The Hyundai Venue subcompact SUV has recently bagged the 2020 Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States. While the design, platform, and most of the styling are similar to the India-spec model, the Hyundai Venue sold in North America is manufactured in South Korea, and it's not same as the one sold in India. For 2020, the IIHS criteria required the Venue to meet several crash-safety and crash-prevention metrics, including good ratings in six different crash tests. It also needs advanced or superior ratings for both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention, as well as an acceptable or good headlight rating.
The Hyundai Venue, with both standard and optional safety features, met the award criteria of IIHS
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According to IIHS, the Hyundai Venue's standard and optional front crash prevention safety features met the award criteria, and both earned superior ratings for vehicle-to-vehicle crash prevention. In both cases, the Venue was able to avoid collisions in vehicle-to-vehicle tests at 19 and 40 kmph. On the other hand, in vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluation, the Venue with standard safety features earned an advanced rating, while the car with optional safety features like - Blind-Spot Collision Warning (BCW) with Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning (RCCW), was rated superior. Both vehicles avoided or substantially mitigated the severity of collisions in all pedestrian scenarios, although the optional system avoided impacts in more scenarios and averaged greater speed reductions.
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The US-spec Hyundai Venue comes with a 1.6-litre petrol engine with a manual and iVT automatic option
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The Venue sold in North America is available with two headlight options, both of which include high-beam assist. The LED projector headlights available on more expensive trim levels earned an acceptable rating, while the base trim with halogen projector units was rated marginal due to poor visibility around corners. In fact, if LED projectors were standard issue, the Venue could've received the overall Top Safety Pick + award.
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The US-spec Hyundai Venue is powered by a 1.6-litre Smartstream petrol inline-four-cylinder engine producing 119 bhp and 153 Nm of peak torque. The engine comes mated to either a 6-speed manual transmission or an optional Intelligent Variable Transmission (IVT) automatic unit. Last year, the Venue has also received a 4-star crash rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP). However, the India-spec model is yet to receive a crash rating.
