Hyundai Venue
The Venue has just been promoted! Now, aside from it’s duties as my long-termer, the Hyundai Venue is now the official Auto Today shoot car. The fact that it got picked to begin with is testament to the Venue and its ability to be both practical and --when needs be-- quick. We’ll start with practicality, the shoot car by definition must be a sort of swiss army blade amongst vehicles, it must be able to fit all the equipment, all the luggage and a few spare members of the Auto Today team that travel along with. In this matter the Venue is bang on! It’s external dimensions, the fact that it is a sub-4 meter SUV make it ideal for the back roads and narrow lanes that we find ourselves on, more often than not. Add in the fact that -- if driven with care-- the Venue is plenty capable, and has proven itself literally driving the length of the country in its first few weeks as part of our fleet. On the inside though, I can testify to the fact that it’s more than spacious for 4 plus equipment and luggage, which is a sizable ask for something that is basically a little shorter than the Hyundai i20, but it’s a task that the Venue happily does. The final factor is the boot, which must not only bear the burden of luggage and equipment but also on occasion accomodate a cameraperson wielding the aforementioned equipment. You’d be surprised at how few cars are actually fit to the task, that requires both careful planning and supervision.Finally, the shoot car must be quick! Remember all those exceptional tracking shots of all those fast cars you saw this month? Well the whole time the Venue has to keep up and keep stable. On that score, the Venue’s potent forced induction three-pot is more than willing to keep up with cruising speeds of some of the best cars in the world, and I can prove that photographically! I’ve left my favourite thing about the Venue for last, and that is the balance. The combination of the slightly wider profile on the tyres, the well damped springs and the well weighed steering is really one of the best I’ve seen on a sub-compact SUV, sans the EcoSport. The kicker is after all that the Venue fits perfectly into your daily life too, and to the Auto Today Team at least, it’s that one car that does it all!