A sure-fire winner
Kona subcompact SUV offers acres of attitude, bold styling
SUVs are hot, replacing cars as the popular choice for Canadian consumers. The subcompact segment is leading that parade.
It has grown from fewer than 25,000 units in 2013 to 70,000 last year and is forecast to surpass 100,000 units by 2020.
Into this fray, Hyundai launches the Kona — the fourth and smallest member of the company’s SUV line-up.
It figures the Kona will attract singles and young couples, whereas the Tucson appeals to singles and young families, the three-row Santa Fe XL to active families and the Santa Fe Sport to mature adults and post families.
Aside from the marketing talk, Hyundai points out this striking newcomer is a hint of what the others will look like as they come in for a redesign.
Despite its diminutive size, the Kona comes across as a larger vehicle with pronounced fender flares emphasizing large — up to 18-inch — rolling stock, deeply sculpted sides and artful use of LED lighting. The new cascading grill will be seen on all vehicles from Hyundai going forward.
The interior is equally stylish, without being overdone. There is a strong character line running from door to door and round elements throughout, with nicely-sized and shaped buttons for major controls. Like many others, the AVN (audio, video, navigation) screen appears to float above the instrument panel — a larger version for upper tier trim levels with navigation.
A bright and clear head-up display puts vital information on speed, navigation, lane departure warning and audio up in front of the driver, reducing the risk associated with taking your eyes off the road.
Wireless charging is also available as an option on all trim levels, reminding you when your phone is fully charged and if you should attempt to leave the vehicle without it.
Although a subcompact vehicle (in what’s known as the B-SUV segment), the Kona provides plenty of room up front, with no feeling of being crammed in.
There is a decent amount of space in the second row and cargo area — certainly as much as the competition.
The cargo floor can be placed in two positions depending on how much you wish to store beneath and away from prying eyes.
The Kona is built on a new platform developed specifically for utility vehicles.
The structure is extremely stiff with more than half made from high strength steel and was designed to distribute forces during a crash across multiple structures.
More than 114 metres of structural adhesive are used during production.
Safety goes beyond the ability to control and absorb forces during a crash. The Kona has numerous technologies to help avoid such an event, including forward and reverse collision avoidance assist, lane keep and high beam assist and a driver attention warning system.
The Kona is available in front- or all-wheel-drive variants with the latter expected to account for the vast majority of sales, especially in Canada. There are five uniquely-named trim levels: Essential, Preferred, Luxury, Trend and Ultimate. The first three come with a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder paired with a six-speed automatic transmission and frontor all-wheel-drive. The Trend and Ultimate models get a turbocharged 1.6-litre four mated to a seven-speed dual clutch automatic and all-wheel drive.
On the road, the Kona feels much larger than the shadow it casts. The suspension soaks up irregularities with ease and yet the little devil is pretty adroit in the turns. Hyundai is so sure the Kona can compete in terms of driving dynamics, it arranged a showdown on an airport runway between the Kona and a Honda HR-V, Mazda CX3 and Toyota C-HR. Obviously, the Kona came off well — or they would not have arranged the opportunity.
The same site was used for a drag race between the four vehicles — again, the Kona emerged victorious — principally because it was equipped with the more powerful of its two engine choices. Either engine is perfectly suited to propelling this small and light vehicle, but obviously the turbo unit does so with less effort.
Good looking, well equipped and competitively priced, I forecast the Kona will quickly move to the top of the sales charts in this category when
availability is able to meet demand.
The first units to reach dealers across the country in the past couple of weeks were snapped up before they even rolled off the transports.
Hyundai has a sure-fire winner.