Hyundai Venue

Venue is truly underrated in terms of design and practicality. I better chose the NA engine instead of the turbo as it is more reliable. The space inside is well padded relative to the price.

Road noise is tolerable. Engine and wind noise is ,unlike what others are saying, is good. Comparing to the likes of Vezel.

I wish there are more safety features like adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist.

Pick up seamlessly and smoothly in driving. Very compact and nice to drive. Road noise level is a bit high but acceptable as many similar cc cars also can hear road noise.

I have been driving it for close to 2 years now. Reliable, nimble, and easy to drive for the whole family. Performance is comparable to any Japanese car of the same CC.

You must have already seen a few of these plying our roads. Seems like quite a few customers opt to have theirs with the contrasting coloured roof.

A compact crossover that needs a bit more effort. Those square daytime running lights are cool but everywhere else the design looks a bit garish regardless of what pattern is in that massive grille.

There are also plenty of hard plastics in the cabin. Its par for the course for the segment and price.

And so is the drivetrain. Reasonably muted for a CVT and with just enough push when you really need to go.

Problem is, once you're up to speed wind and road noise becomes attrocious. I cannot image how much worse it will get if you get to test drive this on the highway.

Shop elsewhere.

The sibling Kia Stonic looks so much better. This car's design looks all over the place and frankly, ugly. That's why you don't see many on the roads. Pricing wise is also on the higher side for a small SUV with a NA 1.6 and a crappy CVT gearbox. Sluggish pick-up with a noisy engine and gearbox. Explains why you don't see many on the roads compared to its rivals.

Much better small SUVs like the SEAT Arona 1.0 TURBO, Kia Stonic 1.0 TURBO and Toyota Raize 1.0 TURBO can be had for less and looks way better than this.

Saw this arrival in the recent Motor Show 2020 and decide to give it a closer look as a friend is keen to get.

Saw its BASE model, almost fainted as the gaps with the S trims are so wide apart but with a small gap in price tag, not sure how it makes sense to bring in at the first place.

S trimmings comes with a 2-tone color which is similar to makes like Volvo XC40 and with a 17-inch rims (15-inch for base) too.

LED front and rear lights with DRL to the S trims too. Nice.

Interior is a mixture of cloth and leather seating material which is of good quality looks but no roof as options.

Driving off is ok but no electric brake which is now a common sight across many makes out there. Understand that it comes with adaptive bend lights but didnt get to see it as test drive is in the daylight.

Smooth drive in normal mode with adequate pickup too. In sports mode, relatively ok too.

Only drawback in things to have is no front sensors at parking which is good to have for a semi high car like this and no auto hold too.

Overall, its a small nimble crossover to have for its price tag (S$ 86k for S trim as at Feb 2020) but if you compare overall, you sure have more choices with this same amount.