actually a really good infotainment system and it kind of fits into that mold of suiting a younger demographic.
05:08 We have a full review of this if you just want to click up there to watch that.
05:12 Otherwise, I'll give you a really quick summation and a rundown. So it's an 8-inch screen. You use it as a touchscreen.
05:17 There are shortcut buttons beneath it. The navigation is pretty decent. It's easy to scan and do things on there.
05:24 It's very fast and responsive as well. You have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:28 So even though it has inbuilt nav, you can use these functions and that works really well too.
05:33 It's such a clever system. And then you have other bits and pieces in here. Plus my favorite thing, the voice memo function.
05:38 It means you can record voice memos while you're on the move.
05:41 So if you get a bright spark or any great ideas, that is where you can do them while you're driving.
05:46 You've also got a reverse view camera, but the quality is pretty dismal, especially at nighttime.
05:51 What about other features that you get with the car? You have single zone automatic climate control,
05:56 which is a really nifty feature. Two USB ports, a six-speaker sound system. The sound system is okay.
06:02 Nothing too spectacular does the job. You've also got a 12-volt outlet up the front there too.
06:06 You have automatic headlights. Ahead of the driver is a trip computer display. You don't get proximity key entry.
06:13 So you have one of these old-school things. It's an actual key with an actual key slot.
06:18 It's like stepping back into time.
06:21 It is a shame that Hyundai hasn't put a proximity sensor or even a start button in here. That's pretty disappointing.
06:26 You will notice down here that you have a whole stack of blank buttons, even though this is the top spec model.
06:32 We've also got the drive mode selector, which I'll run you through later on. There is also AEB,
06:37 so autonomous emergency braking.
06:39 But I need to spend a minute here to tell you why this isn't good and why Hyundai has kind of skimped on safety on
06:45 this car. So despite the fact that this car has enough structural integrity to get a five-star safety score,
06:50 it misses out. And here's the reason why. This AEB system only works at low speed, and this is a quote from Hyundai.
06:57 They said that the reason this car got four stars in the safety testing was because European spec Isofix seats are bolted into
07:04 the seat and the frame, whereas ours in Australia are a top tether system. Now because they knew this and that wouldn't afford them a
07:12 five-star score, they said, "Once we found that out,
07:14 there was really no reason to add the radar for the AEB. The decision to miss out on safety assist on the ANCAP score
07:21 was by choice because we knew that by adding Fusion, which is the upgraded AEB system with a radar that detects cyclists,
07:28 we could go above the threshold needed to make five stars. But as long as we failed in that area,
07:33 we weren't going to make it."
07:34 So what they're basically saying is that because they weren't going to get five stars because of the seats,
07:39 they've skimped out on the AEB system. And I think that's really disappointing.
07:43 It shows a company that really isn't all that interested in customer safety. They're more interested in saving money in the car.
07:49 Let's move on to practicality and storage. I'm going to disconnect my phone here from CarPlay. Where can you put your phone?
07:56 I've got one of these bigger ones.
07:57 That fits nicely. It's slightly gripped as well, so it's not going to move around too much.
08:02 And it'll fit down there too. Plus there's that little slot up here, although it doesn't have any padding,
08:08 so your phone's going to slide around if it's in there. What about storage for bottles?
08:13 Oh, that's interesting. It fits in that one, but not that one. You have to kind of cram it in.
08:19 Interesting. You do have pockets in the doors though that will fit a bottle, plus a couple of other bits and pieces just off to the side.
08:26 You have a center console here. That's not too bad. And then a glove box as well.
08:31 But that's consumed almost entirely by the car's manual. What about comfort inside the cabin?
08:38 The seats are comfy enough. They're not groundbreaking, but they hold you in nicely. The steering wheel is a good size as well.
08:44 It all feels okay. The touch points here and here are soft enough,
08:48 so they overcome the rest of the scratchy plastics all over the rest of the car.
08:52 Okay, back seat. Obviously, it's not a people mover,
08:56 but you would expect to be able to fit people back here. And it's pretty cramped.
08:59 My knees are sort of wedged into the seat. I can sort of go side saddle on it and it works a little bit better.
09:06 Obviously, I have my seat pretty far back.
09:08 So what I would recommend all the time, if you see that I don't have room here,
09:12 make sure when you're doing your test drive, just make sure you put the seat where you would normally have it.
09:16 But you've got my height there on the screen and you can see that I'm pretty limited there.
09:19 I have heaps of toe room though, and headroom is also fine.
09:23 You have a couple of knickknacks in here, such as matte pockets in the back of both seats.
09:27 There's no center armrest, but you do get these nicely textured seats. No rear air vents, no USB charging.
09:33 So it is a pretty basic place back here. What about bottle storage in the doors?
09:37 You'll be able to squeeze one bottle in and that's about it. So this is probably the right venue to discuss boot space in hatchbacks.
09:44 Venue.
09:46 So boot space in hatchbacks isn't very good normally. The Venue, on the other hand, the quasi-SUV
09:52 hatchback is much better. 355 litres of capacity here, but it has some really clever systems.
09:59 I'm going to start with this because I've never seen this before. It looks like it's flimsy and loose,
10:03 but what it actually does, instead of having to remove this and store it at home somewhere,
10:08 what you can do if you don't need it is remove it and then it slides on this track and tucks away.
10:13 So it's completely out of your way. That is a really sweet system. The floor here is dual-tiered.
10:18 So you can either have this lower floor where you can store lots of things beneath the lip or
10:24 grab this space over spare tire under there, by the way, pull this back.
10:29 That slides into position and then you have a higher load floor.
10:32 So that is a really clever option and Kiambe has done a good job integrating
10:38 all of this stuff and I think people are going to find it useful. Let's see how it goes fitting our bags in.
10:43 Smaller bag first. We'll go with the bigger one now.
10:46 Yeah, all right, that's okay. My wheels are getting snagged on the edge there,
10:53 but you can see that that fits in really well.
10:55 You've got top tether points on the back of these three seats and then they drop pretty easily as well,
11:02 except if it hits the back of the passenger seat there.
11:05 So we're cruising down the avenue in the venue and I can tell you straight up that
11:12 it is pleasant in terms of the ride. So the ride and handling tune has been done here in Australia and it feels good.
11:19 It's kind of on the sportier side of comfort. So you're feeling a few of those bumps as you drive along.
11:24 It's not the end of the world,
11:25 but I would have thought maybe a more comfortable ride in a car like this would be good.
11:29 The curious thing here is that you can get a tow bar with the venue and you can tow up to 800 kilos with a brake
11:35 trailer and then on top of that as well, you have a turning circle of 10.2 metres.
11:39 So it's pretty easy to do a tight u-turn in this car, which makes it perfect for things like city driving.
11:45 Visibility out of the cabin is good. I have good forward visibility, although I can't see the front of the car.
11:50 Obviously the front overhang isn't that long, but I often prefer being able to see the edges of the car
11:55 so you know how close you are to things. Rearward visibility is good.
11:59 It's a little bit compromised because that envelope is quite narrow.
12:01 The wing mirror is a pretty decent size though, so you can definitely see out the sides of them.
12:05 Now, this is curious, this little thing down here. So it looks just like a turn sort of dial thing,
12:11 but it's also a button and it switches between drive modes and traction modes. So in traction modes,
12:16 you can select between snow, mud and sand. I can tell you right now that if you find yourself on snow, mud or sand in this car,
12:23 you better call someone for help because it's front-wheel drive only. One more push of that changes it between sport mode, eco mode and normal.
12:30 Right now it's in sport mode and I can feel that surge from the gearbox as it kicks down. It's holding gears a little bit longer,
12:37 but that's about as sporty as it gets. So what's powering the Venue? Under that bonnet is a 1.6 litre
12:44 naturally aspirated petrol engine. It makes a fairly uninspiring 90 kilowatts of power and
12:49 151 newton metres of torque. The transmission itself is okay. Sometimes it's a little unsure of itself.
12:56 The bigger issue though is the engine. Have a listen to this.
13:00 Oh,
13:03 that noise is terrible. It sounds so bad inside the cabin.
13:08 The engine has barely any pickup at all. And then if you find yourself on a hill, it just surges.
13:14 It's almost like it's not getting enough fuel.
13:16 It is genuinely bizarre why Hyundai thought it would be okay to put that engine in this car.
13:22 It just does not suit the character of it at all.
13:24 While the engine's no good in a driving sense, it is good in terms of fuel economy. 7.2 litres per 100 kilometres.
13:31 So it isn't going to use much fuel,
13:33 but you wouldn't expect it to because it barely makes any power at all. Now, I know I'm being really critical of this engine,
13:39 but outside of the noise, to put the power into perspective,
13:44 it takes a little more than 10 seconds to get from 0 to 100 kilometres an hour.
13:49 That is an incredible amount of time for a car that weighs virtually nothing.
13:52 So if you are just driving in normal mode, the steering feel is good.
13:55 It's light enough for city manoeuvres and low speed stuff. Brake pedal feel is good as well.
14:00 So from that perspective, Hyundai's got it right. There is also a lane keeping assistant here.
14:04 We found when we tested it in the Veloster, and you can have a look at that review up there,
14:09 it really doesn't work very well. It kind of jars the car and does things unexpectedly.
14:14 So it's probably a system that you want to switch off at the best of times. What about the positives?
14:19 Actually, not that many to talk about. I don't know. Look, it is horses for courses.
14:26 I'm reviewing this from a critical perspective in comparison to the rest of its peers. And against its peers,
14:31 it just doesn't stack up well. It hasn't got the safety rating to suit it.
14:35 It doesn't have the power that it needs to get moving. And imagine this with all of your friends in it.
14:40 If it barely moves empty, it's going to barely go anywhere when you've got a carload of people in it.
14:44 Okay, Hyundai Venue. I've got to be honest. I've come away pretty disappointed in this car.
14:49 That engine is so nasty and it seriously ruins the driving experience,
14:53 especially when you can't hear yourself think when you're on the throttle.
14:57 And it's even more disappointing because there are better engines available in other markets.
15:00 So we were just kind of lumped with this thing.
15:02 I also really don't like the fact that Hyundai's gone soft on safety in this car.
15:06 They didn't put extra safety gear in because it wasn't going to help them get a better score. It's like, well,
15:11 your customer's safety is priority here, not saving money. So that is a little bit disappointing as well.
15:17 But put those things to the side. It is a pretty stylish looking car.
15:20 It comes with a lot of standard equipment, a really good infotainment system. And I guess for a young person,
15:25 they're going to enjoy all the bits and pieces associated with it. So if you are looking to buy one,
15:30 I think it's probably worth looking elsewhere.
15:32 There are better cars in this segment that are going to deliver you a better driving experience and also
15:36 give you better safety as well. And if you found this video useful,
15:40 I would love it if you could hit like and don't forget to subscribe and also hit the bell icon as well.
15:44 That's going to tell you every single time we get behind the wheel of a new car.
15:48 And if you have any questions about this car or any others,
15:50 let us know in the comments below. And until next time, drive safely.