Road Beat: Hyundai Venue affordable front row fun

The nosebleeds usually refer to the worst seats in the house; they’re the highest up, and furthest away from the action. At any venue, the nosebleeds are also always the cheapest. The adage ‘you get what you pay for’ defines them perfectly. The Venue may be priced like the nosebleeds, but with the fun and style of the much more expensive floor seats.

Hyundai (and sister brand Kia) made its name in the United States by producing cars at great value. Quality was sacrificed, but the low price point was certainly alluring. They were successful, and that’s why Hyundai is the power player that it is today in the automotive world.

In the past decade, Hyundais have elevated beyond the simply cheap, to being genuine threats to the establishment, all while remaining great value. The all-new Venue, is an exaggeration of a great car at a great value. This Venue SEL stickers at $23,425 including destination fee. If you’re looking for space per dollar, this is it. It’s larger than a Toyota C-HR, but at several significant thousands less for a comparable model. In fact, the Venue starts at just over $19,000. There’s also a top-of-the-line Denim model which adds slick interior enhancements.

As far as the exterior is concerned, the Venue works. It doesn’t look like an over-the-top gimmick, but simply a car, and a good looking one at that. Seemingly Scandinavian in design, it has a simplistic, modern edginess. Some might call it cute, but that’s a great compliment. Nice wheels, too, with the 17” alloys (up from stock 15”) being part of the premium package. This bundle also gives attractive and effective LED headlights.

Interior follows the same design motif, and the two-tone scheme looks great on the surface. It’s a very spacious and comfortable cabin to be in, but the cabin materials consist of about 90 percent hard plastic. Besides the fantastic leather-wrapped (actual leather!) steering wheel and soft, cloth seats, everything else is hard plastic. But hey, you can’t judge, this car costs how much again? It all feels solid though, feeling neither downright hollow nor chintzy. The seats are comfortable with enough support, and that premium package gives you bottom warmers to boot. Rear seat space is aplenty, with adult passengers not giving any complaints. Cargo in the back is just decent, but can be enhanced to great volumes with the rear seats folded down.

An easy-to-use and attractive touchscreen infotainment screen handles all your music, also supporting Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, too. Front collision warning is standard, but blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are options found in this tester’s convenience package. Convenience also adds a sunroof to enlarge the cabin space further. Yes, there are cheap furnishings inside, but none of it’s crude, and the equipment and extras are huge considering the as-tested price still.

Power, or lack of, comes from a diminutive 1.6 liter inline-four, making 121 horsepower and 113 torques. It’s not even remotely quick on paper, with 0-60 taking 9 seconds flat and 50-70 passing requiring 5.3. Up a hill, that number retreats to 8.3 seconds. Around town, the Venue feels perfectly fine wizzing away from stoplights, almost feeling ‘peppy.’ Only when you put your foot down do you notice how its pace doesn’t increase, mostly noticeable on slight freeway grades, where the CVT transmission will select 4,000 RPM to maintain speed. The engine is smoother than expected, but can be a bit intrusive and boomy with its noises and frequencies when the engine revs hard. Don’t worry, you’ll still thrash Priuses with ease.

Fuel economy is excellent, averaging 32.5 while achieving 42 on the freeway. On the freeway, it must be noted how loud the Venue can be. Between the engine’s extra noise when it requires revs and wind/road noise, it can seem a bit like a concert venue at times. And I don’t mean an acoustic set; think Van Halen. It can also require a bit of constant steering input above 70 MPH as well to keep it in line.

I got a chance to drive the Venue down winding Latrobe Road towards Ione, CA. What I found was very unexpected. Most affordable boxes fall apart into dismal understeer and an extreme reluctance to turn. Not the Venue, though. Driven at a higher pace, it becomes strangely enjoyable. The body rolls, sure, and overall grip isn’t what you’d call great, but the package works; it’s all very well controlled, with well-judged damping over bumps and compressions, a balance closer to neutral than it has any right to be, and the steering is even decent. Because it’s slow, you can really dig into the throttle and use everything you have available. And on a road like Latrobe, there isn’t much that would be able to get away from the big little Venue. A Corvette, even, would struggle to pull away on a back-road such as this because all that power and grip can’t be used in the real world.

I was shocked to see in my mirror the smile painted onto my face. It wasn’t just good, but fun. This brought me to thinking, what would a hot Venue be like? Give it a manual gearbox, an extra 40-50 horsepower and it might just be stupendous. Hyundai has made great strides in creating driver’s cars, like the Veloster N for example. It makes me wonder if the great Albert Biermann, once the brainchild of BMW’s M cars and now employed by Hyundai, had any influence in the chassis tuning of the Venue…

There are knocks against the Venue. It’s a bit loud inside and wayward on the freeway at higher speeds while hills trouble it. But what you do get is a small, yet spacious car that’s well equipped, gets great gas mileage, good looking, and is weirdly fun to drive on back-roads. Hyundai has a winner with the Venue. You can go to the nosebleeds and still have the time of your life. Please, make an N version…

Hyundai Venue SEL
$23,425 MSRP
4/5
Pros: Excellent value, economy and interior space, chassis likes being driven hard
Cons: Needs more power, loud on the freeway
Verdict: An excellent and fun yet extremely affordable car