Hyundai Venue | First Drive Review

HYUNDAI VENUE EXTERIORS

The Hyundai Venue compact SUV has a dark chrome front grille which includes the new Hyundai signature face. The projector headlamps are cube shaped with LED DRLs surrounding it. It also has projector fog lamps. Silver skid plates add to the style quotient.

The side profile of this SUV clearly indicates a sloping roof with several sporty elements to enhance its appeal. The bold wheel arches, the 16 inches diamond cut alloy wheels, the roof rails, shark fin antenna, chrome finish outside door handles and the sun roof enhance the vehicles appeal.

As you move to the back, you get to see LED tail lamps with a crystal effect and an overall well designed rear. The vehicle has a length of 3995mm, width of 1770mm and a height of 1605mm with roof rack. It has a wheel base of 2500mm.

HYUNDAI VENUE INTERIORS

Three interior colour themes are being offered for customers. The Venue I drove had a black single tone interior though there are a khaki dual tone and denim dual tone on offer. Everything is very sporty and top notch in the cabin. The seats both in front and rear are very comfortable and score big on under thigh support, apart from ample headroom and knee room. The boot area too is quite voluminous.

An 8 inches touch screen, a sporty front design, a supervision cluster for multiple information, Fully Automatic Temperature Control with digital display, AC vents with silver surround, high gloss finish on centre fascia, gear knob, AC and audio knobs, leatherette wrapped steering and metal finish inside door handles are some of the plush interior features. The steering wheel can be adjusted for tilt but it is not telescopic.

Apart from its several luxury and comfort features, the Venue comes with Blue Link Technology that is being offered in the top variants. There are around 33 new connected features of which 10 are India specific features.  But it is only the DCT variant that gets one additional feature of the Bluelink which in essence means you can remote start and stop your car and also switch on and set your air-conditioner  even before you step inside. Overall, it is the Bluelink technology which is one of the high points of this vehicle.

Since the Venue comes with an embedded SIM, one can use the Hyundai BlueLink app to lock and unlock your car, control the horn and lights, get real time traffic information, set your destination through the app which gets synchronised with the navigation offered by the company, track your car, geo fence it, immobilise the car in case of a theft, track the idle start position of the car (this is useful when your driver switches on the aircon and takes a nap in your car while waiting for your), etc.  You must be wondering how this technology will come to your aid when you are driving your vehicle.

Well, it’s simple, you will notice that there are three buttons on the bottom of your inside rear view mirror. Well one is for an SOS, i.e. when you need an emergency medical help, you can call for an ambulance immediately.

The second button is for road side assistance and the third is for the BlueLink call centre. The moment you press the button, you can speak to an operator who in turn can help you with any of your queries related to navigation or you need to reach to a particular spot. The information will immediately be relayed to your navigation map so as to guide you. There is also a button on the steering wheel which can be used for voice navigation. The system is both Apple Car play & Android Auto compatible.

As far as the mobile network is strong for both your mobile phone and the one embedded in your vehicle, the going is great. But since we were driving in some hilly areas beyond Shillong in Meghalaya, we missed out on the connectivity and hence this affected the performance of the BlueLink. In short, the technology has its limitations.

PERFORMANCE AND SAFETY OF HYUNDAI VENUE

The new Hyundai Venue comes with three engine options, a 1.2 litre kappa petrol, a one litre turbo petrol and a 1.4 litre diesel. We got to drive the 1 litre 3 cylinder GDI turo engine model mated to a manual six speed transmission. There is also an option of a 7 speed  Dual Clutch Transmission which is an automatic with this 1 litre engine.

There is no denying the fact that the 1 litre GDI turo engine is a peppy machine. Since it’s a small fellow churning out around 118hp @ 6000rpm and a peak torque of 171.6Nm between 1500 to 4000 rpm, you can actually hear it scream its heart out. Yes, there is a bit of turbo lag, but that can be ignored. This is quite noticeable when you are on an uphill drive. You are bound to downshift several times to get the punch from the machine.

But ride and handling comes easy and good with the Hyundai Venue. The ride quality is brilliant and on highways and straight roads it is quick on its feet. While Standard Safety Features in the vehicle include  Dual Front Airbags, ABS with EBD, ISOFIX, seatbelt reminder, rear parking sensors and speed sensing auto door lock & crash sensing auto door unlock, the top end variant gets a lot more safer. Here the features include six airbags, hill assist control, electronic stability control, vehicle stability management,  auto headlamps with escort function, cornering lamps, rear camera with rear parking sensors and power window with auto Up/Down.

VERDICT