Hyundai Venue vs Kia Stonic

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.

All in all, the Stonic is a satisfactory daily driver, it’s just nowhere near ideal as a modern urban conveyance.

Sure, it’s reasonably priced in an increasingly expensive market, but it is very sluggish off the mark which is a solid negative against its overall rating. It also feels cheap inside and lacks contemporary driver-assist tech, such as adaptive cruise control.

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. 

I spend the lion’s share of my time in large and upper large 4WDs, so spending quality time in something like this little hot hatchbac… er, small SUV, is a revelation and a lot of zippy fun. Like driving a go-kart without the fumes and the prangs.

The 2025 Kia Stonic Sport is 4140mm long (with a 2580mm wheelbase), 1760mm wide and 1520mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 1227kg.

This is a slick-looking hatchbac… er, light SUV, and it looks suitably sporty. 

Though ground clearance is unlisted, it stands well clear of the road surface, giving this hatchbac… er, compact SUV, more presence than it otherwise might have.

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 Stonic Sport’s interior is a practical space but it feels a bit dated and underdone in a car market increasingly packed with well-equipped, cheaper and more contemporary SUVs.

The most obvious factors working against the Sport are its the 8.0-inch touchscreen multimedia (too small), the absence of wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and wireless phone charging and multiple hard plastic surfaces.

Sure, the touchscreen is easy enough to operate, but it sometimes takes a few finger stabs to hit the sweet spot you’re after, and thankfully there are dials and buttons off-screen as alternatives for air con controls, etc.

There’s a satisfactory number of storage spaces in the front including two cupholders between the seats, a few little receptacles for your everyday carry gear, and bottle holders in each of the front doors.

The back seat is short on cupholders – there are none – but there are bottle holders in the doors, and the passengers back there get a USB-A port, a map pocket (in the back of the front passenger’s seat) and flip-down grab handles. There are no directional air vents.

Back-seat room is satisfactory for an adult without being spacious, but fine for kids. What do you expect in a small SUV?

In terms of packability, the cargo area (with the rear seat up and in use) yields a listed 352 litres of space. The rear seats are in a 60/40 split fold configuration and with them folded down there is a listed 1155 litres of useable room.

The rear cargo area has bag hooks, a storage space in the left-hand inner wall, and tie-down points at each corner of the floor.

A steel space-saver spare wheel is under the cargo area floor.

The Kia Stonic is available in three grades – the S ($25,460), our test vehicle, the mid-spec Sport ($28,590) and the GT-Line ($31,780), all prices excluding on-road costs. All have five seats.

Standard features include an 8.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system (with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), satellite navigation, digital radio, two USB charging ports, single-zone climate control, six-way manual driver’s seat adjustment, a premium shift knob, premium steering wheel, and Tricot cloth trim seats.

It also has 17-inch alloy wheels, push-button start and rear privacy glass.

Standard paint is 'Clear White', but premium options including 'Sparkling Silver', 'Astro Grey', 'Aurora Black Pearl', 'Signal Red', 'Sporty Blue', 'Honeybee' and 'Snow White Pearl' cost $520.

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. 

The 2025 Kia Sonic Sport has a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine – producing 74kW at 4500-6000rpm and 172Nm at 1500-4000rpm – and that’s paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. 

This pairing is a mostly punchy one, although definite lagginess is evident from a standing start often enough that it’s a disconcerting characteristic rather than a mildly annoying one.

This turbocharged engine used to only be offered in the top-spec GT-Line, so it’s a welcome addition to the other grades.

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.

Kia's official fuel consumption figure for the Stonic Sport is 5.4L/100km, on a combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle. And on this test I recorded 8.2L/100km.

The Stonic Sport has an 45-litre fuel tank so, going by my on-test fuel figure, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 548km from a full tank. 

Fuel requirement is 91 RON 'standard' unleaded.

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.

The Stonic Sport is a handy urban conveyance, but it is far from perfect.

It’s a small, light vehicle so it’s nimble for navigating through car-packed streets and convenient for tricky parking manoeuvres.

Steering is well weighted and precise.

And the turbocharged petrol engine is a welcome addition to the Stonic package, introducing a handy amount of power and torque which is sensibly harnessed and delivered – most of the time anyway – via the mostly clever transmission.

However, in stop-start, inner-city traffic or even a busy suburban area, the Stonic Sport struggles to get off the mark from a standstill, so much so that this one characteristic threatens to spoil the rest of the driving experience. 

Once the Sport is out on the open road, it’s a pleasant cruiser as this compact SUV simply rolls along.

Ride is firm – 17-inch wheels and low-profile tyres are the culprits here – and handling is impressive.

In terms of refinement the Stonic is mostly, um, fine but there is some tyre noise, especially over rougher roads out of the city, but it’s not terrible.

Every Stonic has three drive modes – 'Normal', 'Sport' and 'Eco' – each of which tweaks throttle response, engine output and transmission settings to best suit the driver and conditions. 

The Stonic is generally a reasonable daily driver, but the absence of adaptive cruise control is a let-down when it comes to highway running.

Not that you’ll be buying a Stonic with the aim of skull-dragging a 3500kg caravan along the highway, but it’s handy to know this Kia SUV’s towing capacities are 450kg (unbraked trailer) and 900kg (braked).

The Kia Stonic has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating as a result of testing in 2017, but that rating is set to expire in 2025.

Standard safety features include six airbags (dual front, front side and full-length curtain), as well as a suite of driver-assist tech, including AEB (with forward collision warning, car, pedestrian and cyclist detection), lane-keep assist, front and rear parking sensors and blind-spot collision avoidance. But it doesn’t have adaptive cruise control which is disappointing in this day and age.

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.

Kia’s seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty applies to the Stonic and you have access to roadside assistance for up to eight years as long as you always get it serviced at an authorised Kia garage.

Servicing intervals are set at every 12 months or 10,000km, whichever comes soonest.

Service costs start at $290 (12 months/10,000km), peak at $727 (48 months/40,000km) and finish at $578 (84 months/70,000km) and the total over seven years is $3367; an average of $481 per workshop visit (correct at time of writing). That’s rather pricey for something in the small SUV market.