Hyundai Venue

The interior cabin of the Hyundai Venue cannot be termed as groundbreaking or can generate a wow factor, for it looks subtle and resorts to the minimal drama here. Nevertheless, the overall layout, with its all-black finish, manages to remain fresh with a couple of in-trend design cues.

The three-spoke multi-functional steering wheel with lower silver garnish has been lifted off from the Tucson, which along with a simple yet comprehensive instrument console looks pretty decent. The center console of the Venue’s simple-looking dashboard gets a large and rectangular 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system placed between rounded rectangular AC vents, the latter of which get premium silver finish surrounds.

Below the infotainment system is placed a layer of buttons for the audio system, whereas the lower part of the center console here gets a tucked-in style panel for the dials of automatic climate control, which consist of three round dials. The overall fit and finish levels are praiseworthy for a compact car like Venue, however, the downside reflects in terms of space on offer.

The Hyundai Venue follows the latest iteration of the fluidic design philosophy of the Korean carmaker, and with that essence, it has come out to be a very likable and contemporary design, which is pleasing to the eyes. Despite being a compact SUV with constraints in terms of dimensions, the Hyundai Venue looks quite proportionate.

A large cascading grille with a checkered pattern of chrome garnish within it graces the front profile of the Hyundai Venue. The split headlamp design, with the upper slim part getting the turn indicators and the lower one getting the main headlamps is a trend which is getting popular very fast. The headlamps, which are shaped in a rounded rectangular manner, get surrounds that form the daytime running LEDs and halogen projector bulbs. The lower part of the front bumper gets heavy silver cladding, in the corners of which are tucked the projector fog lamps.

The side profile of the Hyundai Venue looks nice with the raised up stance and slightly boxy appearance, which gives it a true SUV flavor. The large roof rails and cladding running throughout the side profile, including over the wheel arches, makes it look even tougher. Other prominent bits of the design here are rounded bulging wheel arches and a sharp character line flowing above the door handles.

At the back, Hyundai has made the Venue look lesser dramatic, with slightly squared LED tail lamps at the far edges of the rear boot lid, with two sharp character lines flowing in between the tail lamps. Like at the front, the rear bumper too wears heavy cladding with large silver skid plate at the bottom.

Built with a monocoque frame, the Hyundai Venue performs brilliantly in the urban environment, with a nice and supple suspension setup consisting of Macpherson struts at the front and coupled torsion beam at the rear. The higher-spec GLS variant rides on 17-inch wheels (15-inch wheels on GL variant), which make the overall handling pretty well. However, the steering response could have been slightly heavier.

The Hyundai Venue, here in the Philippines, gets a standard petrol automatic powertrain in the form of a 1.6-liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine paired to a 6-speed automatic transmission. The engine, here in the Venue, pumps out 123 PS of maximum power and 151 Nm of peak torque outputs.

The decently long list of safety equipment in the Hyundai Venue comprises of the front, side, and curtain airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control with two-wheel drive modes, electronic stability program and reverse parking sensors with camera.

Aimed at young urban buyers, the Hyundai Venue fulfills most of their requirements, by having a new-age design, contemporary cabin, and a petrol automatic powertrain which packs in quite a good amount of punch.