The specs of the Hyundai Venue in black and white look pretty impressive. The light-weight vehicle runs on a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine and gets an estimated 32 combined miles per gallon. It’s a small SUV, so you should have no problem getting around in this vehicle.

But looks can be deceiving. The Venue doesn’t perform as well as you would imagine it would. Here’s how it stood up to MotorTrend’s testing of the SEL trim model they received to review.

The Hyundai Venue’s performance

The inline four-cylinder only produces 121 hp, which didn’t impress the editors of MotorTrend. Apparently, it felt extremely slow, especially when trying to merge onto a freeway where increased speed is a must. The Hyundai Venue didn’t cut it and was simply too underpowered for the task at hand.

They even reported that pressing the accelerator pedal to the floor did little to rectify the situation. By the time you reach the end of the ramp to merge, you still haven’t gained sufficient enough speed to make a smooth transition.

They verified their misgivings about the performance when they did their acceleration tests. The Hyundai Venue’s time on the track for a 0 to 60 mph run turned out to be 8.8 seconds, far longer than most of its competitors. For their quarter-mile test, it took 16.8 seconds, running at a speed of 82 mph to complete it. The editors at MotorTrend felt there just wasn’t enough “get up and go” with the Venue they tested.

The Hyundai Venue’s handling and ride

Apparently, the engine performance wasn’t the only issue they had with Hyundai’s small SUV. The way it handled and its ride also left them underwhelmed with the Venue. Smaller, lightweight vehicles can usually be controlled fairly easily, but the Venue somehow defied those odds.

MotorTrend tests showed that the suspension system seemed to lack the suspension you’d expect it to have. The jostling they felt would affect passengers in the vehicle on any road surface, including smooth ones.

There were also many shakes and rattles noted that the editors chalked up to the inferior quality dash materials. Handling the vehicle at higher speeds wasn’t as enjoyable as you’d hope. They reported that the Venue wandered too much, which made it concerning to drive, as well as making it uncomfortable to ride in.

Is it really worth a look?

It’s likely many people will buy the Hyundai Venue for the novelty of it. The few features MotorTrend liked were the 8-inch infotainment system that has easy to use navigational features along with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The estimated mileage ratings pleased them as well as the impressively low base price for the standard Venue.

But, even with the positives, the Hyundai Venue didn’t garner any excitement from them because of the major problems they had with it. When you look at the Venue’s competitors that have nearly the same amount in mileage ratings as well as having close to the same price, they performed much better.

In the end, the competitors SUVs had more to offer, leading MotorTrend to believe that you should probably pass on the Venue and look elsewhere, like maybe the Hyundai Kona, to get more for your money.

The Hyundai’s Venue sounds great in theory, but it failed in the execution of it. Maybe down the road, once it’s more established in the small SUV class, it will grab more attention from reviewers. Until that time, however, you should take a look at one of the other smaller SUVs out there and choose one that gives you a decent amount of speed, handles well, and offers everything you really want in your new vehicle.