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Hyundai Venue to Retain Manual Gearbox in Canada for 2021

2020 Hyundai Venue
Photo: Hyundai
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Daniel Rufiange
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We reported earlier this week that the manual gearbox is disappearing from the Hyundai Venue product offering. That bit of news came from Hyundai in the United States. And just to demonstrate once again the wisdom of jumping to conclusions, we assumed that would include Canada as well.

We are happy to report that we were mistaken; Hyundai Canada confirmed it is not dropping the manual gearbox format from its Venue offer here.

There’s no denying that the manual transmission is dying a slow death in the industry, and each new announcement regarding its disappearance from a certain model’s product offering is a sad occasion. In decrying the trend, our intention is not to point the finger specifically at Hyundai.

And to be fair, the Korean automaker is among the few that have remained committed to the three-pedal configuration, which right now can be found in models as disparate as the Venue and the Veloster N.

In fact, Jean-François Taylor, public relations specialists for Hyundai Canada, explained to us that the manual option remains a much more popular option with Canadian consumers than it does with our American cousins.

The most manual-hungry province, in case you were wondering? Quebec.

Canadian small-SUV buyers with an interest in the manual transmission will thus be able to include the Venue on their list of possibilities in 2021. The stick shift is available with the Essential base model; currently that configuration makes up 19 percent of that version's sales.

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Daniel Rufiange
Daniel Rufiange
Automotive expert
  • Over 17 years' experience as an automotive journalist
  • More than 75 test drives in the past year
  • Participation in over 250 new vehicle launches in the presence of the brand's technical specialists