Motor Trend - USA (2020-02)

keep ’em for life has been Car Marketing

101 since Alfred Sloan sported brogues.

According to Hyundai executives, of the

40 million used car buyers in the U.S. last

year, one in three also shopped new cars

but couldn’t find anything affordable. The

Venue was designed to fill that gap.

Although the automaker is not releasing

pricing yet, a starting price below $20,000

is a must. It will compete with the $19,530

Nissan Kicks, $21,580 Ford EcoSport, the

2019 Mazda CX-3 starting at $21,385, and

the Venue’s Korean cousin, the Kia Soul,

which starts at $18,485.

We drove the new Venue in Queensland,

Australia. Why the long trek to drive an

econobox? Production for the Austra-

lian market started four months before

the South Korea assembly plant began

churning out models homologated for

E

ntry-level vehicles are tough to

create. With low, low sticker prices

to contend with, automakers can’t

amortize big R&D budgets or include

reams of rich materials. But at the

same time, they can’t skimp on design;

consumers are too smart and demanding

today. Nor can carmakers cut corners on

safety and convenience features; buyers

expect Top Safety Pick+ ratings, Apple

CarPlay, and cruise control.

Into this fray enters the 2020 Hyundai

Venue subcompact crossover, which

slides below the similarly tidy Kona in

Hyundai’s SUV lineup. The Venue shares

the K2 platform with the Kona and the

Accent, which dropped its hatchback

version to clear a path for the Venue.

So if Hyundai already has the Kona

crossover in many flavors, including an

electric model, and still offers the Accent

as a sedan, why bother adding the Venue

to the lineup?

The Korean automaker sees opportu-

nity to woo first-time buyers with several

levels of affordability. Hook ’em early;

CUBED

the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. A more

basic version of the Venue went on sale

in India in May and has quickly become

that country’s top-selling SUV.

(A quick aside: We’re calling it an

SUV because Hyundai calls it an SUV

and because the general population has

yet to adopt the term “crossover.” But

snow-clime residents should know the

Venue is front-drive only, with no plans

to add AWD, and carries only 6.7 inches

of ground clearance.)

It used to be that B-segment vehicles

were considered too small for the U.S.,

but small crossovers are gaining popu-

larity in North America, and the segment

has grown to 735,000 units globally.

The Venues we drove in Oz were right-

hand drive, but they’re comparable to the

models North America will get with the

same 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine and

CVT. No manuals were available to drive,

but the base engine will be offered with a

six-speed stick shift in North America.

Suspension-wise, the springs and

stabilizer are the same, but the shock

52 MOTORTREND.COM FEBRUARY 2020

FIRST DRIVE I 2020 Hyundai Venue