Video: 2018 Hyundai Kona: First Drive

This is the new 2018 Hyundai Kona. And while the name may make you think of volcanic islands and tropical breezes and beautiful Hawaiian beaches, frankly, that's not what we have here today. We are in Detroit, on Bell island, as beaches go, this is pretty much what we've got. However, we also have this to play with a fantastic new crossover from Hyundai. So what makes this thing so special? I'm not sure it's the styling that makes it special because we've criticized the Kona in the past for kind of looking like a mishmash of every other crossover on the market put together, let me check this out. These are not the headlights. These are the daytime running lights, they're LED and they're standard. The actual headlights are down here, they're in the bumper. And if that looks like the last generation Jeep Cherokee to you, well frankly, it looks like that to me too. The grill is wider and is meant to evoke Hyundai's steel making processes. It meant to look like an urn where you melting the steel and then pouring it into something else. And if you're a fan of black plastic cladding while they've got it here, too, it's all down the front. It's on the fenders. It's on the back fenders. It's on the back bumper. It's meant to make the thing look a little bit more rugged, meant to look like some kind of a machine where you can see the bones of the machine instead of just the actual exterior. And if you're a fan of compact dimensions. Well, check this out, it's almost a foot shorter than the Hyundai Tucson. So it'll fit just about anywhere you want to put it. Depending which model you get, you get a choice of wheel sizes. Base wheels are 17 inch, but this one has 18 inch wheels, which come as you rise through the various trim levels. Now the paint on this one is a special for 2018 called lime twist. Optional is a contrasting roof, either black or gray. Obviously this one doesn't have it. If you like this color, however, you're going to want to get an 18 because in 2019, this becomes bright orange. So there are a couple of things we should talk about inside the Kona. And the first is this, you push this button and it automatically locks the all wheel drive in a 50 50 torque split. Normally the all wheel drive operates only the front wheels and it activates the rear wheels as needed if it detects any kind of slippage. But if you think you can do better than the system and detecting when you need to have that kind of torque, you push that button 50% of the front 50% at the rear. Sometimes it'll help you get out of a slippery situation. Out on the street, I'm actually really quite surprised at how well the Kona drives. It feels like a much larger vehicle than it actually is. And that's not to say that it's got a larger footprint or anything like that because it certainly doesn't. It is a very small SUV and it feels like a small SUV, but the ride and handling of it make it feel like a larger vehicle. The ride especially is really quite well damped, the handling itself, it's still a tall vehicle and it is a bit more tippy than say something like a Veloster or an Elantra, but in terms of overall ride quality, even with these 18 inch wheels, it's really not that bad until you get to some seriously broken pavement. And then you may have wished that you'd gotten the 17 inch wheels instead with the larger sidewall tires. But overall, it has a sophistication that we're starting to find the number of Hyundai vehicles that hasn't been there before. Part of the reason I think for the better ride and handling in this vehicle at least is the Multilink rear suspension. Base Konas only get a torsion beam rear suspension. It was a little less sophisticated, but when you get the all wheel drive option, you get a Multilink rear suspension as well. So you have a fully independent suspension front and rear, and that definitely does help things out in terms of dynamics. Under hood, you've got a choice of two engines. If you get the base models, you get a two liter four cylinder engine making 147 horsepower, which is not a whole lot. If you upgrade to all wheel drive, you can get the 1.6 liter turbocharged engine. Now it's making 175 horsepower, but it makes 195 pound feet of torque. And it really does help the Kona scoot around town with no problem whatsoever. You get a choice of two transmissions in the Kona, and it depends on which engine choice you've specified. The base two liter engine with the front wheel drive comes with a six speed automatic transmission. But if you upgrade to the 1.6 liter turbo engine, you get a seven speed dual clutch, automatic transmission. Those are the same powertrains that you find in the Hyundai Veloster, but the turbo engine in the Kona is deep tuned a little bit. It only makes 175 horsepower instead of 201 that we see in other applications, but it's still making 195 pound feet of torque. And that means that the Kona scoots around town with really no problem at all. Acceleration is brisk. It really feels strong. And the seven speed dual clutch transmission snaps off shifts pretty much imperceptibly. The only issue I have with the dual clutch transmission is that when you're shifting, say from park to drive or from reverse to drive, it does take a half a second before it actually gets into that gear. So you have to kind of let it do its thing before it's ready to actually send you on your way. One area that sets the Kona apart from a number of its competitors in the class is the amount of safety equipment that is both standard and optional. Now for 2018 things like forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking are optional. You can only get them on the higher trim levels, but they've told us that if you wait for the 2019 model, all of those items become standard, even on the base model. So there are going to be a slight price increase for 2019, but you'll be able to get things like the forward collision warning and the automatic emergency braking on a base model. Instead of having to spring over $25,000 for a higher trim level, and for us, it might be worth the wait. This is not the quietest interior that I've experienced in the crossover. There is some wind noise around the top of the windshield, and you're getting good amount of road noise through these 18 inch wheels and tires but overall, it's still a pleasant experience. The seats are very comfortable, frankly, they're supportive. And if you're driving an ultimate trim like this one, you have a power eight way adjustable driver's seat with lumbar support as well. Sitting in the Kona, the visibility is really quite good and it's a small SUV, and so you're sitting up a little bit higher. You've got great big windows all around. There really isn't a problem in any direction in terms of visibility. You've got plenty of headroom in here, even though this one has the optional moonroof. There's no issue in terms of headroom front or back. Now, there is a little bit of an issue with leg room in the back, it does feel kind of tight back there. There's really not as much room as there are in some other small SUV's or even some of Hyundai's own products like the Elantra. The interior quality is really quite good. In fact, you know, most new Hyundais and Kias is that we've seen these days, they've really upped the interior quality game. Now, everything in here is still hard plastic. There's no soft touch stuff, even on up high parts like on the door cells on the top of the dash, it's still all hard plastic, but the graining on it makes it look like it should be soft touch and as long as you're not touching it, frankly, it looks just fine. This model has got the special paint on the outside. And so it's also got a special interior, but you've got some green trim rings and a green piping in the seats as well. Now for 2018 that's the special color, for 2019 this color becomes orange and probably gets some updates as well to what the interior looks like. There are a couple of different interiors you can choose from depending on the trim level that you've selected, but there are cloth and leather options. If you get a turbo engine, you automatically get leather interior as well. The standard multimedia screen is a seven inch touchscreen and you'd get standard apple CarPlay and Android Auto. But if you want to upgrade, you can get this. This is the eight inch navigation screen, and it comes also with the Infinity premium audio system, which actually sounds pretty bumpin. One of the reasons you might buy a small crossover like this is for the utility of it. And it does have more cargo room than some competitors like the Jeep Renegade or the Chevrolet Trax, but surprisingly it has less cargo room behind the second row than Hyundai's own Veloster sports coupe. So while you get a more comfortable vehicle and you get a lot more headroom, it's not necessarily more practical in terms of cargo. So what has surprised us so much about the Hyundai Kona? Well, it's not how pretty it is because quite frankly, it's really not all that pretty. We're not surprised by how roomy it is because unless you're in the front seats, it's really not all that roomy either. But what has surprised us is how well it drives for how big it is. This is a really small SUV, but it has a sophistication and a poise to it when going down the road, that makes it feel like a much larger, more expensive vehicle. The speaking of cost to start with it's just over $20,000 for a base model. And if you load it up with all the options, like a turbo engine and all wheel drive, you're looking at just under 30 grand out the door. These are in Hyundai showrooms right now. And if you'd like to learn more, you can read all about it at cars.com.