The refreshed-for-2024 Kona may be pint-sized and may get zero compliments from neighbors or anyone else, but it’s a tough little guy and a great vehicle to navigate and park anywhere there isn’t much room, like a city. The price is also right – my tester, the Limited, starts at $31,650 and, with options, ends at $33,645. (The base SE trim starts at around $24,100.)
For the redesign, you’ve got a bigger cabin and a more upscale interior look. It rides on a new platform delivering 2 more inches in the wheelbase. This means the little guy has more space for rear passengers, and more cargo room. Its looks are all mod sharp angles, and its black cladding looks especially stylish. While not “gorgeous,” it does carry a certain pint-sized charm.
Engine
Kona offers two engines, each carryovers from 2003, with improvements. I had the more powerful 190-horsepower, turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder in my Limited trim, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. It’s a dinky-winky engine and no one is claiming it’s a beast, but it still gets the job done smoothly and efficiently, something you want in a lower-priced vehicle.
Inside
Hyundai delivers an additional 3 inches of rear seat legroom as well as 6.3 inches of added cargo space. This makes the Kona one of the largest subcompact SUVs in its innards, good news for the big and/or tall. The inside is remarkably clean, well laid-out, and you feel like you’re in a much bigger vehicle until someone cuts you off or doesn’t let you merge. The seats are comfy and it’s just plain spacious. The interior is the best part of the Kona.
You also get a heated steering wheel, ventilated and heated seats, a 360-degree camera system and remote automatic parking assist.
Tech
It’s a suitable system for this ride – spare, not too busy or complicated and a nice big 12.3 inch center touchscreen and, for my Limited, a 12.3 digital display. All controls were easy to find, the software and my phone linked up instantly and stayed connected all the way through the test, and the sound system was decent, as was climate and nav sys. The nav sys did routinely tell me to turn as my turn was already going by me, but that’s typical of auto nav systems that run at 10 MPH at all times while you’re doing 20, 30, 50 MPH.
The Drive
My Limited trim got 19-inch alloy wheels, good but not great for smoothness. That said, the Kona banged out the corners with ease. It’s not a “sporty” vehicle, naturally, but one never longed for a bigger engine when entering freeways or overtaking others. Parking and K-turns, of course, are a snap with the Kona’s small dimensions.
A couple of novel and good features are the rigid rear cargo cover, which gets its own storage spot behind the rear seat. There are also retractable cupholders, so if you’re not enjoying a drink, you’ve got more room for other stuff. Your center console space can be made even larger if you remove the panel that divides the open bin under the armrest from the rest of the center console.
Dislikes? The rotary shift knob which belongs on a 1940s radio, not a 2024 car. But that was it for the gripes.
Conclusion: Kona is a darling car that’ll get you where you’re going at a reasonable price, and they throw in a lot of extras for your coin.