Take no notice of what the journo's say. Drive both and make your own decision.

That way you have only yourself to blame if you change your mind later.

You'll see more difference from choice of wheel and tyre profile than from the slightly different suspension settings. Same applies to cee'd and i30s. They are all much better on squidgy 195/65 R15s than they are on low frptile 225/45 R17s. The low profile tyres do not seem to suit the electric power steering.

HJ

We have a Ceed that uses the 225/45 17's but in winter we fit 205/55 16's, we hardly notice any difference.

Try the cars and decide, what suits one person may not suit another. The deal offered may be the decider at the end of the day.

Rememeber that it is normally only the poverty models that come with 15" wheels these days and retro fiting these to higher spec models will upset your insurers.

The reason I ask is that neither Kia or Hyundai have a dealership near me, both are 50+ mile round trips. However, one our other main dealers is also a Hyundai service/repair centre and is 10 minutes walk from where I work, which is ideal. For this reason, I will probably lean toward the ix20. However, after owning a couple of fun but harsh riding cars, I long for something a bit more forgiving and hoped that the Hyundai ad blurb had some substance. The only thing that concerns me is that I am looking at a 1.6 Diesel which only comes in the higher specs so probably get larger wheels and less rubber as standard.

Hyundai do have some official dealer locations that only carry out servicing. As such I would expect the service dealers are also able to undertake repairs including warranty repairs.

Edited by Auristocrat on 08/11/2012 at 14:34

I posted a topic on the Hyundai Owners Club and these are the responses:

'I was under the impression the IX20 had the firmer ride.'

'I know I feel the bumps in my IX20. I found the inside a bit nicer than Venga. But didnt drive it. Think what car or similar have video of test drives which might help.'

'I have the ix20 and my cousin has the Venga...I found the Venga a harder ride, but didn't drive it so can't tell you much from that point of view. He has the "Style" equivalent with the sunroof, but the Venga has part leather seats, front ones are heated, so it has a few extras that the ix20 doesn't have. Petrol consumption is about the same...awful.' (ix20 1.6 style - auto).

What Car allows you to compare specs of models - but this is reliant on What Car getting their info correct. In price the ix20 1.6CRDi Style auto compares to the Venga 1.6CRDi 2 auto. The Venga is about £200 cheaper. On spec the Venga 3 is closer to the ix20 Style but costs £1200 more.

Just a note about leather seats - Kia recently had a case featured in Auto Express or similar where (I think it was an SUV) the model was supposed to have leather interior. As it turned out parts of the 'leather' were 'faux leather' (horrible term) - assume the same would be the case with other non-premium manufacturers