Jeep Renegade VS Kia Stonic
Jeep Renegade
Likes
- Tonka tough
- Lots of standard inclusions
- Looks the part
Dislikes
- Iffy entertainment software
- Naff interior
- Vague steering
Kia Stonic
Likes
Dislikes
Summary
Jeep Renegade
Jeep's Renegade might be late to the mini-SUV party but it comes with a pretty impressive back catalogue to suggest that this is a SUV that can cash the cheques its name can write.
The top of the range Trailhawk can write even bigger cheques than the lower models, bringing with it a range of off-road tech toys to let you really get down and dirty.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.4L |
| Fuel Type | Premium Unleaded Petrol |
| Fuel Efficiency | 7.5L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Kia Stonic
Rising interest rates and the cost of living is causing many household budgets to tighten and for many of us big purchases are being rethought. A lot of people are asking if they really do need another large car especially in the city; or if it is the right time to buy an EV when they’re still so expensive?
That’s why we've decided to present you with a comparison of affordable urban alternatives to 'going big 'or 'switching to electric'. We've put two of the cheapest and smallest SUVs from Hyundai and Kia in a head-to-head battle.
That’s right, we have the Kia Stonic GT-Line versus the Hyundai Venue Elite - two very similar SUVs – from the same parent company – which share a lot of the same engineering parts, tech and features.
Read more about the Hyundai Venue and Kia Stonic
But as we found out, one of these two very similar SUVs stood out as better for value, safety, tech and practicality. Yup, we’ve done the testing for you, including how much fuel each uses and what they’re like to drive.
Which one wins? You’ll see...
| Safety rating | — |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 1.0L turbo |
| Fuel Type | — |
| Fuel Efficiency | 5.4L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Jeep Renegade6.4/10
Rugged, dependable and good off-road are the most obvious qualities of the Trailhawk. It stands out from the rest of the mini-SUVs by being able to do the S and the U with plenty of vigour.
It's just a shame that its on-road manners can't match that of its big brother, the Cherokee. Unless you're planning on proper off-roading, the Trailhawk might not be quite what you're looking for.
How do you think the Renegade Trailhawk matches up to its small SUV rivals? Tell us in the comments below.
Click here to see more 2016 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk pricing and spec info.
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Kia Stonic/10
If there’s proof that not all SUVs are exactly alike - even two like the Stonic and Venue which are so similar that they even share parts - then this comparison is all the evidence you need.
Both SUVs are good choices, you can’t really go wrong. But one of them is clearly a better choice for those looking more value for money, along with extra practicality, safety equipment and tech - and that’s the Venue Elite.
Sure, the Venue Elite doesn’t get the Stonic GT-Line’s sporty turbo engine and dual-clutch transmission, but for the everyday driver we feel the Venue’s smooth automatic and fuss-free engine make for better city driving.
So, the Venue wins here. Along with being better to drive in the city, it's smaller in size for better parking, the visibility is better from the driver's seat, the big and clear digital speed is vital in urban areas, and it does a better job of tech and practicality, too.
 | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Price and features | 7 | 9 |
Design | 8 | 8 |
Practicality | 8 | 10 |
Under the bonnet | 8 | 7 |
Efficiency | 8 | 8 |
Safety | 8 | 8 |
Ownership | 8 | 8 |
Driving | 7 | 8 |
OVERALL | 7.8 | 8.3 |
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Design
Jeep Renegade7/10
In what is absolutely not a coincidence, the Renegade immediately conjures up the Wrangler. Upright grille from the Willys Jeep (references abound here), round headlights, squared off wheel arches to mimic the Wrangler's guards, short overhangs and big rear view mirrors.
The 17-inch wheels look completely lost in the wheelarches which are even more cavernous owing to the Trailhawk's 50mm of extra ride height. The wheels are also a bit cheap looking but will probably survive the belting the car is intended to take.
Less rugged is the interior, despite a fairly self-conscious effort to make it look and feel chunky. The front seats are flat and unsupportive with the rears just as lacklustre making sure everyone is sliding around together. Luckily, front passengers get a dash-mounted grab handle.
It seems quite well put together, however, but with carpets and easily-marked plastics, you'll hope your passengers don't bring the mud in with them too often. And the "Since 1941" stamped into the steering wheel can go.
The dashboard is reasonably clear and has plenty of information to share via the screen between the dials but whoever thought marking the redline with a water splash graphic in bright orange should probably rethink their design decisions.
Storage is limited to two cupholders up front, door pockets in each door and nets on the front seat backs.
Kia Stonic
The Stonic and Venue are like sisters in that they share the same engineering genes and tech from parent company Hyundai, but they are anything but identical.
The Stonic looks more like a raised, sporty hatchback with its narrower windows, pointy nose and a sloping tailgate.
The Venue has a more traditional upright and boxy SUV shape with a rugged but cute look.
Both are premium looking in their design from the crisp edges in the metal work to the LED running lights.
The premium look almost carries through to the cabins with sporty fabric seats and modern dashboards, but both have hard plastics used in the door trims which lowers the tone to a budget feel.
The Stonic’s carbon fibre-effect trim on the dash is good, but the Venue pulls off a more youthful, techy look with white elements around the air vents and a digital driver display.  Â
The Stonic measures 4140mm end-to-end and 1760mm wide, while the Venue is 4040mm in length, 4040mm long and 1770mm across.
What’s interesting is that despite the Venue being shorter in length, it has better practicality. Let’s talk about that.Â
| Â | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Length | 4140 | 4040 |
Height | 1520 | 1592 |
Width | 1760 | 1770 |
Ground clearance | 183 | 170 |
Wheel base | 2580 | 2520 |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
8 | 8 |
Practicality
Kia Stonic
SUVs should be practical regardless of how small they might be. So along with enough room to seat five people, the Stonic and Venue have to be functional, versatile and have a reasonably sized boot.
Well, let’s start with the boots - both have impressively large cargo capacity for SUVs this small. The Stonic’s boot volume is 332 litres, while the Venue’s is 355 litres.Â
In the video of this comparison, we show how only the Venue’s boot can fit all the CarsGuide luggage and have its tailgate closed. We had to remove the Stonic’s cargo shelf to fit the same amount of luggage.
That leaves you with a cargo cover you have to either keep in the second row or leave behind.
The Venue has an ingenious solution to that cargo cover problem - a sidling rail which will accommodate the cover flat against the second row seat backs.Â
As for cabin storage, only the Venue gets a shelf above the glove box opening, but both SUVs have two cupholders up front and bottle holders in the doors.
The Venue is better for power and charging outlets with two USB ports, a 12V point, and a wireless phone charger up front and two USB ports in the second row.Â
The Stonic doesn’t have a wireless phone charger, and along with a 12V outlet, has just one USB port in the front and one in the back.
The Venue also just beats the Stonic for rear headroom and legroom, but I have to say that even at 189cm tall, I can just fit behind my driving position in both and that’s pretty amazing given the tiny size of these SUVs.Â
| Â | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Boot space (behind second row) | 332L | 355L |
Cupholders | 2 | 2 |
USB ports 1st row | 1 Type A  | 1 Type A 1 Type C |
USB ports 2nd row | 1 type A | 2 type C |
12V outlets | 1 | 1 |
Wireless phone charging | No | Yes |
Privacy glass | Yes | Yes |
Directional airvents | No | No |
Roof Rails | Yes | Yes |
Cargo cover | Yes | Yes |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
8 | 10 |
Price and features
Jeep Renegade6/10
The Renegade range starts at $28,000 for the 1.6-litre Renegade Sport manual front-wheel drive, climbing between $2000 and $3000 through the Sport Auto, Longitude Auto, Limited Auto with a final jump of $4000 to the 2.4-litre auto-only Trailhawk.
Standard is a nine-speaker stereo with Bluetooth and USB, 17-inch alloys, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, rear parking sensors, keyless entry and start, cruise control, electric front seats with heating, satellite navigation, automatic bi-xenon headlights, auto wipers, leather trim, roof rails, front and middle bash plates, full size spare, heated leather steering wheel, privacy glass, trailer sway control and tyre pressure monitoring.Â
The lairy Omaha orange is $500, part of an eleven colour palette with only two no-cost paint options (black and white).
You can add lane departure warning, auto-parking and a black painted roof for $500 each, a removable and retractable roof called My Sky Roof for $2200 or a more conventional electric sunroof for $1900.
The Beats-branded nine-speaker stereo is run via Fiat-Chryser's UConnect system, accessible through the 6.5-inch touchscreen. While it improves with every attempt, it's still quite clunky and when the sat-nav is added, becomes a bit of a mess.
Thankfully, not every function has been crammed into the touchscreen interface, so you'll spend more time with your hands on the wheel rather than working out which bit of the screen has the climate control.
Kia Stonic
We chose the top-of-the-range versions of our two models in this head-to-head, and so they’re also the most expensive in their line-ups.Â
The Kia Stonic GT-Line lists for $30,790 plus on-road costs and the Venue Elite comes in at $28,750. You don’t need to spend this much. The entry grades list in the low $20Ks but you won’t get the same features. Let’s talk about those…
OK, standard features. Both the Stonic GT-Line and the Venue Elite come with 17-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, rear privacy glass, a sunroof, a proximity key and LED daytime running lights.
The Stonic gets LED headlights, too, and they are much brighter and better for dark roads than the yellowish halogen lights on the Venue.
Inside, both come standard with fabric seats and single-zone climate control. They both have a 4.2-inch multifunction display and an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with sat nav, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and digital radio.Â
The Stonic GT-Line has a four-speaker stereo, while the Venue Elite comes with a six-speaker system.
The Venue has a wireless phone charger. That's not offered on the Stonic GT-Line and that's a big miss in my books - wireless phone charging is life-changing and means no more cables or plugging in.
The Hyundai also has a large, clear illuminated speedo that's ideal for the city where school zones, mobile camera and traffic light speed cameras are everywhere. The Kia, on the other hand, has a traditional dial-style speedometer and tachometer.
 | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Price | $30,790 | $28,750 |
Seat upholstery | Synthetic leather | Cloth |
Climate control | single-zone | single-zone |
Heated wing mirrors | yes | Yes |
Multimedia screen | 8-inch screen | 8-inch screen |
Digital instruments | 4.2-inch | 4.2-inch |
LED running lights | Yes | Yes |
Apple CarPlay/Android Auto | Yes (wired) | Yes (wired) |
Stereo | Four-speaker | six-speaker |
Built-in sat nav | Yes | Yes |
Digital radio | Yes | yes |
Promitiy Key and push-start | Yes | Yes |
Headlights | LED | Projector (Xenon?) |
Wheel size | 17-inch alloy | 17-inch alloy |
Privacy glass | Yes | Yes |
Sunroof | Yes | Yes |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
7 | 9 |
Under the bonnet
Jeep Renegade6/10
The Trailhawk is powered by Fiat's 2.4-litre four naturally-aspirated four-cylinder producing 129 kW and 230 Nm. Jeep reckons you'll get 7.5L/100km on the combined cycle. Our mostly city driving with a longish motorway run produced an 11.0L/100km average over a week.
The transmission is a nine-speed ZF automatic driving all four wheels.
The Trailhawk also has Jeep's five mode Selec-Terrain system which should cover pretty much every eventuality – Auto, Sport, Mud, Sand and, just for the Trailhawk, Rock. The Trailhawk is rated to tow 400kg unbraked and 907kg braked.
Kia Stonic
The Stonic GT-Line and Venue Elite may share much of the same engineering, but their engines are very different.
The Venue has 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, while the Stonic has a smaller engine, but it’s a turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol.Â
The Venue’s four-cylinder has more power than the Stonic’s engine but doesn’t feel as sporty and fun as the three-cylinder.
Adding to the sporty feeling of the Stonic’s engine is a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission which shifts intuitively and is vastly different from the traditional six-speed auto in the Venue.
But wait - although the Stonic is equipped with the far better engine and transmission, the driving section of this review discovered that this didn’t translate well for city traffic.
| Â | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Size and Layout | 1.0-litre 3cyl turbo petrol engine | 1.6-litre V6 petrol engine |
Power/Torque | 74kW/172Nm | 90kW/151Nm |
Transmission | 7-spd dual clutch automatic | 6-spd automatic |
Drivetrain | Front-wheel drive | Front-wheel drive |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
8 | 7 |
Efficiency
Kia Stonic
When we test fuel consumption, we carry out a real world exercise in which we fill the tanks, drive the same route taking in a combination of different types of road conditions, and then fill the tanks again to find out how much each car used.Â
We took both the Stonic GT-line and Venue Elite on a 110km round loop of Sydney on a combination of city streets, suburban roads and motorways and as you can see in the table below, both used almost the same amount of fuel.Â
Both of them were impressively efficient, but I was expecting the Stonic to be more so - it should be according to the car makers, but this Stonic was brand new, with only about 500km on the clock and until an engine is completely run in after about 1000km, it will use more fuel. So I have a sneaky suspicion it is more fuel efficient than the Venue.
The Kia Stonic GT-Line with its 1.0-litre engine and 45-litre fuel tank, has a range of approximately 833km, while the Venue Elite with its 1.6-litre engine and 45-litre fuel tank, has a range of about 625km.
| Â | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Official/combined consumption | 5.4L/100km | 7.2L/100km |
Real-world test | 6.2/100km | 5.7L/100km |
Minimum RON rating | 91RON | 91RON |
Fuel tank size | 45L | 45L |
Approx range | 833km | 625km |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
8 | 8 |
Driving
Jeep Renegade6/10
The Trailhawk name suggest that things are going to get muddy – compared to the rest of the range, the range-topper rides 50mm higher and has exposed, easy-to-reach tow hooks in the fairly unlikely event you get stuck. It also has a 20:1 low-range crawl ratio and Active Drive 4x4 which means it can switch between front and all-wheel drive. It'll also wade through almost half a metre of water. It's a genuine mud-plugging proposition and will take on some much bigger machinery out in the bush.
On the road, where we spent all our time in the Renegade, it's not what you'd call particularly inspiring. There's a number of sources of noise that contribute to a less than quiet cabin and having to constantly correct your course at freeway speeds adds to the tiring nature of the Renegade.
It's much better at lower speeds, pottering around but then again, its nine-speed transmission needs a lot more work on the shift mapping because it seems to forget which gear it needs to be in when you sink the right foot. If you don't need the Trailhawk's extra off-road goodies, consider the 1.4 litre Limited or Longitude.
Kia Stonic
OK, back in the engine section of this comparison I sang the praises of the Stonic’s sporty three-cylinder and dual-clutch auto, and I maintain that it’s the better engine and transmission, but the Venue is better to drive in city traffic.
See, the three-cylinder suffers from turbo lag and the transmission isn’t smooth. Combine this with a stop-start fuel saving system and around town the Stonic is a frustrating SUV to pilot.
The Venue’s dull and far from sporty engine and transmission actually nailed city driving perfectly because of the smooth and fuss-free operation.Â
Both the Stonic and Venue rode and handled almost identically, with the steering in the Venue feeling lighter and easier.
Visibility in the Venue was better than the Stonic due to the Hyundai’s large windows and more elevated seating position, too.
So despite the Stonic’s great little three-cylinder, the Venue wins overall for driving considering that most people will be piloting these little SUVs in the city and suburbs where the Venue is the easiest and best to drive.Â
Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
7 | 8 |
Safety
Jeep Renegade7/10
Seven airbags (including driver's knee bag), traction and stability controls, roll mitigation, blind spot monitoring, ABS and brake assist.
The Renegade does not yet have an ANCAP star rating although it scored five EuroNCAP stars in 2014.
Kia Stonic
Both the Stonic and Venue have the maximum five-star ANCAP ratings, but the Stonic’s is from 2017 and Venue’s is from 2019, and that’s not as good as a 2023 five-star rating.
Still both have AEB, lane-keeping assistance and blind-spot warning.
The big difference is the Venue has rear cross-traffic alert which will tell you if somebody is about to walk behind the car or if somebody’s driving past while you’re reversing. That's great for driveways and carparks.
For child seats, both the Stonic and Venue have two ISOFIX mounts and three top-tether anchor points.
In their second rows, both have curtain airbags.
Both SUVs have space-saver spare wheels, which give you more room in the boot and is better than a repair kit.
| Â | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Auto emergency braking | Yes | Yes |
Lane keep assist | Yes | Yes |
Blind spot monitoring | Yes | Yes |
Rear cross traffic alert | No | Yes |
Rear AEB | No | No |
Front and rear parking sensors | Rear only | Rear only |
Airbags | 7 | 7 |
Airbags 3rd row coverage | Yes | Yes |
Child seat ISOFIX | 2 x 2nd row | 3 x 2nd row |
Child seat top tether | 3 x 2nd row | 3 x 2nd row |
Camera | Reversing | Reversing |
ANCAP rating (year tested) | Five (2017) | Four (2019) |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
8 | 8 |
Ownership
Kia Stonic
The Stonic is covered by Kia’s seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty while the Venue has Hyundai’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre coverage.
The Stonic has capped-price servicing and, averaged over five years, it’s about $430 per year. The Venue doesn’t have capped-price servicing, but you can get a plan which works out at about $315 per year on average for each service.
| Â | Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
Warranty length | Five-year/unlimited km | Seven-year/unlimited km |
Yearly average service price (over five years) | $432 | $315Â |
Service interval | 12mnths/10,000km | 12mnths/15,000km |
Free roadside assistance | ? | ? |
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Kia Stonic GT-Line | Hyundai Venue Elite |
8 | 8 |