About the Hyundai Venue
Margaret B purchased this Hyundai Venue new for $30,000 (including all on-road costs). Margaret B wouldn’t buy this car again because: “Very disappointed with the cruise control functionality, which I normally use frequently when driving. Took it in for an assessment and was told there is no problem (this despite being told other customers had been in with the same concern). Cruise control is essentially unusable because I live in an area with inclining roads (can’t call them hills, just not dead flat)”
How reliable has your car been? Tell us about any issues.
While using cruise control, as soon as there is a small incline the car drops down 2 gears and the revs go from 2.1 to 5.1 to keep the car at the set speed. Then as the gentle incline continues the car continually changes gears up and down – this makes for a very noisy and rough ride. I’m no mechanic, but would imagine this is fairly hard on the engine plus it is badly impacting the fuel economy. It essentially makes the cruise control unusable as now to get around the issue I use the pause button every time I notice an incline coming up, and under manual control all it take is a slight increase on the accelerator to maintain the speed with the auto transmission not dropping gears at all. This makes a long drive more tiring than it should be and very disappointing that my Hyundai dealership has looked at the car and told me it is normal. They also stated that I am not the only customer to have raised this concern with them.
I have owned multiple new small cars previously and never had this experience before, and cannot agree that it is “normal”!
I will not own this vehicle for long and given handling of warranty issues with my previous Hyundai (Kona) I will never buy Hyundai again.
What do you think of the ownership experience with your car?
Initially, I loved this car, and the purchase experience was great with a friendly and helpful sales team. Initial use around town was good, but as soon as I was just out of town, on roads with a higher speed limit and gentle inclines, the car’s cruise control was essentially unusable due to it changing down multiple gears and severely increasing revs. This resulted in increased noise, a rough ride and very poor fuel economy – essentially making the cruise control unusable when I needed it most.
The response from the Hyundai service department was that this is normal. Now, I regret my purchase.
How has the purchase and aftercare experience been with your car?
As mentioned, the purchase experience was great, with a friendly and helpful sales team.
Hyundai in general though has been very disappointing regarding my concern with my new Venue, and my previous 2022 Hyundai Kona (the Kona was found to have metal shavings in the oil filter during a routine service at 20000km by my own mechanic. When having this assessed by the dealership service centre, they concluded it was normal up to 30000km and denied there was anything to be concerned about. Other mechanics I spoke to held concerns at this occurrence and were incredulous at Hyundai’s response). I have to say they gave me a reasonable trade-in price given they fully knew the concern with the car.
Are you happy with the price and features of your car?
For a car in this price range, it comes loaded with features – bluelink, maps, keyless entry and push button start, sunroof, Apple car play and wireless charging.
All fairly standard expectations though in a new car these days.
Pity about the virtually unusable cruise control though.
What do you think of the performance and economy of your car?
As expected the fuel economy isn’t that great with around town driving, but is roughly as advertised.
As mentioned, the problem with the cruise control is causing me a major headache and resulting in very poor performance and equally bad fuel economy on out of town driving.
What do you think of the technology in your car?
For a car in this price range, it comes loaded with features – bluelink, maps, keyless entry and push button start, sunroof, Apple car play and wireless charging.
All fairly standard inclusions though in a new car these days.
Pity about the virtually unusable cruise control though.
What do you think of the ride comfort and handling of your car?
The first thing that caught my attention with the Venue was how high it sits off the ground. As a mature person, this makes getting in and out easy, plus the seats are upright, but adjustable for personal comfort, and the driver seat is height adjustable also.
Normal driving around town the car handles well, but disappointingly this is not the case out of town when using cruise control the ride becomes noisy and rough, and handles very poorly
Do you have any additional comments about your car?
I will never buy Hyundai again given this is my 2nd brand new Hyundai in 2 years, now with both having problems that Hyundai will not acknowledge as being abnormal. I have always driven brand new small cars and never had any concerns prior to my association with this company.