Used 2020 Hyundai Venue

#4 in Best Subcompact SUVs of 2020

Given the Venue’s low price of entry ($17,350), Hyundai sees it competing not just with vehicles like the Nissan Kicks and Ford EcoSport but also against used-crossover SUVs that don’t have modern safety and convenience technology like automatic emergency braking, Apple CarPlay or the company’s fantastic 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty.

Makes sense to us. We see the 2020 Hyundai Venue as a subcompact-crossover SUV that’s small in size but big in personality, with excellent interior room and a stout structure incorporating lots of high-strength steel. Available exclusively with front-wheel drive, the Venue is more of an urban utility than an off-roader, and the targeted young urban buyers will appreciate its easy maneuverability about town, not to mention the practicality and convenience provided by the hatchback design. The Venue, for the record, is 5.1 inches shorter and 1.2 inches narrower than its Hyundai Kona sibling, with a wheelbase shorter by 3.2 inches.

While the base model, the SE, gets by with 15-inch steel wheels, a 6-speed manual transmission and drum rear brakes, the far more enticing models are the SEL and Denim, which have 17-inch alloy wheels, 4-wheel disc brakes, better safety suites and more available options. Besides the Kicks and the EcoSport, the new Venue competes with the Chevrolet Trax, the Mazda CX-3, the Toyota CH-R and even the Kia Soul.

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KBB recently drove a Stellar Silver 2020 Hyundai Venue SEL in the Miami area. Our first impression: Even though the 1.6-liter engine puts out only 121 horsepower, the 2020 Venue felt reasonably peppy, with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that’s tuned to “shift” like a traditional automatic transmission. Although CVTs are commonly criticized, the one in the Venue felt good, with impressive off-the-line response and relaxed low-rpm highway cruising.

On the highway at 60 mph, the Venue tachometer indicated a relaxed 2,000 rpm, accompanied by minimal road and wind noise. What’s more, head room in the Venue, even with its optional sunroof, was excellent, and the view out the rather upright windshield was great. In fact, the view out of the Venue was excellent in all directions, and it’s easy to sense where the four corners of the vehicle are, which is a big help in tight parking lots or cities.

The ride quality of the new Venue felt comfortable but slightly firm, and the electrically assisted steering required a natural effort. Unlike the Kona, which has independent rear suspension, the Venue is equipped with a torsion-beam rear axle, a simpler and less costly arrangement that works with long and upright shock absorbers that do not intrude too much on the generous cargo area. For the record, the Venue has 18.7 cubic feet of cargo room behind its rear seat, which is nearly as much as the Kona’s 19.2.

In the Normal Drive mode, the Venue powertrain responds in typical fashion to throttle inputs; in Sport mode, Hyundai, by keeping the CVT in lower ratios and the engine at higher rpm, makes the Venue respond much more crisply, aided further by sharper throttle tuning. Also on a positive note, Hyundai’s lane-keep assist program — which along with automatic emergency braking is standard on the Venue — proved effective but pleasantly restrained, quite unlike the abrupt steering corrections you get from some German manufacturers.

In our day-long drive, the Hyundai Venue returned 34.9 mpg, which jibes quite nicely with its EPA highway rating of 34 mpg (or 35 mpg with the 6-speed manual transmission).

Hyundai continues to produce some of our favorite interiors. The Venue’s cabin, in black or gray, features the relative simplicity typical of a sub-$20,000 interior, but with touches of the rugged personality established by the exterior.

Though the Hyundai Venue is one of the smallest SUVs on the market, even the tiniest SUVs can provide outsized cargo flexibility by virtue of the wide-opening rear hatch and fold-down rear seats. In addition to a 60/40-split, flat-folding rear seat, the Venue offers a convenient dual-level cargo floor. With the front seats all the way back, there isn’t much legroom for rear passengers, but the headroom back there is excellent, even with the optional sunroof.

Small? Yes. But compared to a subcompact sedan the Hyundai Venue is downright cavernous. Our only real complaint: The plastic armrests on the door panels are hard and uncomfortable.

Although Hyundai has design studios around the world, the new Venue was designed at company headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. And we like what we see.

The Hyundai Venue is an upright and boxy crossover SUV, which helps when carrying people and cargo, and the grille shows a family resemblance that continues all the way up to the Palisade. A strong shoulder line adds a sense of strength to the Venue, while a steeply slanted C-pillar adds a hint of aggression. In back, the wide-set taillights create a stable, planted look.

Seven colors are available: Black Noir Pear, Ceramic White, Scarlet Red Pearl, Intense Blue, Stellar Silver, Galactic Gray and Green Apple. The Denim color, exclusive to the Denim edition, has a contrasting white roof and little white accents on each fender. While 2-tone designs are trendy these days, we think it looks good on the Venue.

SMARTSENSE
This safety suite, standard on all 2020 Hyundai Venues, includes automatic emergency braking (with pedestrian detection), lane-keep assist, and a driver-attention warning. A blind-spot warning system and rear cross-traffic alert also are available, but only as part of an option package.

INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM
The Hyundai Venue’s standard infotainment system features an 8-inch color touch screen and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto to access smartphone capabilities like app-based navigation, streaming audio and voice-controlled search capabilities. Navigation is optional on the SEL.

The 2020 Hyundai Venue SE has some standard equipment you’d expect on any entry-level offering, such as a manual transmission, 15-inch stamped-steel wheels and drum rear brakes. On the other hand, the Venue SE has some standard hardware not so expected. This includes Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, an 8-inch touch screen, cruise control, a tilt/telescope steering wheel and Hyundai’s SmartSense safety suite, which includes forward-collision braking.

The Venue SEL ups the ante with Drive Mode Select (with a Snow mode), 4-wheel disc brakes, 17-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, dual USB ports and the availability of two option packages (Convenience and Premium).

Those two packages (the contents of which are noted below) are standard on the Venue Denim, a model that features denim-colored exterior paint with a white roof. Inside, the Denim boasts a special cloth-and-Leatherette seat trim.

Two main option packages are available on the new Hyundai Venue. The $1,150 Convenience Package (available only on the SEL) includes a power sunroof, blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic warning and leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob.

A Premium Package, also available only on the SEL, includes 17-inch alloy wheels, push-button start, heated front seats and side mirrors, Hyundai’s Blue Link infotainment system and LED headlights and taillights. At $1,750, the Premium Package is a bargain.

If you order a Venue SE with the CVT (what Hyundai calls its “Intelligent Variable Transmission”) instead of the 6-speed manual gearbox, it will cost you an extra $1,200 ($18,550 versus $17,350).

We wish Hyundai would have included blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert as standard equipment on the 2020 Venue. As it is now, the only way to get these handy technologies is to order the Convenience Package, which includes a sunroof that many of us may not want.

The 1.6-liter engine in the new Venue is a thoroughly modern twincam 4-cylinder with variable-valve timing and dual fuel injectors per cylinder that improve atomization for better fuel economy. The smooth powerplant, called SmartStream, feels totally at home in the Venue, aided by the well-tuned shift strategies of the Intelligent Variable Transmission (Hyundai’s name for its new CVT, which has a link-type chain).

1.6-liter inline-4
121 horsepower @ 6,300 rpm
113 lb-ft of torque @ 4,500 rpm
EPA city/highway fuel economy: 27/35 mpg (manual), 30/34 mpg (CVT automatic)