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00:00 I know what you're thinking.
00:01 Why is this man wearing a Canadian tuxedo?
00:04 Two things.
00:05 Number one, as a Canadian American,
00:08 I'm allowed to make that joke.
00:09 And number two, this is the 2021 Hyundai Venue Denim.
00:14 Is this little SUV any good?
00:17 Let's find out.
00:18 The Venue is Hyundai's newest and smallest SUV.
00:26 It competes with other front-wheel drive based SUVs
00:29 like the Kia Soul, the Nissan Kicks, and the Toyota CH-R.
00:34 That's right, front-wheel drive.
00:36 There is no all-wheel drive.
00:38 So the Venue then is for people who want an SUV
00:41 without any off-road capability.
00:43 Well, why would you buy something like this?
00:45 Easy.
00:46 The SUV has largely replaced the sedan in America
00:50 and has almost totally gotten rid of the station wagon.
00:53 So if you want something small and inexpensive
00:55 that still has a lot of cargo capacity,
00:58 a vehicle like this is your best bet.
01:00 As far as design goes, in a lot of ways,
01:04 the Venue looks like a shrunken Hyundai Palisade.
01:07 You know, it's supposed to.
01:08 You know, this grill would be at home on a Palisade.
01:10 Plus you have the brand's now signature
01:13 rectangular-ish daytime running lights.
01:15 And I think they've done a good job.
01:16 The front of the thing looks more premium than it is.
01:20 But I think they've done a better job here on the side,
01:22 making the Venue read as an actual off-roader,
01:26 even though we know it's not.
01:28 You've got these big swollen fenders, right?
01:30 It screams power.
01:31 You've got smallish wheels that are wrapped
01:33 in high-profile tires.
01:35 And you've got a lot of black plastic here on the wheel well
01:39 which, you know, makes it look tough
01:40 and like, you know, you can hit a rock and not care.
01:42 They've also done a great job
01:44 of shrinking the car's visual mass.
01:47 This white roof here, it's exclusive
01:49 to the denim trim level.
01:51 Does a nice job of just, you know,
01:52 shrinking the height of the car.
01:53 And then down here on the door sill,
01:55 you've got this black plastic trim
01:57 with a little bit of chrome.
01:57 It looks really nice, but again,
01:59 it shrinks the size of the door visually.
02:01 It's a nice trick.
02:02 It's a really good job.
02:03 This part's not such a nice job.
02:05 It kind of just looks like a Tangram set,
02:07 but that's okay.
02:08 Out back, just reads like any other SUV.
02:11 The point I want to drive home though,
02:13 is that for what's essentially an entry-level vehicle,
02:16 Hyundai has put an awful lot of time and effort
02:20 into the design of the Venue.
02:22 And you just don't see that too often.
02:25 We will get to the seats in a moment, I promise.
02:28 But first, I want to make a blanket statement
02:30 about inexpensive car interiors.
02:32 It usually feels that the maker of said cars
02:35 are trying to punish you for not having more money.
02:38 You didn't buy their more expensive car,
02:40 well, then you will forever have a terrible interior
02:43 to sit in to remind you of how poor you are.
02:46 The opposite is true here in the Venue denim.
02:49 This is a great interior, starting with these seats.
02:53 Look at 'em.
02:53 Okay, I don't think it's really denim like my tuxedo here,
02:57 but it's a really cool blue, glossy with a cool pattern.
03:00 And then look at the rest of the seat.
03:02 We've got, I don't think it's leather,
03:03 but it's blue vinyl.
03:05 You've got white piping, you have white contrast stitching.
03:08 You never see that in cars in this price range.
03:11 And then that motif continues.
03:12 The steering wheel is blue leather
03:14 with white contrast stitching.
03:16 So is the shift boot.
03:17 This is blue.
03:18 This is off-white.
03:20 If this was in a Porsche, you could call it yachting blue
03:23 and charge five grand for the pleasure
03:25 of having these two colors.
03:27 And then look at the rest of the design.
03:28 You've got this nice, bright work.
03:31 It looks like chrome, it's actually plastic,
03:32 but it looks good.
03:33 The HVAC controls are nice.
03:35 The housing here around the shifter,
03:37 it looks really high-end.
03:39 And then you've got this infotainment screen.
03:42 It's not huge, but look at how high quality it looks.
03:44 Look at how premium it looks.
03:46 Tons of contrast, it's really bright.
03:48 Plus, all Hyundais have this now,
03:50 but look, little vacuum tubes
03:51 that show you the radio station you're on.
03:53 That's pretty cool.
03:54 And navigation, look at this.
03:57 A car that costs less than 25 grand has full navigation.
04:00 Even if you're not into that,
04:01 this car of course comes with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto,
04:05 so it really is fully loaded.
04:07 I mentioned earlier how I was surprised
04:09 by the attention to detail
04:11 that they paid to the exterior design of the car.
04:14 Well, there's even more attention to detail
04:16 here on the interior.
04:18 Color me impressed,
04:19 especially with these seats.
04:21 Remember all those nice things I had to say
04:26 about the design of the Venue?
04:28 Turns out I don't have many nice things
04:30 to say about its performance.
04:32 Look, under the hood,
04:33 it's a naturally aspirated 1.6 liter inline four.
04:38 It's 121 horsepower, 113 pound feet of torque.
04:42 All of that goes into a continuously variable transmission
04:45 that only powers the front wheels.
04:47 The Venue is slow by 2021 standards.
04:52 Also, it's not very good to drive
04:54 and it doesn't handle very well.
04:56 But at least the fuel economy is great, right?
04:59 No, in fact, it's kind of middling.
05:01 It's 30 miles per gallon in the city, which is okay.
05:04 33 on the highway.
05:05 Why isn't it better if you have such an anemic engine?
05:08 Shouldn't you at least get something out of it?
05:10 Well, the answer is it's an SUV
05:12 and SUVs are bigger and heavier
05:15 and less aerodynamic than cars,
05:17 and so the fuel economy suffers.
05:19 Is the Venue's performance in line with the competition?
05:22 Yes, it is.
05:23 None of them are very good.
05:25 In terms of safety, the Venue is a fairly safe car.
05:30 It has a four star front and rollover crash rating,
05:33 although it does have a five star crash rating
05:34 if you get hit from the side.
05:36 If you get the denim trim level,
05:37 which adds the LED headlights,
05:39 it becomes a 2021 top safety pick.
05:42 Is there room for improvement?
05:44 Sure.
05:45 It would be better if it was a five star crash rating
05:46 all around and it would be nice
05:48 if it had adaptive cruise control.
05:49 For now, it doesn't.
05:50 How much?
05:53 Well, you can actually get yourself
05:56 a brand new Hyundai Venue for less than $20,000.
06:00 That's less than half the average transaction price
06:04 of a brand new car.
06:05 That's incredible.
06:06 More incredible, the denim spec.
06:09 This is the top model, fully loaded, $23,390.
06:14 And as we saw on the interior,
06:16 the feature per dollar ratio on this vehicle is huge.
06:20 A fully loaded Nissan Kicks
06:22 undercuts it by a couple of hundred bucks.
06:24 However, the Venue like this,
06:26 it's cheaper than a comparable Kia Soul
06:28 and a few thousand dollars less than a similar Toyota CHR.
06:33 If there's one thing I want you to know
06:36 about the 2021 Hyundai Venue denim,
06:40 it's that it's got a lot of character.
06:42 If you take performance off the table,
06:44 if you forget all about off-road capability,
06:47 what you're left with is an inexpensive, practical,
06:51 stylish, feature loaded small SUV
06:55 that has really, really cool seats.
06:57 And for some people, that's plenty.
07:00 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,
07:03 please visit motortrend.com/cars.
07:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]