This highly affordable city box has style that outreaches its price.
2024 Hyundai Venue Limited review with The Road Beat
Words and pictures by Mitchell Weitzman
$24,595. With destination charges. As so many cars fall victim to the creeping effects of inflation, it's comforting that Hyundai's Venue, even in its top Limited form, still can be bought for under $25K. And quite frankly, this car has so much more style and character than what this price buys you in Toyota-land, because that's only going to get you a barrel-bottom Corolla these days, and you don't want a barrel-bottom Corolla. Starting from its entry point of just around $21,000, the Venue is a winner for being among the most affordable new cars on sale today.
If there's one area where the Venue seriously struggles, it's highway cruising. 121 horsepower is never going to win you any races, except maybe against a 20-year-old Prius, but the lack of power becomes increasingly apparent at highway speeds, especially uphill. Around town and in a city environment, the Venue excels with plentiful and practical perkiness thanks to an eager throttle pedal. As aerodynamic and rolling resistance rise, though, like when trying to pass on a highway, you do need to be careful in planning out your maneuvers. It's not a huge hindrance among daily commuting, but the lack of speed is something to be aware of. Even climbing 10% grades on the freeway requires the continuously variable transmission to reach for 4,000 RPM of poke just to maintain 70 MPH. And because it's a little four-cylinder, it's a trashy racket when wound up, which happens often. At least this is not unique to the Venue, as many other cars in this price bracket all suffer the exact same issue. Like I said, as a city car in urban environs, it's delightful! As for gas mileage, it's good at the 29 MPG overall I averaged, but I also hoped for considerably more given how slow this engine is; perhaps it's constantly being worked too hard.
Speaking of driving in the tight confines of a modern, busy city, the Venue is splendidly tiny and makes navigating through congested areas a breeze, not to mention an aptitude for fitting into a plethora of parking spots. At only 159-inches long, it's positively diminutive, yet it's surprisingly spacious on the inside. As the driver, I was always comfortable, as most new cars can provide, but even throwing some adult passengers in the rear seats for short drives, they were fine, not particularly happy as if they were being chauffeured in a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but gratefully fine. The cargo storage arears also has ample space for most grocery shopping. While it may be subject to a shrink ray outside, the Venue does take advantage of its boxy shape to maximize interior volume, and it's airy interior design inside helps further strengthen that feeling.
Despite costing so little, all Venues are well-equipped with safety and tech features, and this Limited trim was missing absolutely nothing besides that of a heated steering wheel. The 8-inch touchscreen is easy to use and navigate through, there's Apple CarPlay (though it does require a wired connection), blind spot monitoring, a decent rearview camera, collision avoidance, lane keeping assist, and bright LED headlights even. Like, this is a really well-equipped car and value proposition for having, relatively, all the bells and whistles most drivers could ever want in 2024. I will say that in light of the roominess and the options available, it's not luxurious in any way, with hard plastics used abundantly. But, at least it does give the impression of sturdiness in overall feel on all the touch points, and the steering wheel feels great in the hands.
Unleash (in relative terms again) the Venue on some corners, and the shrunken footprint and lack of weight pays dividends in creating a playful and fun attitude. Even at moderate speeds, the Venue enjoys being tossed around aggressively and copes decently well with a balanced and light-on-its-feet feeling. The steering is subject to more vibrations and knocks through the wheel, but I rather like that element of it feeling, well maybe not alive, but just not dead. If Hyundai were to subject the Venue to the N treatment, with 200 horsepower and a manual gearbox and a honed chassis, this could be the bones of a sensational micro hot hatch. This is a slow car, but it's rather fun to wind out and extract the performance it can offer, and it seems like the Venue enjoys doing so as well.
I first sampled the Venue four years ago and liked our time together. Fast forward an election cycle, and I still found the same positives to be present. This is not the dream car of really anybody, but as far as being one of the cheapest new cars you can buy today in America, you could very well do much worse. With lots of safety features for today's newer and seasoned drivers, and consider Hyundai's 10 year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty for the original purchaser, and this is a seriously good value proposition. Honesty is something that is becoming all too rare in modern times, and the Venue is an affordably honest and earnest form or transit.
2024 Hyundai Venue Limited 'Denim'
Price as-tested: $24,595
Pros: Attractive design; Fun demeanor
Cons: Slow and loud engine; Lots of hard interior plastics
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