Hyundai Venue vs Ssangyong Tivoli

What's the difference?

The Hyundai Venue Elite is a sweet-looking, compact SUV that should suit drivers who only need an A-to-B sort of car in the city. Or an empty nester who doesn’t want to feel flustered by any high-end tech and wants knobs and dials where they expect them to be.

Some elements of the safety set could be better though and that’s something to consider. However, for an urban landscape, you can practically fit it anywhere. With its engine specs, it's also happiest in the city - don't consider this a road trip car.

I was asked the critical question while I had the Tivoli ELX on test – “Do you think people will buy this car?” After some time in thought, my answer was – “Not many… yet.”

Those who can look past the brand perceptions are getting an SUV which is damn near as good as anything on the market – and likely cheaper to run.

To that, you can say a lot of things: If only it cost slightly less. If only its rear was better looking. If only it had a five-star safety rating.

But here it is – the fact that the Tivoli can even hold a candle to its slick, finely tuned competition says a lot. The Double Dragon is back, and if it can afford to stick around for a while, perhaps it will stand a chance of putting the big players on notice.

Cute is the adjective that comes to mind when you look at the Venue’s compact styling. And it is compact with its wee 4040mm length. The benefits of its dimensions means that you should be able to tuck this away in most garages or apartment car spots!

The Venue does have a boxier shape than I ordinarily like but because it’s small, it manages to get away with it and still feel sharp.

Our model’s paintwork and roof colour has been finished in Atlas White but you can customise the Venue with a two-tone roof job (either black or white, depending on main body colour), to add some more personality.

You just lose the sunroof with that option, which I actually think adds a lot of oomph to the interior and stops it from looking too plain inside.

Speaking of, the interior is pleasing but simplistic.  There are a lot of traditional design elements from the gear shifter and handbrake to the easy-to-access buttons and dials. This is a no-fuss interior that is banking on having a no-fuss sort of driver.

There is some cool cred with the white painted metal accents around the air vents and gear shifter. Plus, the contrasting piping and stitching on the cloth seats adds some fun, too. 

SsangYong is hardly a brand known for its consistent or good-looking design. In the past, the brand has floundered between the squared-off lines of the Musso and the unresolved bulbous curves of the last-gen Korando.

The brand’s re-launch has finally brought it up to speed, with every car across its range featuring a consistent design language. It’s improved out of sight, but still isn’t without its flaws.

Up front, there’s an angry-looking, squared-off horizontally slotted grille, with angles galore wrapping around the small SUV’s sides.

The angles continue up the A-pillar and across the roof for a squared-off, European-influenced roofline.

Then, around the back things get… strange. A pronounced curvy ridge makes its way over the rear wheels and into a rounded-out boot. It seems at odds with the angular rear glass and lower garnish.

There’s just way too much going on around the back; it’s overly styled. The chintzy chrome finish around the lower reflectors doesn’t help, nor do the big round SsangYong badge and bold ‘T I V O L I’ typeface.

The 16-inch alloys on the EX and ELX grade are a simple 10-spoke matte-silver. They’re nothing special, but at least they're easy to clean.

Inside, things are also mixed. There’s plenty of good and bad. The seats are clad in a robust cloth with plenty of sponge for comfort, and there are sensibly placed soft surfaces in the doors and on the centre console for your elbows.

The dash has an aesthetically pleasing symmetrical theme to it and is finished mostly in decent plastics. The 7.0-inch media screen is pretty good, too, but the rest of the centre stack is a bit nasty and old fashioned.

There’s the mix of gloss plastic and silver surfaces, a giant climate control dial and the so-so buttons that litter its surface. It reminds me of Korean car designs past, like the Holden (Daewoo) Captiva and generations-old Hyundais. Credit where credit is due, though - it all feels much better built.

I’m actually a big fan of the Tivoli’s steering wheel, it has a ridged, chunky shape and is finished in a pleasing artificial-leather material. The function stalks behind it are solid, with rotary dials on them to control lights and wipers. As the primary touch-points for the driver it’s neat that they have a unique, SsangYong personality to them.

It ain't a people mover. Period.

If you plan on having regular passengers and they’re tall, look elsewhere because they won’t find much comfort (especially in the back seat).

On the back seat, I barely fit with my 168cm (5’6”) height and had to accommodate my driving position by spreading the ol’ knees apart. So ladylike.

However, kudos to the clever high roofline because headroom isn’t an issue. The 170mm ground clearance also makes this a super easy car to get in and out of.

Front passengers definitely enjoy the most room and amenities but you will be jostling for the premium position on the armrest. The storage is good for this size SUV with a glovebox, middle console, two cupholders and a cute little storage shelf in front of the passenger.

There’s also a dedicated phone tray that has the wireless charging pad, a USB-A and C port plus a 12-volt port too.

The tech is simple to use and it was easy to get my iPhone connected to the Bluetooth and wired Apple CarPlay (there’s Android Auto, too for those users). The new-for-2023 4.2-inch digital instrument panel adds some pizzazz but unfortunately, isn’t customisable.

The boot is a solid size for this class at 355L. You can adjust the floor to sit a little lower and there is a space-saver spare tyre.

No Venue grade has a powered tailgate but honestly, you don’t need it.

The Tivoli might be a small SUV but it has a cavernous cabin. It’s seriously impressive and rivals some of the best players in this segment, like the Honda HR-V.

The front seat offers huge amounts of headroom, leagues of legroom, great space for your arms on either side and a fully telescopically adjustable steering wheel.

Storage is comprised of a shallow trench under the climate-control stack, decently sized cupholders in the centre console and doors, as well as a deep console box and a glovebox, which seems to disappear forever into the dash.

There’s also a rather odd trench cut out of the dash above the console box. It’s ridged and has a rubbery surface but seems useless for storing things, which will simply topple out when you accelerate.

As previously mentioned, there are comfortable surfaces for resting your elbows on for front occupants.

Room for back-seat dwellers is also excellent, with awesome legroom for the segment and leagues of airspace even for taller folk. There are the same padded elbow-rests in the doors and deep cupholders, but no air-conditioning vents or USB ports.

There are also weird elastic ropes on the back of the front seats for storing things (with mixed success) and a pull-down armrest.

The boot is rated at 423-litres (VDA), which is deceptively large (size-wise not far off the HR-V’s 437-litre space). The problem here is the shape of the boot itself. It’s deep from the floor to the retractable screen, and SsangYong says it will hold three golf bags, but it’s the narrow width and length which limit  its potential.

I found it awkward to move some odd-shaped objects, like a heater and some boxes, and the high entry-point to the bootlid makes things a little difficult when moving heavier items.

Our ELX has significantly more room thanks to a space-saver spare under the boot floor. The Ultimate, which sits above has a full-size spare, further limiting boot space.

There are the same odd elastic ropes in the edges of the boot wall for smaller loose objects or cables.

If SsangYong wants to roar back onto the market and challenge people’s perceptions of the brand, it’ll first need to get them in the door. After all, this low-ball strategy worked for Hyundai and Kia, who infiltrated Australia with models like the Excel and Rio, which offered all the features of more established brands at a cut price.

The challenge is not tarnishing your brand while you’re at it. Has SsangYong pulled it off with the Tivoli?

Our ELX is the mid-spec car, sitting above the entry-level EX and below the all-wheel-drive and diesel-only Ultimate.

The $29,990 ticket price for our front-wheel-drive diesel would be about right if the Tivoli was from any mainstream brand. For roughly the same money you can get a top-spec Mitsubishi ASX Exceed ($30,990), Honda HR-V RS ($31,990), fellow Korean Hyundai Kona Elite ($29,500), or a diesel-powered Mazda CX-3 Maxx Sport ($29,990).

Oh, and despite it looking quite large in the pictures, the Tivoli is most definitely a small SUV, being narrower than a Hyundai Kona and not as long as a CX-3.

Feature-wise, our ELX gets 16-inch alloy wheels, a 7-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, front & rear parking sensors with reversing camera, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, leather trim on the steering wheel, standard faire cloth seats (which weirdly remind me of Hyundai’s seats from about a generation ago), roof-rails, luggage screen in the boot, dual-zone climate control, privacy glass and halogen headlamps with LED DRLs.

Not bad. The safety offering is not only good but available across the range, so check the Safety section of this review out for more on that.

Missing at this price are leather trim (available on the Kona Elite and ASX), active cruise, LED front lighting and powered front seats. It’s not crazy value, but it’s also not bad at $29,990.

All Venue grades share the same engine – a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol drivetrain with a maximum output of 90kW and 151Nm of torque. Which sounds as gutless as it feels.

The six-speed auto transmission and under-powered engine can feel a bit rough on the open-road when you need to put your foot down.

Basically, you’re not going to do Daytona 500 in this. Think the odd bit of shopping, taking your small lap dog to get trimmed and going for a coffee with your friends. 

Our Tivoli is powered by a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine producing 84kW and 300Nm of torque.

That seems a little low on the power front compared to petrol competitors, but the strong torque figure available from an almost instantaneous 1500rpm gives this engine a solid amount of get up and go.

If you aren’t opposed to diesel, I would strongly suggest this engine over its underpowered 1.6-litre petrol equivalent, as it has almost twice the available torque.

It might seem risky for SsangYong to be offering diesel in a segment where the fuel type is unpopular, but it makes sense from a global supply point of view, as diesel is largely the fuel of choice in the Tivoli’s home country of South Korea.

The ELX is front-wheel drive and can only be had with a six-speed torque converter auto transmission manufactured by Aisin.

It earns back some points with the fuel efficiency, especially considering how hard you have to drive this to wring out its power.

The official combined fuel figure is 7.2L/100km and I achieved the same according to the trip computer. Not too shabby but there are hybrid versions for the Venue’s rivals now - like the Yaris Cross - so it would be good to see one for this as well. 

It has a 45L fuel tank and based off the official combined figure, you should be able to get around a 625km driving range, which means you should be able to go a couple of weeks without filling up if you’re doing shorter commutes.

Over my week of mainly urban driving I scored a fuel-consumption figure of 7.8L/100km against a claimed urban figure of 7.4L/100km which is not too bad, but also not stellar.

The official claimed/combined usage figure is at a bold-sounding 5.5L/100km.

The Tivoli has a 47-litre fuel tank.

This is an urban dweller for sure. It’s happiest going under 70km/h but it handles that range very well. You have enough kick to cross traffic without too much fuss and the steering feels direct.

Those feelings disappear on the open road where it’s a struggle to maintain your speed and the engine complains so loudly, I was nervous it was going to conk out.

The cabin also gets loud at higher speeds with wind and road noise, which just reaffirms that this is a city car. At lower speeds, it’s fairly quiet and you can chat without interruption.

There’s some roll when you tackle corners but once you get used to how to drive it, it won’t bother you. The ride comfort is good until you hit bumps and then, you probably feel more connected to the road than you might like but it’s short lived because of the short wheelbase.

I really like the 10.2m turning circle and compact size - it made navigating around tight city streets an absolute breeze. Parking? Hurrah for a small car. I got into spaces that would ordinarily elude me. I just would have liked a clear reversing camera, it’s a bit blurry for a top-spec model.

We never recommend that you drive blindfolded, but if you could and you drove the Tivoli, I honestly believe you’d have trouble telling it apart from any other small SUV on sale today. 

The diesel engine feels strong from the get-go and pushes the 1390kg SUV along with a reasonable urgency. It’s no performance drivetrain, but it's as good as, if not better than, most of the petrol competitors.

The six-speed torque converter auto is mostly great around town but is old-school in that you can definitely feel each ratio. It also had the unfortunate habit of occasionally grabbing the wrong gear.

I once caught it out altogether under heavy acceleration and it spent a whole second fishing for the ratio it wanted. It’s still better than a continuously variable transmission (CVT) for driver engagement, though.

Steering is on the light side but is direct and offers decent feedback. The ELX offers three steering modes - 'Comfort', 'Normal', and 'Sport', which artificially alter the weight behind the steering. 'Normal' is by far the best.

The suspension was also notably impressive. Fellow Korean brands, Hyundai and Kia, have harked on for a long time about local tuning efforts, but I found the Tivoli’s suspension tune almost as good. It’s a slightly more spongey, comfort-focused tune, but I was impressed at how composed it felt in the corners.

The ELX has a cheap torsion-bar rear suspension setup, which could only really be noticed over rough road conditions.

Behind the wheel, the Tivoli was also surprisingly quiet at lower speeds. This makes for a nice, quiet drive around town, despite the diesel engine, but at speeds above 80km/h and engine rpms above 3000 the noise became significantly worse.

I’d say the Tivoli drives just as well as most Hyundais and Kias from just a few years ago. There’s room for improvement in the little details, but for the brand’s first effort since its international re-boot, it does a darned good job.

The Tivoli comes with a reasonably comprehensive safety offering, but there’s room to improve here, too.

On the active-safety front our ELX has auto emergency braking (AEB – works up to 180km/h), lane-departure warning (LDW), lane-keep assist (LKAS) and high-beam assist.

There’s no active cruise, blind-spot monitoring (BSM), traffic-sign recognition (TSR), or driver-attention alert (DAA) available on even the top-spec Ultimate.

The Tivoli has seven airbags, two ISOFIX child-seat mounting points on the rear outboard seats and top-tether anchorages across the second row, as well as the expected brake and stability controls (but no torque vectoring).

The Tivoli has received a four-star ANCAP safety rating as of 2016, however this is based on a EuroNCAP score and now-available lane-assist technologies were not factored into this test.

Ongoing costs are great as the Venue comes with Hyundai’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is a standard term for the class.

You can pre-purchase servicing plans for up to five-years or 75,000km (whichever occurs first). The five-year plan averages $315 per service, which is very competitive! 

Servicing intervals are reasonable at every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

The SsangYong Tivoli now leads the small SUV segment with a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is miles ahead of the acceptable industry standard of five years/unlimited kilometres offered by most competitors.

Service pricing comes in at a completely fixed and impressive-for-a-diesel $322 per yearly 15,000km service for the life of the warranty.

Extra service items are tidily laid out in a chart breaking down parts cost, labour, and total price, with the most notably expensive item being transmission fluid ($577), which, at worst, is recommended to be changed at 100,000km.

From this we can tell SsangYong intends to target Kia’s audience and use this part of the business to categorically beat its competition.