Hyundai Venue
One litre turbo charged, with 100 horsepower and a DCT gearbox, enough space for luggage and frugal enough to drive day to day while still managing to set the pulse racing when you put your foot down. In short the Hyundai Venue has been in my crosshairs ever since it came back from the Great India Drive that took it literally across the breadth of India. It took a few months of cajoling Rahul but the keys to Venue were finally in my hand. While country-wide lock-downs meant that a road trip was out of the question, but even then the journey thus far has been stellar. But this month let’s talk about that DCT, a first for the South Korean manufacturer in India. I know a lot of people out there who said that a diet of DSG has meant the Venue’s dual clutch seemed almost like a torque converter. I’ll agree but only to the fact that Hyundai’s DCT is quite different in contrast to the German DSGs. It is but not necessarily in a bad way. Yes, when the liquid in the coupling systems are cold and more viscous, the gearbox does feel a little laggier than you would expect. Once you’re on the go, the gearbox is as precise as you would expect, with sharp, smooth shifts that match the degree of compression from your right foot. In manual mode, the DCT does not hesitate to kick down a gear when told and auto shifts up only when it has a free run to the redline, in corners though it does seem to hold reasonable levels of rev ensuring that the power stays down and your line stays on course. Even with a mix of couple of spirited runs, the Hyundai still manages to return almost 700km from it’s 45-litre fuel tank, which is more than respectable for a turbo-charged daily driver in my book!
ONCE ON
THE GO, THE GEARBOX IS AS PRECISE AS YOU WOULD EXPECT,
WITH SHARP, SMOOTH SHIFTS