Facelift Hyundai Kona offers good value for money

Last week, my colleague Charl Bosch brought you all the nitty gritty details of the facelift Hyundai Kona range. This week, I managed to get a drive in two of the three models that are currently available, the 2.0 Executive IVT and the 1.6 T-GDI Executive DCT.

I jumped into the 2.0 Executive first and to be honest, this was the derivative that I was least looking forward to driving. I hate Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVT). I don’t care for all the claimed reasons like better efficiency and cost that are offered up by the manufacturers that use them in their cars, these gearboxes are simply the work of some sort of motoring devil.

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The average CVT is fine while you are cruising around and not demanding much of your car in terms of acceleration and overtaking ability, but ask it to get a move on, and then it shows its true colours. Floor the accelerator and the revs simply go to their maximum and stay screaming there like the gearbox is stuck in one never ending gear. Not pleasant!

Hyundai calls their CVT an Intelligent Variable Transmission (IVT), which in technical terms is the same thing. But thankfully “Intelligent” in Korean means programming the CVT to feel like it has a set number of gears that change like a conventional automatic. Floor it and the revs climb to maximum, and the gearbox “changes” gear, the revs drop and then climb back up to max again. So much better this way.

Then a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated engine with only 110 kW of power and 180 Nm of torque on offer up here on the Reef with its thin, oxygen deprived, and thus power robbing air is hardly going to excite anybody, but I was pleasantly surprised. Done this way, the Kona 2.0 Executive is as equally pleasant to drive slowly as it is to drive somewhat faster.

I felt that the smoothness of this engine and the relative amount of urge on offer make this model the value for money pick of the range at R449 900. The R50 000 more expensive, and more powerful 1.6 T-GDI Executive DCT runs a 146kW/265Nm turbocharged engine that obviously offers more oomph, but this urge comes at the expense of some engine refinement and added engine noise as you approach the redline, which I wasn’t expecting.

As the model’s descriptor implies, this derivative runs a state-of-the-art, slick seven-speed dual clutch transmission and is all round quicker than its 2.0-litre sibling. But unless you are able to measure gear changes in milliseconds, or are planning on drag racing your Kona, you are not really going to feel the extra money you have spent on opting for this model as a daily driver.

Pricing

All models come standard with a seven year/200 000 km warranty, five year/75 000 km service plan and roadside assistance for seven years or 150 000 km.

Kona 2.0 Executive AT – R449 900

Kona 1.6 T-GDi Executive DCT – R499 900

Kona 1.6 T-GDi N-Line DCT – R579 900