As most of you know, we recently traded my Wife's 2014 Manual i30 Tourer (1.6 GDi) on a new 1.6 Turbo AWD Kona Active.
My Wife had a 2010 (MY11) manual 2.0 petrol CW before the Tourer and despite liking the styling of the Tourer she never really grew to love it like the CW which had a more useable cargo area and definitely was more responsive around town with the larger motor. She only did around 27,500 kilometres in 55 months but we had test driven a few small SUV's and Trish liked the Qashqui and Kona best. We had a couple of Nissan Pulsars around 20 years ago which be enjoyed but Nissan's aren't quite as reliable these days apparently.
Anyway, I spotted a White Demo Active Kona with the 1.6 Turbo AWD option at a good price and being that white and the bright blue were her two colours of choice, the rest is history.
Like many, I was a bit negative of the Kona Styling when it was first released, but Myself, Trish and most others now seem to like it. We've had nothing but positive comments about the styling particularly from the younger generation.
Talking of positive comments. There is a Kona Owners Group on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/groups/2023735297948622/ that is going gangbusters. The overall vibe is very positive. There has been a small amount of negative feedback and issues with the 1.0 T sold in Europe, but the North American (USA and Canada) members (in particular) are raving and in love with their cars.
The Kona seems to be benefiting from having some character and being a bit different from the main stream, much like the FD (series 1) CRDi i30 on which this club was built.
The fuel economy is a real highlight. At this stage (after 400+ kilometres of driving) Trish's Kona appears to be getting low to mid sixes (L/100 kms.) which is about the same as her Tourer. Considering the much zippier performance that is brilliant. Not sure what they've done to make the difference over the same motor in my SR, but appears to be a good .5 L/100 kms more frugal.
Hyundai hasn't been strong with regard to fuel economy but they are certainly getting better in that regard.
It's good to see Hyundai with another "hit" like the i30 on their hands. I think Kona sales will continue to grow. It is already close to knocking the Mazda CX3 off its sales perch.
