2019 Hyundai Kona 1.6T AWD Long-Term Arrival: In Search of Authentic Adventures

A glance at the window sticker on any 2019 Hyundai Kona will reveal a few things. Perhaps you’ll notice the five-star NHTSA safety rating, or maybe the solid EPA numbers or relatively affordable base price catches your attention. But my eyes fall on something else: “Big on Adventure, Smart on Space.”

Those six words reveal a lot about what the Kona is—or about what Hyundai wants to suggest it will be for those who buy it. It’s also indicative of the millennial consumers Hyundai intends to target. As any good marketer or Tinder user can tell you, millennials love “adventure” and crave an experiential existence. Gen Y also wants a communal existence; those experiences, if not shared with the world, mean far less. It is this desire for shared adventure that drives millennials thousands of miles to remote locales to pose in front of a backdrop of subalpine fir and snow-kissed peaks as far as the eye can see for something as simple as a cute photo with a fiancée.

It makes sense, then, that Hyundai would use the motif to promote its newest small crossover to the highly coveted millennial market. We’re nothing if not suckers for spontaneous adventure.

I say “we” here because I, too, am a millennial, and that trek toward the tree line for an engagement photo shoot was my own. I am, at least in this respect, a walking stereotype, precisely the sort of person that “Big on Adventure” tagline should appeal to.

I’m also, however, at least a little self-aware. The “adventure” my fiancée (now my wife) and I took looks impressive on Instagram. In reality, we drove about 45 minutes from my grandparents’ house, parked in a paved lot, and positioned ourselves such that the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center was just out of the shot. It was, in fact, a show, a facade of authentic adventure overlaid on an otherwise routine day that began with my grandma reminding me to drink my OJ so I don’t get scurvy and ended with my mom making lasagna.

Which is why Hyundai’s claim of big adventure sticks with me. That word can convey so many things, to the point that it can lose all meaning. What kind of adventure does the Kona really promise?

That depends on which Kona you get. A front-drive model necessarily limits the adventures you can have. We opted for all-wheel drive, a $1,400 premium. (AWD also adds independent multilink rear suspension over the front-driver’s torsion beam setup.) In our SUV of the Year testing, where the Kona earned a finalist nod, we said both the front- and all-wheel-drive versions ride and handle similarly. But for real adventures, there may come a time when power to all four wheels is necessary. Its relatively modest 7.0 inches of ground clearance, though, will cap how far we can truly take it.

We went with the Ultimate trim, which adds a 1.6-liter turbo-four (175 hp, 195 lb-ft of torque) and seven-speed dual-clutch transmission over the base 2.0-liter (147, 132) and six-speed automatic. The Ultimate trim also comes with heated leather seats, an eight-speaker premium audio system, and wireless device charging, among other adventuring necessities. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, a blind-spot monitor, rear cross-traffic alert, and lane keeping assist come standard, as well, ensuring our excursions don’t take too adventurous a turn. Our sole other option: carpeted floormats, a $125 charge. All in, our 1.6T AWD tester comes to $30,005.

Will that be money well spent on a willing and able adventure buddy? Or will the Kona prove to be an OJ in the a.m., home in time for dinner veneer of authenticity? We’ll have a year of experience to find out.

2019 Hyundai Kona 1.6T AWD (Ultimate)
BASE PRICE	$29,880
PRICE AS TESTED	$30,005
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door SUV
ENGINE	1.6L/175-hp/195-lb-ft turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4
TRANSMISSION	7-speed twin-clutch auto
WHEELBASE	102.4 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	164.0 x 70.9 x 61.0 in
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	26/29/27 mpg
ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY	130/116 kW-hr/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB	0.71 lb/mile

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