SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Little hooligan SUV alert

We experience the 2020 Hyundai Venue 1.0T Fluid m/t

Posted: February 8, 2020

The numbers
Price: R309 900
Engine: 998 cc, three-cylinder, DOHC 12-valve turbopetrol with gasoline direct injection
Power: 88 kW between 5300 and 6000 rpm
Torque: 172 Nm between 1500 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11.2 seconds
Maximum speed: 183 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7.4 l/100 km
Tank: 45 litres
Luggage: 350 litres
Standard tyre: 215/60R16
Spare: 195/65R15 on steel rim
Ground clearance: 195 mm
Turning circle: 10.2 metres
Maximum towing mass (braked): 1100 kg
Warranty: 5 years/150 000 km, with drivetrain extension warranty of 2 years/50 000 km
Roadside assistance: 7 years/150 000 km
Service plan: 3 years/45 000 km at 15 000 km intervals

* Additional engine facts from https://www.automobile-catalog.com/

As with Life, Hyundai’s 1.0T Venue is whatever you make of it.

The company’s new entry-level SUV, it’s just shy of four metres long. Shorter than Kona by 170 mm, it’s also 30 mm narrower, 40 mm taller, offers 11 litres less boot space and has a slightly smaller fuel tank. It isn’t as luxuriously equipped either. But it weighs 148 kilograms less so, equipped with the same 88-kW engine, Venue is a touch quicker, faster and lighter on fuel. 

Hyundai’s 998 cc, Kappa lll, triple uses sophisticated engineering to make it the second-most powerful and torquey one-litre motor available in South Africa today. Ford presently boasts three more kilowatts while VW/Audi rules in lugging power with a further 28 Newton-metres. But the race is not yet over.

This motor develops its maximum torque between 1500- and 4000 rpm, with *peak power delivered in a straight line between 5300 and 6000 revs. It’s still delivering a hearty 79 kW when the rev limiter kicks in at 6500. Most turbocharged engines stop fighting around 5000 rpm, so this thing is small-package dynamite.

For you that means plenty of top gear roll-on potential while cruising at 120 km/h, 2700 rpm, in sixth. It translates to 1350 rpm at 60, at which point there’s 160 Nm available to quickly catch gaps in traffic. You could, almost, stick it in top gear and trundle around like Aunt Agatha all day long.

Or you could drive it like you mean it. Stir the slick-shifting box to maximum advantage; keep revs up in the rafters; enjoy its confident handling and braking and love its firmly weighted and responsive steering. Never thought a Hyundai SUV could be this much fun, did you?

The suspension’s good too; soaks up speed humps comfortably and tracks confidently over ripples and embedded stones when the going gets dusty.

Our Fluid-spec test car with manual box sits in the middle of a five-car range that spans three trim levels; Motion, Fluid and Glide. They all use the same engine and offer choices between six-speed manual and seven-speed DCT transmissions. Top model Glide comes only in automatic.

Motion kicks off with 15” steel wheels; two airbags; manual air conditioning; basic audio with four speakers, USB and Bluetooth; ABS brakes with EBD, ESP and Hill Start Assist; automatic locking; onboard computer; electric windows and mirrors and cloth-covered seats without height adjustment.

Fluid adds four airbags, 16” alloy wheels, firm leather and fabric seats, touchscreen infotainment with phone mirroring, cruise control, rearview camera and parking alarm, roof rails, rear window wiper, folding mirrors and various other bits and pieces.

Glide upgrades to a 60:40-split back seat with armrest; front fog lamps; projector headlamps with swivelling function; keyless starting and automatic air conditioner. But even at this level, there is only one (unlit) visor mirror.

Boot: The lip is at 80 centimetres; the space is 21 cm deep and the one-piece seatback releases by means of two pull tabs that can be awkward for one person to use. It folds almost flat but with a step. The spare wheel and its changing tools are under the floorboard.

Back seat facilities: Repeater vents, single map pocket, two head restraints, bottle bins, central courtesy lamp, two full belts and a lap strap. Enough headspace and foot room for six-foot passengers but knees graze front seatbacks. Not bad for a mini SUV, though.

Front seat facilities: Central armrest box, various storage spaces, tablet-style touch screen, medium sized cubby with chilling vent, two USBs include one with charging ability, 12-volt socket, plenty of headroom although seat a bit too high for taller drivers, two cup holders, simple HVAC and music controls, speed defroster for rear screen, unlit vanity mirror for passenger, RHD parking brake has firm and smooth action, easy to reach resting pad for clutch foot.

Overall: Fit and finish is up to recent Made-in-India standards but isn’t quite Kona level. A neat and competent little family SUV, its biggest secret is the undercover grin factor.

Test unit from Hyundai SA press fleet

We drove an automatic some months later



This pic shows a Glide automatic; the air controls are different

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.

If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.