Hyundai Venue 1.0 Turbo Acceleration Review: iMT vs DCT

Hyundai Venue is the South-Korean’s brand’s product in the much-heated sub-4m compact-SUV segment. Also, the Venue is one of the best-selling cars in its segment. It has often topped the monthly sales chart. Recently, Hyundai introduced a new transmission option in the Venue. Hyundai calls it as iMT (intelligent Manual Transmission). This new transmission option neither belongs to the family of automatic transmissions nor the manual gearboxes. It is something, which was never heard of before. With the new transmission in place, Hyundai Venue gets a conventional gear stick of a manual transmission but without the clutch pedal.

However, we spirited souls thought of putting it against the faster and expensive 7-speed DCT. Recording the 0-100 kmph run on a stopwatch in a total of 3 attempts is what we thought would help us decide, which one’s more performance-friendly. The test was performed with AC turned on and 2 occupants in the car along with some camera gear. In the first attempt, the Venue with 7-speed DCT took 13.23 seconds, whereas the iMT-equipped model took 14.43 seconds.

In the second attempt, the time reduced to 13.03 seconds for the DCT variant and 13.43 seconds for the iMT variant. The third and the final attempt, however, showed the fastest time of the lot. The DCT-equipped Venue reached the 100 kmph mark in just 12.92 seconds, while the iMT-equipped model took 13.12 seconds to reach the 100 kmph mark on the speedometer.

With these results on hand, we could identify that 7-speed DCT continues to be the superior option in terms of performance. However, the iMT comes with an advantage to using a manual gearbox without actually using a clutch. While the clutch is present on this gearbox, but it is engaged and disengaged by using a combination of multiple sensors and actuators. Talking of the 1.0L turbo-petrol motor, it boasts of a peak power output of 120 PS and max torque of 172 Nm. Also, it can be had with another transmission option – 6-speed MT.