2021 Hyundai Venue Elite review

Sensing the winds of change, or more realistically a typhoon, Hyundai ditched its entry-level small car range a couple of years back. Instead, in its place, the Korean brand gave Australia its compact SUV, the Hyundai Venue, as a price-leader into the brand.

It’s a sign of the times, SUVs dominating our roads, serving time from cheap and cheerful first cars to performance vehicles that could put bona fide sports cars to shame. Simply, the thirst for SUVs continues unabated, buyers clamouring for the high-riding soft-roaders at ever-increasing rates.

For Hyundai, the move to ditch its entry-level Accent range of sedans and hatchbacks and replace it with a crossover compact SUV was a reflection of buyers’ tastes. Not to mention a risk.

The local arm of the Korean brand sold just under 10,000 Accents in its final full year on sale in 2019. The Venue hasn’t scaled anywhere near those numbers, its first full year on sale (2020) resulting in 3678 sales, although mitigating that number was the hit Australia’s new car market took during the first wave of the COVID pandemic.

But, halfway through 2021 and Hyundai has shifted almost as many Venues as it did in all of last year, 3611 to the end of July. Hyundai’s little crossover is starting to make waves.

It’s a simple range, too, with just three variants. The entry-level eponymous Venue is priced at $20,940 plus on-roads (or around $24,500 drive-away), which makes it the most affordable Hyundai and among the cheapest SUVs on sale in Australia. That entry price is for the Venue with a six-speed manual transmission. Opt for a six-speed auto and the price balloons to $22,960 plus on-roads, or circa $26,600 drive-away, based on Sydney pricing.

Sitting mid-range is the Venue Active. It too comes with a choice of manual ($22,870 plus ORC/$26,530) or automatic ($24,890/$28,610) transmission.

And then there’s the range-topping 2021 Hyundai Venue Elite, available only with an automatic transmission and priced at $26,740 plus on-roads or around $30,500 drive-away. It’s the car we have on test here.

There’s not a lot missing from the Venue Elite in terms of equipment. Standard-fit equipment includes 17-inch alloys, remote central locking and push-button start, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation with SUNA live traffic updates, DAB+ digital radio and a six-speaker audio system.

Interestingly, the inclusion of satellite navigation in the top-spec Venue precludes wireless smartphone mirroring, that smart tech reserved for the lower grades which don’t feature sat-nav as standard. What the gods of tech giveth, they also taketh. Still, it’s no great calamity to have to plug your phone in via the single USB port in the front centre console.

Other equipment highlights for the range-topping Venue include a sunroof, although if buyers option the two-tone paint, as worn by our 'The Denim' finished Venue, the sunroof is off the table. You do score a natty denim cloth interior, though, with that particular hue of mica paint that adds $495 to the bottom line, one of five optional hues.

There’s no question the Venue’s styling polarises, its boxy, slightly awkward profile not to everyone’s taste. But it also stands out in a crowded segment where design is becoming increasingly homogeneous. Hyundai should be acknowledged for trying something different with the Venue, and helping to differentiate it from a slew of rivals.

On price alone, the Kia Stonic comes closest with its $21,490 entry point. Buyers might also consider the runaway sales leader in the segment, Mazda’s CX-3, which gets underway at $22,890 for the Neo Sport model grade, while Toyota’s popular Yaris Cross starts at $26,990 for the front-wheel-drive GX petrol model or $28,990 for the GX petrol-hybrid.

There’s nothing particularly outstanding about the cabin of the Hyundai Venue, even in this top-spec trim. The denim cloth seat trim (which isn’t actually denim but a textured and contrasting design) looks funky and cheerful, and is complemented by some nice faux-aluminium design flourishes that break up the predominantly black interior.

The seats are comfortable, and thanks to the Venue’s boxy profile they afford a high-riding seating position to give good visibility over that squared-off bonnet.

Handy conveniences abound, from the generous storage cubby in front of the gear lever that houses two USB-A points as well as a 12V plug, to the small central storage bin.

The leather-wrapped steering wheel mirrors the Venue’s overall design ethos and feels chunky in hand. It frames an analogue instrument cluster complemented by a small TFT digital driver display nestled between the tacho and speedo.

The second row is surprisingly generous for space, despite the Venue being among the smallest vehicles in its class. That’s no doubt helped by its tall stature, which provides not only decent headroom, but also a sense of roominess. Perception is everything, and the perception in the Venue is of spaciousness belying its stature.

Three adults could squeeze across the back row at a pinch, but you’d want to be comfortable in each other’s presence. Two in the back, though, is perfectly fine.

For those with little ones, the Venue comes equipped with two ISOFIX child seat anchors on the outboard seats, while three top-tether points grace the seat backs.

The boot measures in at 355L, which is more than some rivals (Mazda CX-30 comes in at 264L), but isn’t overly generous either. A cargo blind is fitted as standard, while under the boot floor a space-saver spare waits patiently for the day you hope will never come.

The overall ambience inside the Venue is that of a cheerful and youthful exuberance; a nice blend of materials married to enough convenience and tech to see the value of your spend.

Underpinning the Hyundai’s connectivity is an 8.0-inch touchscreen sprouting from the dash like a monolith. Its positioning makes for an easy user experience, and aided by the helpful array of shortcut buttons directly underneath.

The graphics are crisp and clear, and although the Venue doesn’t score Hyundai’s latest operating system, anyone familiar with the brand will feel right at home. The menu structure is easy to navigate, while connecting your smartphone, either via Bluetooth or Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, is a cinch.

Inbuilt sat-nav means those wanting to mirror their smartphones will have to use a USB cable, only the lower grades of the Venue are equipped with wireless CarPlay/Android Auto. That’s the price of having inbuilt sat-nav, the two technologies mutually exclusive for Hyundai, apparently.

The Venue scores DAB+ radio as well as the standard AM/FM, all played through a six-speaker sound system that is adequate at best.

Satellite navigation works well, the live traffic updates a boon, but it doesn’t really offer anything your smartphone already doesn’t.

The small digital driver display nestled between analogue dials is adequate, with a digital speedo and a variety of trip data, including fuel consumption. It’s pretty basic in presentation, but the information is easy to read and helpful to the driving experience.

The Venue loses some gloss for its four-star ANCAP rating awarded at the model’s launch in 2019. While it scored well for impact protection – 91 per cent for adult occupant and 82 per cent child occupant – it was marked down by the safety body for vulnerable road user protection (62 per cent) and safety assist systems (61 per cent).

That’s despite the Venue range wearing Hyundai’s SmartSense suite of active safety tech, which in the top-spec Elite bundles in blind-spot monitoring, autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assist and rear cross-traffic alert. Lower grades of Venue miss out on blind-spot and cross-traffic technology. ANCAP assessed the suite as ‘adequate’ in performance overall, singling out the Venue’s autonomous emergency braking system and calling it ‘marginal’ in its ‘ability to avoid a rear-end impact with vehicles in front’.

Other safety technologies include front and rear parking sensors, a tyre pressure monitoring system and a rear-view camera, while a complement of six airbags covers both rows of occupants.

As one of the most affordable SUVs on the market, the Venue makes a compelling case, although with this top-spec Elite asking for over $30,000 drive-away, the value equation loses a little of its shine. Still, even in its highest grade, the Venue represents decent value in terms of included equipment.

Hyundai covers the Venue with its standard five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, while a trip to the workshop is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first. Hyundai offers a range of prepaid service plans for the venue offering three ($857), four ($1316) or five ($1575) years of coverage.

Hyundai claims the Venue in this specification will sip 7.2L/100km of regular unleaded. Pleasingly, we saw an indicated 6.1L/100km after a week of typical use covering predominantly urban kilometres with some longer, loping highway runs. The Venue’s fuel tank measures in at 45L. That makes for a circa $60 visit to the bowser based on Australia’s national fuel price average ($1.293 per litre) for the 2020-21 financial year.  

In its natural environment, the streets and suburbs of cities everywhere, the Venue has enough in the tank for effortless motoring. The Korean carmaker flies in the face of modern convention by not turbocharging its 1.6-litre inline four-cylinder petrol. It makes 90kW and 151Nm, and while on paper those outputs seem meagre, it’s decent enough for the Venue’s most likely use scenario.

A six-speed automatic sends drive to the front wheels, and around town that combination is perfectly adequate. The transmission can be a bit noisy, much in the same way CVTs of old were, and it does display a tendency to hunt for gears a little too eagerly.

The Venue’s compact dimensions make it an easy SUV to live with around town, and navigating the tight confines of the inner city easily. It’s relatively light on its wheels, too, tipping the scales at 1225kg at its heaviest kerb weight.

Parking is a cinch, the Venue’s four-metre length (4040mm, exactly) able to cram into most parking spaces easily.

Getting up to highway speeds quickly isn’t so comfortable, the Venue feeling cumbersome when pushed too hard. Once up to 100km/h, it happily growls along, but ask more of it for an overtake, for example, and there’s a lack of urgency. In short, there’s not much in reserve.

The ride is adequate too. Around town, the Venue handles most of the scarred and tarred road surfaces comfortably, with only rougher surfaces eliciting any discomfit in the cabin.

And thanks to its tall stance on the road (the Venue measures in at 1592mm high), there’s some noticeable, albeit minor, body roll.

The Hyundai Venue is best described as adequate. It’s no game-changer for the compact SUV segment, but then nor does it pretend to be. Its blend of off-beat charm and practicality certainly carries some appeal. That it’s one of the most affordable SUVs in Australia is also a big swing in its favour.

If buyers can look past the four-star safety rating, the Venue rewards with a comfortable, well-equipped and practical compact SUV that does nothing exceptionally well, but neither is it terrible at any one thing.

As a cheap-and-cheerful compact SUV, the Venue Elite mostly fits the brief. But if it were our money on the table, we’d plump for the entry-level eponymous Venue, which features most of the tech found in this top-spec model at a significant six-grand more affordable.