Hyundai Kona wins Best Small SUV under $50K

Are we living in a Golden Age of small SUVs? Never has this diminutive car class offered so much for so little money, and Australian small SUV consumer is on the winning side of this escalating arms race.

Each year, more brands unleash more advanced models with upgraded technology and enhanced capabilities in a in a bid to win favour with more buyers.

Last year’s winner, the new-generation Nissan Qashqai, beat a strong field of contenders from Skoda, Toyota and Honda for the Best Small SUV crown. The Qashqai’s combination of affordability, safety, space, equipment and driving dynamics elevated it above an already impressive crowd.

This year, the Nissan Qashqai carries the weight of expectation incumbent on a defending champion. Arrayed against it is a rejuvenated Kia Seltos and an all-new (or near enough to) Hyundai Kona. All three are tiny Tardises with more internal space than their compact bodies imply. All have equipment and powertrain variations in their respective ranges priced to appeal and packed with features.

While some SUV genres are designed with off-road use in mind, this class of car is dedicated to navigating the urban jungle. All-wheel drive is far less important than parking agility and ownership affordability, yet sound driving dynamics are still very high on the wishlist.

Ultimately, the Best Small SUV Under $50,000 must keep up with the lives of busy urbanites – adventurous downsizers and growing families alike – who demand economy and flexibility in their everyday rides, and  can handle the odd regional foray to spice up life.

With that in mind, it’s time to reveal the 2024 Drive Car of the Year Best Small SUV Under $50,000.

Drive's pick: Hyundai Kona Premium Hybrid from $43,500 MSRP

The new-generation Hyundai Kona debuted in June with eye-catching futuristic styling and a sizeable jump in standard equipment, safety and space that more than offset a $5100 price rise. This realignment reflected buyers’ demands for higher specification in ‘base’ model small SUVs and their preparedness to pay more for the finer things in life.  

Even in its most affordable grade, the $32,000 Hyundai Kona is impressively well-equipped with LED headlights, 18-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry and start, smartphone mirroring for both Android and Apple devices, a wireless phone charger, leather steering wheel, dual-zone climate control with rear seat airvents, a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, Bluelink connected car tech, digital radio, parking sensors front and rear, adaptive cruise control, and a reversing camera.

By comparison, the Nissan Qashqai ST ($33,890) has 17-inch alloys, a smaller 8.0-inch infotainment screen, no wireless phone charger, and old-school single-zone manual air-conditioning instead of dual-zone climate control – which shows how new and updated entrants are aggressively raising value benchmarks.

With all that kit, it’s no surprise that the Hyundai Kona’s cabin makes a very strong first impression aided by some classy and contemporary lines and material choices. 

The Kona’s safety game is strong, too. Seven airbags are standard along with autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assistance, blind-spot and rear cross-traffic alert, and traffic sign recognition.

All Hyundais are offered with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty with roadside assist, and the service program is affordable (roughly $450 per year over five years) – albeit not the cheapest in the Small SUV class.

Remember, you get all of that in the $32,000 base model. Shoppers wanting more will find it in the Kona Premium which adds a second 12.3-inch screen as the driver’s instrument cluster, a power tailgate, projector beam LED headlights, satellite navigation, wired and wireless smartphone mirroring, leather trim, electric front seats with heating and ventilation, rain-sensing wipers, a 360-degree camera with blind-spot viewing, remote smart parking assist, ambient cabin lighting, a Bose premium sound system and more.

With a price tag of $39,500 plus on-road costs, the Hyundai Kona Premium offers compelling value and still comes in well under the category’s $50,000 price ceiling.

Buyers wanting a more dynamic drive than the base model’s 110kW 2.0-litre petrol engine can deliver should upgrade to the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol all-wheel drive which brings 33 per cent more power and almost 50 per cent more torque for an altogether more exciting drive.

Alternately, Hyundai offers an economy option with the Hyundai Kona hybrid which combines a 1.6-litre non-turbo petrol engine with a small battery and 77kW/144Nm electric motor. On-road accelerative performance comes in somewhere between the base 2.0-litre and the sporty 1.6T whereas fuel consumption is a remarkable 4.3L/100km in our real-world testing (Hyundai claims 3.9L/100km).

That’s ultimately why we believe the Hyundai Kona Premium Hybrid is the standout for value and efficiency and is the best buy in the Kona range.

Even if you don’t opt for the economical Hybrid, the other variants’ 6.6L/100km (2.0) and 7.6L/100km (1.6T) claims are typical of other non-hybrid small SUVs and will not ruin your bank account.

The Kona’s contemporary cabin also makes big gains in interior space, adding to the Kona’s overall appeal. The back seat has more legroom and headroom than before, and is wider too. The boot is bigger at 407L, and still packs an industry-norm space-saver spare tyre under the floor.

If the Kona has a weakness – relatively speaking – it’s the base model’s 110kW 2.0-litre petrol engine. This serviceable powertrain is capable around town but the Kona’s sharper driving dynamics are better explored and exploited with either the stronger hybrid engine or the more potent 146kW 1.6-litre turbo engine.

The Kona’s cabin refinement is up there with the best, as is its ability to isolate occupants from external noises. The suspension, however, doesn’t do as good a job isolating occupants from rough roads as some rivals, but it’s liveable.

One point the judges argued – at length – concerns the Kona’s active safety systems. The car is one of the benchmarks in its class for the length of its active safety list, but a couple of those inclusions could do with small tweaks to work at their best.

The Kona’s speed sign recognition system came in for particular criticism. It’s meant to be a driver assist system but can become an annoyance, beeping whenever the car’s speed strays but a single km/h over the signed limit. The beeping can be turned off, but that disables the speed sign system altogether.

Hyundai has assured Drive that updates are being developed to modify this behaviour.

Ultimately, the Hyundai Kona small SUV is without peer for value, technology, safety and performance. The Kona takes the Small SUV genre to new heights and proves that great things do come in small packages.

That’s why the Hyundai Kona is the 2024 Drive Car of the Year Best Small SUV Under $50,000.

Find out everything you need to know about all the Drive Car of the Year 2024 category winners at our DCOTY content hub.