Hyundai Venue puts on a sexy dress

Aah, young love… This writer, being in the last 20% of my life, has many fond memories of girls foolish enough to regard me with affection through the last five decades or so.

One that still stands out is Riana, who floated into and out of my life when, many, many years ago, I was strong and beautiful. She had this special quality – when she walked in, the whole room would light up. Today, that would come in very handy during load-shedding. But, at the time, Eskom actually worked, so Riana’s light-up qualities were largely overlooked.

Even so, I lusted after her sincerely and unreservedly, just the way she was. My high regard for her did not change when she decided to become a blonde, and even more desirable than before. Sadly it meant she could attract a rich man’s attention, and I was duly dumped in mid-flight of what I had thought was a shared passion. All of which does have reference to the Hyundai Venue 1.0T Fluid.

I test drove the original Hyundai Venue a while ago, loved it, and wrote so. Now, recently Hyundai decided to add a Limited Edition Venue, of which just 500 will be on sale in this country. The changes to the original Venue were purely cosmetic, like Riana’s newly dyed blonde tresses way back then.

The Limited Edition brings with it a distinctive two-tone exterior, with the roof, lower bumper inserts and side mirrors of the dark blue test vehicle now white. There are matching pin-stripes on the side skirts and circular badges on the C-pillars.

It also offers a light beige colour interior theme, with denim and leather cloth seats. All of which adds to the fact that the standard Venue is already as cute as a button.

The new offering is still powered by a 998 cc three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that produces 88 kW of power at 6 000 rpm and 172 Nm of torque between 1 500 and 4 000rpm. The grunt and twist in the test unit went to the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The wheels themselves have 6.5-inch wide, 16-inch alloy wheel rims, dressed in 215/60 R16 rubber. The Venue has ventilated disc brakes front and drums rear, with ABS and EBD, plus an electronic stability programme and hill-start assist system.

Active safety features include a rear-view reversing camera, high mounted rear stop light, LED daytime running lights, automatic locking doors and an impact-sensing door unlocking system. If you crash it, the Venue will try to save you via side impact protection beams, crumple zones front and rear, airbags all round for the front occupants and plus side and curtain airbags in the rear.

Standard inside features include an eight-inch display audio touchscreen system, dual USB ports, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto plus a leather-wrapped steering wheel with audio controls and cruise control buttons. It has manual air-conditioning, glove box cooling and adjustable air vents for the rear occupants.

One would generally not expect a small SUV to be quick, or even a pleasure to drive all the time, but the Venue, in both its standard and Special Edition guises exceeded expectations. With a gross vehicle mass of 1 670 kg it was never going to be a race car, but it boasted brisk acceleration.

Hyundai’s official figures pegs the Venue on 11.2 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h, with a top speed just over 180km/h. It feels quicker, due to its wide torque range, that would see the vehicle pulling strongly from around 1 300rpm. The automatic transmission worked seamlessly and gear changes were hard to detect, going up or down through the box.

The little car felt planted and would follow steering inputs accurately and immediately. That is the kind of stuff that will install confidence in the Venue’s anticipated customer base of young first-time buyers, or older people who need to downsize and need something easy to drive. Both will appreciate the fact that the Venue’s diminutive size, plus the rear-facing camera, make it a doddle to park in small spaces.

We mostly drove the Venue in city traffic – which is where most of them will spend their working lives – and did not specifically attempt to save fuel. An overall fuel consumption figure of 7.3L/100 km came as a pleasant surprise. The Hyundai Venue 1.0T Fluid Limited Edition will cost you R360 500, which includes a five-year/150 000km warranty. Service intervals are every 15 000km.

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