What trim do you have? I wonder if it makes a difference handling and turning the canyons downhill with the SE's drum brakes vs. SEL's disc brakes. I had taken my Venue SEL down some steep grade mountain roads in Santa Clara/Santa Cruz and thought it handled pretty well, minus the taller position + body roll of course.
Road trip with the Venue
Finally got a vacation booked and while I didn’t have anything planned, I wanted to get the heck out of dodge for a couple of days. WV has some awesome outdoor places to visit and getting to some of them will put any vehicle to the test.
So I packed up the venue and did a road trip I like to call “over the mountain and back” and hope this feedback will help any potential owners who have doubts about the Venue.
So the first leg of the trip was mostly interstate, about 150 miles with an elevation change at a speed of 70mph.
A/C was not needed, so please keep this in mind for this part of the trip.
The best feedback I can provide is to use cruise control as much as possible when dealing with long grades at these speeds. The computer knows best when it comes to the throttle input when traveling up grades. Most downshifts put the engine at about 3200rpm and the ivt in 6, and I gotta say it did well. Noise was minimal and for a city car, I was impressed with the ride during this leg.
Grade B
Now for the fun part…no interstate.
Headed to The very top of the mountain, Snowshoe ski resort. Tight two lane road with plenty of grades to the top. The little dude was struggling, even in sport mode but got the job done. I doubt I would try this with a full load of passengers. Don’t buy the hype guys, it’s not a SUV of any kind.lol
Grade D
So what goes up must come down right?
What better place than the midland trail located at hawks nest. Straight down with +8% grades, nothing straight. A popular road for car and motorcycle enthusiasts. Ok, the good…sport mode is excellent with a road of this type.
The bad…I wish they would have included one more ratio change with the ivt in this mode. If they would have, I would use sport mode 90% of the time when driving. The throttle mapping is much better in this mode, but dang traveling at 50mph turning 3k+ rpms kinda shoots the gas mileage in the butt. 6 changes instead of 5 would be better. When I did try and lean on the handling in this part of the trip, the little dude didn’t like it.lol
Oversteer with limited turning ability. Kinda like a big ship with a little rudder. Braking is ok at best, but it’s a city car not a grand tourer, so no surprises there.
Grade C
The rest of the trip was flat 2 and 4 lane highway travel at 55mph. This is where the little guy shines. Very comfortable in normal mode with a/c on and if you listen closely, you can hear it sipping the gas. Which is what it was designed for.
Grade A
Conclusions…
It’s marketed as a city car, but on an open road, it will surprise you in its comfortable ride.
Sport mode is great when traveling on graded roads staying under 50mph.
And I saved the best for last…please note fuel mileage during this trip.
Gotta go and get all the bug guts off him.✌🏼
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So I packed up the venue and did a road trip I like to call “over the mountain and back” and hope this feedback will help any potential owners who have doubts about the Venue.
So the first leg of the trip was mostly interstate, about 150 miles with an elevation change at a speed of 70mph.
A/C was not needed, so please keep this in mind for this part of the trip.
The best feedback I can provide is to use cruise control as much as possible when dealing with long grades at these speeds. The computer knows best when it comes to the throttle input when traveling up grades. Most downshifts put the engine at about 3200rpm and the ivt in 6, and I gotta say it did well. Noise was minimal and for a city car, I was impressed with the ride during this leg.
Grade B
Now for the fun part…no interstate.
Headed to The very top of the mountain, Snowshoe ski resort. Tight two lane road with plenty of grades to the top. The little dude was struggling, even in sport mode but got the job done. I doubt I would try this with a full load of passengers. Don’t buy the hype guys, it’s not a SUV of any kind.lol
Grade D
So what goes up must come down right?
What better place than the midland trail located at hawks nest. Straight down with +8% grades, nothing straight. A popular road for car and motorcycle enthusiasts. Ok, the good…sport mode is excellent with a road of this type.
The bad…I wish they would have included one more ratio change with the ivt in this mode. If they would have, I would use sport mode 90% of the time when driving. The throttle mapping is much better in this mode, but dang traveling at 50mph turning 3k+ rpms kinda shoots the gas mileage in the butt. 6 changes instead of 5 would be better. When I did try and lean on the handling in this part of the trip, the little dude didn’t like it.lol
Oversteer with limited turning ability. Kinda like a big ship with a little rudder. Braking is ok at best, but it’s a city car not a grand tourer, so no surprises there.
Grade C
The rest of the trip was flat 2 and 4 lane highway travel at 55mph. This is where the little guy shines. Very comfortable in normal mode with a/c on and if you listen closely, you can hear it sipping the gas. Which is what it was designed for.
Grade A
Conclusions…
It’s marketed as a city car, but on an open road, it will surprise you in its comfortable ride.
Sport mode is great when traveling on graded roads staying under 50mph.
And I saved the best for last…please note fuel mileage during this trip.
Gotta go and get all the bug guts off him.✌🏼
