New Hyundai Kona SUV: prices, specs and release date
The new Hyundai Kona has been revealed, and although it isn’t due to arrive in showrooms until November 2017, it’s already causing a bit of a stir.
Sitting below the Tuscon, the Kona is Hyundai's smallest SUV and is aiming for the Nissan Juke, Citroen's new C3 Aircross, Mitsubishi's ASX and probably the Mazda CX-3, which it bares a striking resemblance to.
Hyundai is first to admit that they’re late to the small SUV party but the Kona has certainly arrived in style adopting Hyundai’s new family identity. New twin headlamps enhance the visual impact with the LED Daytime Running Lights positioned on top of the LED headlights giving the Kona quite an aggressive stance.
Plastic body cladding and wheel arch extensions give the Kona a more rugged look and should come in handy on the 4WD variants.
Interior
Internally, the Kona looks much like its i30 hatchback sibling, but I’m told there’s more emphasis on soft-touch materials along with colour-coded details such as trim inserts and stitching.
The dash looks intuitively laid-out and with the inclusion of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto it’ll be easy to connect your smartphone to the optional ugly eight-inch infotainment system letting you use features such as Google Maps navigation and Siri voice control. By the way, yes, I did call it ugly. That isn't an insult Hyundai's interior designers, I just think that they all look like an afterthought. I can imagine a board meeting when a designer presents their dashboard design and some bloke at the back of the room shouts, "Where's the distracting infotainment screen then?" The designer replies, "Bugger, I forgot about that, we can glue it there." Pointing above the air vents. That's just my view.
Hyundai say, to keep you focused on the road ahead, the Kona will be offered with a head-up display that shows you the most important driving information right in front of your eyes, which is always a good idea. Once you’ve driven a car with a head-up display system, any car without one seems 'so 1980’s'!
Engines and Transmissions
You’ll be able to get the Kona with two turbocharged petrol engines and in 2018, with one of Hyundai’s next generation efficient 1.6ltr diesels. And as I mentioned earlier, 4WD will be available on most options, as is Hyundai’s own quick-shifting seven-speed DSG auto gearbox.
Price and release date
The Kona is set to go on sale in November 2017 when it’ll cost from around £15,000 for the 1.0-litre petrol model to around £23,000 for the top-spec 1.6ltr models.
