Buying a new Venue: Confused between turbo-petrol & NA petrol option

I am not a driving enthusiast and most of my driving would be in the city. Highway drives are limited to 400 km

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Hi Guys,

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I have recently booked Hyundai Venue S Optional Turbo MT. I did a lot of research and took test drives of various cars from different segments such as Seltos, Elevate, Brezza, I20, Altroz, Nexon, Sonet, Citroen C5 Aircross, and Venue. This is my first car and I have recently learned to drive, although have to brush up on my driving skills once I have my car. I want to go for MT only, not for automatic. After taking a test drive of all the above cars, I found all the C SUVs a little big and didn’t feel confident to drive them. For hatchbacks, I felt confident but wanted to go for the SUVish trend. In Sub Compact SUVs, I was left with Nexon, Sonet and Venue now. I did not go with Nexon because of poor reviews of Tata’s after-sales service and all touch-based panels of the new Nexon Dashboard. Plus Nexon is a bit wide and we have cramped parking space at our home, so had to skip. In Sonet, I felt cramped and the all-black interior was feeling suffocating to me and my mom. So the only choice we were left with was Venue. Brezza didn’t feel appealing to us because of its basic interiors.

First of all, I am not a driving enthusiast and most of my driving would be in the city and sometimes on highways with family trips once in a while within a distance of 300-400km max. I would prefer to hire a car if I am going to any mountain places with a skilled driver.

Now in Venue, I was confused between engines whether to go for its NA engine which produces 81 BHP power or Turbo which produces 118 BHP. Initially, I was fine with the NA engine because that is enough for my requirement to go from point A to Point B as long as it is reliable. But with the Turbo engine S Optional model, other features are also coming with a price difference of 60k only. One important feature I am considering is Rear Wiper in Turbo along with Cruise Control. I think Rear Wiper is an important safety feature and since it’s given in the Turbo variant, I went with the Turbo engine.

I want to know what you guys think about this decision. Should I go for a turbo engine considering my needs and expectations from a car? How will the absence of a rear wiper affect the overall safety while driving if I go ahead with NA? I don’t care much about Cruise Control. I felt vibrations also in Turbo while NA was very silent. The SO NA model comes with a rear defogger though, not with a rear wiper. I am not sure why I am so fixated on the rear wiper and how practically it is used in real-world conditions. I intend to keep the car for the long term as long as it can be kept.

What will be the mileage difference between the NA and turbo engine and the maintenance cost plus the lifetime of these 2 engines?

In a nutshell, my criteria to go for Turbo from NA was just Rear Wiper in the turbo model at a price difference of 60k ex-showroom. I am having second thoughts after booking the car about the turbo engine now.

Please suggest whether to change it to an NA engine and compromise on the rear wiper or keep the turbo model only. Thanks!

Here's what BHPian bijims had to say on the matter:

If you consider the best combination of features, power, turbo petrol engine, reliability, and manual transmission along with a Compact SUV body style all under 12 lakhs OTR Gurugram, I have to agree that the Venue S(O) Turbo MT is the best option out there, None of the other cars offer such an interesting combination. Either they are not as powerful or lacking features or are expensive. So the Vennue S(O) Turbo MT seems to be the best pick for you. For around 60k to 70k more, you are getting a much more powerful and torquey engine, 6-speed transmission (over 5-speed), 16-inch tires, rear wiper, and cruise control which itself more than justifies the price differential.

When buying a car, I would always recommend going for the more powerful engine over the options available, in this case, it is almost a no-brainer considering the amount of feature additions you are getting. Moreover, getting a more powerful engine will help down the road when you become a more experienced driver as you don't have to plan your overtakes, the car will not feel out of breath on the highways or at triple-digit speeds, and so on.

The mileage difference isn't significant at hardly a 1 to 2 km/l difference, that too only in the cities whereas on the highway, the Turbo is surprisingly more efficient (provided you adapt to the turbo petrol engine). Maintenance costs are similar and hardly worth worrying about.

So don't fret, you have made the right choice. Go ahead with it. If you need any further advice, feel free to ask.

Hope it Helps!

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

Agree

Given your city-based driving and even considering some highway drives(3-400kms twice a year) later on when you develop some confidence and feel like it, I would still suggest sticking with the NA engine.

I would say no since turbo petrols are known to be very sensitive to driving styles especially in city driving. Driving with a light foot will alleviate much of this but not all especially with an MT.

Second, the power delivery of turbo petrol isn't linear. When the turbo kicks in, say at 2000rpm there will be a sudden surge in performance which can catch you off-guard initially and could become an annoyance later on, especially in the city. Now I haven't driven Hyundai's turbo petrol and I have never driven a turbo petrol with MT so this is based on what I've read on the forum and my experience with turbo petrols with AT/DSG/AMT and turbo diesel with MT.

It's important IMO but with the defogger, the only time you would miss rear visibility is during rains. You can reduce it a bit using rain repellents like Rain-X etc. during rains but only to an extent. But to remove the rear overspray you'll have to get down and wipe off the dirt. Sedans don't have any wipers because they don't have to deal with the rear spray.

Can you do without it? Depends, it's very important for me since I am used to it but it's not common to see people using theirs even if available.

That's the difference between the 4-cylinder NA and 3-cylinder turbo petrol. Inherent vibrations in the 3-cylinder and the TGDi engines are known to vibrate more when cold.

Depends a lot on your driving style(light/heavy foot) and traffic. Turbo petrols are known to give low FE numbers when driven with heavy feet as they dump fuel to cool down. NAs will give a predictable FE whether or not varying a lot. In simple words, you're driving a 1.0 NA until the turbo spools up and then you'll feel the surge in power which people buy the turbo for, which for you doesn't make a lot of sense.

I am expecting some additional maintenance due to the turbo but since we haven't heard of any out-of-the-blue issues or high costs so far, they should be doing ok. Owners can guide you better.

I don't think there should be any issue with the lifetime of any engine in 2023

Suggestions:

If I were you I would rather get the i20 top trim with the smooth 1.2 NA and MT/CVT.

But if the SUV design is what you want to go for and you've decided on the Venue then I would suggest sticking with the NA.

In case you want to re-evaluate some wildcard suggestions and open to hatchbacks:

1. Ignis: would seem a bit old now but with discounts should be optimal for your use case but might not be what you want.
2. Glanza: Lovely interiors you might like them, much better than the Baleno

Here's what BHPian IshaanIan had to say on the matter:

Strictly speaking, Hyundai petrol mills are known to be not as efficient nor as rev-happy as their Japanese counterparts so I'd urge you to check out the Fronx that said, if you are dead set on getting a Venue, then perhaps go with the NA if most of your driving will be in the city as you would likely get better mileage with it compared to the turbo.

Here's what BHPian Chandrahas had to say on the matter:

I use a Nios i10 turbo (manual) in Gurugram traffic daily and can list down the pros and cons that you'll be facing compared to NA petrol.

CONS:

1. There is nothing low down the revs so you'll have to slip the clutch quite a lot. Also, taking off even from speed breakers will require you to shift to 1st gear.
2. It's very easy to stall it. Everyone stalls it the first time they move it and even after 10k kms, I manage to stall it once in a while.
3. Throttle response is not quick/sharp. When you press the accelerator there is always some delay before the car surges ahead. I'm not talking about the turbo lag, i.e even when cruising if you plan to vary throttle input there is some delay.
4. Turbo lag is present and is quite an annoyance in the slow-moving/choc-a-bloc traffic.
5. There is no crescendo like the NAs. The top range feels flat after the strong mid.
6. Car shakes at startup and while idling. Constant thrum is present. Wiser fellows at my home don't like it. (I love it and it's not a con for me tho).

PROS:

1. Mid-range is devastating. If you are in the right gear and the right revs, it will haul...
2. It's very easy to maintain high triple-digit speeds and overtaking even fast-moving traffic is easy. For example: the car does 120kmph @2800 RPM. Lend great cruising ability to the car.
3. I get very good fuel efficiency despite my primitive driving style. I get 14-15 km/l in the city and 18+ km/l on long drives (MID indicated)
4. For your use case - I think you are better off with the NA. Please take a test drive.

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