2024 Hyundai Venue Limited First Test: Cheap and Cheerful or Dull and Dreary?
As car prices creep up, Hyundai’s cheap new SUV aims to please without breaking the bank.
Pros
- Affordably priced
- Doesn’t feel cheap
- Spacious for its size
Cons
- Less pizzazz than many competitors
- Boring to drive
- Busy ride
It’s easy for budget-car shoppers to feel frozen out of the market. Since COVID hit, new car prices reached record average highs, and automakers responded by discontinuing the few slow-selling sub-$20,000 vehicles on the market, such as the Chevrolet Spark and Hyundai Accent, replacing them with similar but more expensive hatchbacks masquerading as SUVs. The Hyundai Venue was one of the first entrants to that field back in 2020. Four years later, the class has ballooned massively as price-conscious consumers recognize its value. Curious as to how well the 2024 Hyundai Venue Limited keeps up with the Joneses, we got one in for a round of testing.
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Why It’s Important
The Hyundai Venue’s competition when it launched in 2020 largely consisted of vehicles like the Nissan Kicks, Honda HR-V, and Kia Soul. Since then, the class ballooned with new and revised models like the Chevrolet Trax, Toyota Corolla Cross, Buick Envista, and 2025 Nissan Kicks.
The Venue is largely unchanged for the 2024 model year. The biggest additions this year are equipment-based: A six-speaker sound system is standard across the line, midgrade Venue SELs get push-button start, and SELs and Venue Limited models get back-seat USB ports. Oh, and there’s the $250 dearer starting price, now at $21,275 (our top-trim Venue Limited test car starts at $24,525 and was priced at $24,735 as tested, thanks to the addition of carpeted floormats).
All Venues are powered by a naturally aspirated 1.6-liter I-4 good for 121 hp and 113 lb-ft of torque, which drives the front wheels via a continuously variable transmission. That’s on the low end of the segment, but the Hyundai’s flyweight 2,691-pound frame helps mask that somewhat while helping it achieve a near segment-best 29/33/31 mpg city/highway/combined EPA rating. Like many vehicles in its segment (and the subcompact hatchbacks they effectively replaced), the 2024 Hyundai Venue is unavailable with all-wheel drive.
Pros: What We Like
Automakers often seem to punish shoppers who don’t pony up for more expensive models, but that isn’t the case with the Venue. Once inside, door closed with a solid thunk, the driver and front passenger find comfortable seats, solid-feeling switchgear, and, most crucially, high-trafficked touchpoints such as the wheel, shifter, and armrests all feel comfortable and satisfying to touch. It’s also pleasing to see a lack of blank buttons in the loaded Venue Limited test SUV, and we appreciated the standard wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and the Limited-exclusive heated front seats.
The overall packaging itself is also quite practical. The back seat may not be adult-friendly, but the seats fold flat in a 60/40 split, while the trunk features two tiers: one that provides a flat load floor with the rear seat folded and the other that drops the floor a few inches to increase cargo volume.
Cons: What We Don’t Like
Although it’s packaged well, the 2024 Hyundai Venue’s drive isn’t all that exciting compared to competitors like the torquey Chevy Trax. The I-4 and CVT are a loud pairing as the latter works hard to keep the former in its limited powerband. We found ourselves often inadvertently treating the throttle as an on/off switch to maintain momentum on freeways. The Venue’s steering is city-friendly—meaning quick and responsive, making the Hyundai easy to maneuver—though that quality coupled with its diminutive size means it can easily get bounced around on poor-quality pavement and freeway expansion joints.
The Venue Limited, despite its solid equipment level and price-appropriate finish, also doesn’t quite feel as special as some of its competitors do at this price point. The Trax, for instance, more successfully gussies up its cabin with contrast stitching, colored accents, and interesting geometric design flourishes. Kia treats the inside of its Soul similarly. Hyundai previously offered a denim-finished interior option on the Venue, but that’s been discontinued.
The Bottom Line
A solid and practical—if uninteresting—alternative to the subcompact hatchbacks of yesterday.
I generally like writing—especially when it’s about cars—but I hate writing about myself. So instead of blathering on about where I was born (New York City, in case you were wondering) or what type of cars I like (all of ’em, as long as it has a certain sense of soul or purpose), I’ll answer the one question I probably get most, right after what’s your favorite car (see above): How’d you get that job? Luck. Well, mostly. Hard work, too. Lots of it. I sort of fell into my major of journalism/mass communication at St. Bonaventure University and generally liked it a lot. In order to complete my degree senior year, we had to spend our last two semesters on some sort of project. Seeing as I loved cars and already spent a good portion of my time reading about cars on sites such as Motor Trend, I opted to create a car blog. I started a Tumblr, came up with a car-related name (The Stig’s American Cousin), signed up for media access on a bunch of manufacturer’s websites, and started writing. I did everything from cover new trim levels to reviewing my friends’ cars. I even wrote a really bad April Fool’s Day post about the next Subaru Impreza WRX being Toyota-Corolla-based. It was fun, and because it was fun, it never felt like work. Sometime after my blog had gotten off the ground, I noticed that Motor Trend was hiring for what’s now our Daily News Team. I sent in my résumé and a link to my blog. I got the job, and two weeks after graduation I made the move from New York to California. I’ve been happily plugging away at a keyboard—and driving some seriously awesome hardware—ever since.
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