FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2017 HYUNDAI KONA

Storage inside the car is very limited. I could fit my large refillable water bottle in the front door pockets, which filled so well that it didn’t rattle while driving, but anything smaller like a 600ml water bottle or a baby‘s bottle are too small so they rattle around too much, especially as the pockets are not lined.

There are also large door handle wells in all the doors. They are really deep, perfect for putting the keys in the front! They are the same in the back and I found them really helpful for putting Tulsi's small items out of her hands in whilst loading her in and out of the car.

There are two cup holders in the front of the Kona in the central console. The rear one is the slightly larger of the two and is a good size for a large refillable water bottle or my travel mug. The front smaller one is better for disposable coffee cups as it is shallower so you can pick up the cup without the lid coming off and spilling it. A 600ml water bottle or a Pigeon baby bottle fits well in the front holder also. Between the two cup holders are two grooves which are fantastic for putting parking tickets or car park passes in! This is a great design feature, as whenever I enter a car park and am given a ticket I always quickly put it down somewhere as I quickly move through the gate and negotiate the tight space and then struggle to find it once I’ve actually parked!

The console storage box lid serves as an armrest, which needs to be a little longer to be functional, to be honest, and inside the storage box is a small deep cube with a felt lined bottom preventing things from moving around inside. There are no sockets inside the box.

In front of the gear lever is a rubber-lined wireless charging pad for a phone! I didn’t test this as my phone is old school, but the technology is there. Above this are two 12V sockets, a USB socket and an AUX socket. Above those is a hidden shelf that is perfect for a mobile phone to be charged using the nearby USB port and kept out of sight. Unortunately this shelf is not rubber lined so your phone does slide around a bit.

There is a glasses case in the ceiling that has a felt lining. I love it when car companies go to this detail with glasses cases because otherwise your lenses get scratched on bare plastic.

The glovebox looks small, so I was surprised to find I could fit the manual in there with an iPad, my wallet and a phone. There was still a little space too!

In the back, the door pockets are even smaller than the front. They will hold a 600ml water bottle or a Pigeon baby milk bottle and that is all.

For the rear passengers, there are two net, half map pockets on the back of the front seats. I find net map pockets are not very useful as smaller things just fall out or get caught, they are easily damaged and they do not cover anything you put in them because it is all on display when you are not in the car.

The cup holders in the back are in a fold-down armrest in the middle seat. They are plastic moulded and not adjustable, but suitable to hold a disposable coffee cup or my travel mug. My large refillable water bottle is too big and a 600ml water bottle or Pigeon baby bottle rattles around too much and would fall out. For our rear-facing infant, the cup holders are positioned too near the end of the fold-down armrest for her to reach while buckled into her child seat.

Storage is minimal in the boot of the Kona too! There is a cargo net across the floor held down with four anchor points, which was really useful for popping Tulsi's lunchbox, shoes, ball etc under to hold them still on a daycare drop-off for example, when I didn’t need the stroller or pram.

There is a small plastic pocket in the right-hand sidewall that is perfect for storing sun cream, or little delicate or dirty items.
On the left there is a small well behind the wheel arch that also contains a light that comes on automatically when the boot door is open. I found this space good for holding a ball or bucket and spade etc when the pram was in the boot.

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.

Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.

I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs (although it can feel like it sometimes!!) but because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

It is a small but peculiarly practical boot that, like the glove box, holds a surprising amount of stuff! When it’s empty it would hold eight shopping bags and I think at a push you would be able to get 10 in there!

The Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle stroller would not fit in the boot! I had to take one of the wheels off in order to fit it in and be able to close the door. If you were definite about the Kona you would need to test your stroller would fit. With the Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle, I could just get one bag in with it.

The basic Steelecraft Holiday 2 stroller only just fits across the width of the front of the boot or it can go diagonally across the whole boot floor, although then you can’t get as many bags in. With the stroller across the front of the boot you can get the five shopping bags in behind it and there is still a little room for small things around that too.

The double stroller obviously won’t fit in the boot at all. On a Mums' group picni,c we did get our camping table, picnic, rug and child stuff in the boot okay!

The parcel shelf is a solid removable shelf and it’s held on with two cords. If you totally remove it then you could put a small dog in the boot. The only consideration is that the back window is almost vertical like in a ute, so if it were a sunny day it would be really hot in the boot.
There would be room on the back seat for a medium-sized dog if there was only one child seat installed, the only problem would be the seat belt alarm would go off all the time as they are VERY sensitive in the Kona and even my handbag on a seat set it off, so a dog definitely would!

Putting things in an out of the boot of the car was fine in terms of the height of the boot and the boot mouth is nice and open too. The real trouble with the Kona's boot is the size and trying to fit real things in it. The size also means it is only just big enough for an emergency nappy change!

There are no sockets in the boot and if you lift up the boot floor there is some polystyrene divided space I think it’s meant for your warning sign and breakdown kit.

The Kona is a noisy little car! It beeps when you first get into the car while it does its system check and if you start the car with the door open or without your seatbelt on it ‘boing, boings’ until you close up and clip in!

I understand it is a safety feature however I found it really annoying! I have to turn the engine on to get the air con running to cool the car down while I pop my daughter in and get everything set up in the car so it was quite irritating to have that noise going the whole time!

The seatbelt alarm has a little display on the central dash that lights up to let you know if a seatbelt is not done up and an alarm sounds. It is however very sensitive and just having my handbag or laptop bag on the seat next to me set the alarm off. I found it too sensitive; it was like my emotionally unpredictable toddler!!

One of our outings to the local farmers' market as a family of three, we found the Kona so small that it was like Tetris getting home in it! We couldn’t fit our box of veggies in the boot as we had our Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle stroller in there with the wheel taken off! I was driving (I’m 162cm) and my husband (he’s 184cm) had to sit behind me because he couldn’t sit in the front passenger seat as there was not enough legroom in front of the rear facing child seat our daughter was in.
The only place left to put our shopping was in the front passenger seat! Unfortunately, it activated the seatbelt alarm and so we had to drive along with the alarm going and the dash light flashing! The alarm eventually stopped and the light just continued flashing but still by then our daughter was screaming, disturbed by the constant alarm sound.

There are settings within the digital display, in front of the steering wheel where you can change some of the things that make the baby-waking noises and alarms in the driver assistance settings. Some of the volumes of these sounds can be adjusted and turned on and off.

You can adjust the rear the parking sensors volume, however, the softest volume is still really loud and would wake my sleeping baby in the car.

There is a button on the central console by the gear lever to turn off the parking sensors, but it turns the visual off too not just the sound.

The visual for the parking sensors is on the digital display in front of the steering wheel rather than the main media screen. The reversing camera uses the whole media screen.
I find the positioning of the sensors on the digital display difficult in reality as you can not see it when the wheel is turned. For example, you are reversing and the alarm sounds you have to stop, turn back to the front, peer around the steering wheel and your hands and arms to see which part of the image is showing and obstruction, then look out the windows, at the camera, the mirrors etc. The looking around the steering wheel and your hands and arms is awkward.

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!

That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.

If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?

It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?

A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.

Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!

I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

There is lane autocorrect and lane departure in the Kona, which beeps as well as strongly keeping you within the white line and steering the car for you.
You can not adjust the sound volume for this, you can only turn it on and off

The indicator noise itself is a gentle sound, however, the stalk moves with a really loud clunk.

It is easy to connect your phone to the Kona as it has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto that always makes things a lot simpler. The media display itself is easy to navigate and I was able to have nursery rhymes playing as soon as I plugged my phone in.

The windows of the Kona close with a really hard clunk, and while the mechanism isn’t too noisy the final clunk to close is really baby waking.
The doors are not too bad for noise when they open but you do need to close them quite firmly to ensure they shut.

The doors close quite easily with a gentle close, which was surprising for a car of this size. With baby asleep you can get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy. The same for the windows their mechanism is not too noisy and I didn’t notice them having a loud opening or closing sound.
With baby asleep you want to be able to get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy and wake Bub up!

Cross traffic warning on the Kona has actually been really useful this week. Although it does beep, which can wake my sleeping child, I have found that visibility is quite poor from the front seat headrests back in the Kona, so it has been really helpful. As well as beeping it comes up with an arrow letting you know the direction the traffic is coming from on your on the head up screen as well as on the dash digital display.

The satnav is used through your phone, and there is no satnav on the Kona’s media system. Normally with Apple CarPlay there is a volume control button on the screen to mute the volume voice but I didn’t get this come up with the Kona.

I was able to come to a stop in the Kona once bub had fallen asleep, leaving the engine running (for the air con) and get out of the car without sounding an alarm!

Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!
SO this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!)

Both engine and road noise in the Kona is quite good. I have had a couple of occasions where it feels like the Kona can’t quite select a gear and almost feels like it might stall. Another baby disturbing thing is when I reversed and then I put it into drive and the car rolls backwards at least half a metre before it moves forward. This could be quite dangerous if something or someone was behind you.
The ride is surprisingly hard in the Kona we drove. I am told it is because of the big tyres on the top-spec Highlander version we tested, but I would make sure I checked that carefully on your test drive as on every bumpy road surface it really disturbed our daughter as she got jiggled around.

The Kona is a five-seater small SUV, with three top tether points on the back of the rear seat backs.

Practically you can’t fit three seats across the back seat, as it is far too small so you either have one child seat installed in the centre using just top tether and seatbelt or two child seats one in each of the outer seats using top tether and the ISO Fix anchor points that are located between the seat base and seatbacks. The ISO Fix bars are not within plastic casing guides making them a little bit harder to find, but I found it simple to connect both.

To connect the top tether clips we needed to bring the seatbacks forward using the lever situated in the shoulder of the seatbacks. It was really simple to pull forward and connect to and push the seat back into position, before connecting the ISO Fix points.

We fitted the rear facing Mountain Buggy Protect infant capsule and Infasecure Kompressor 4 (rear facing).

If you have rear-facing child seats in the two outer rear seats, the front seats are only usable for a 162cm passenger and driver. We have really struggled with space in the Kona because we have a rear-facing child seat and my husband is 184cm! One of us had to travel in the back all the time.
If your child seats are already turned to forward facing you may find the Kona more practical and user-friendly than we did. Especially if your child is not using a stroller either!

Posting baby in and out of their child seat was actually fine in the Kona from inside and outside. I thought with the car being so small I would struggle but it was actually fine as the ceiling is high enough that in the back posting from inside is good too.

Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!

There is room to feed Bub in the back with one child seat installed.

The seats are a wipe cleanable leather material, however, both front seats and the outer rear seats are perforated because the front ones are cooled and heated. This makes cleaning difficult as crumbs and sand get into the perforations. There are also lots of light coloured seams and contrast design details on the seats too.

I think anyone would really struggle sitting in the central seat, the backrest is very hard because of the armrest and cup holders and you are completely pressed against the child seat next to you.

The rear windscreen is almost vertical like in a ute, allowing the sun to really come in onto rear facing passengers. The side windows are actually quite deep and there are tiny triangular windows at the back too, giving rear-facing passengers a little more view out.

The front seats of the Kona are relatively comfortable and very adjustable. There are electric controls on both front seats, and you can also adjust the lumbar support too. I did find the seat back pivots at your lower back rather than the bottom of the seat, which I find a little bit uncomfortable when you don’t have it in exactly the right spot!

You can’t wear a ponytail at all in this car and it really was quite annoying as the headrest really sticks forward.

I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!

In the back the seats are comfortable and the backrest is at a comfortable, slightly reclined angle.

The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down. The cruise control in the Kona was good at high-speed on motorways, but not very good at lower speeds, especially on hilly or winding roads.
It is easy to use the cruise control, they are on the right of the steering wheel and are very basic making them simple to use.

In the front of the Kona, there are four air vents; two thin horizontal ones in the centre of the dashboard and a round one at either end. There are no air vents in the back of the car and my daughter has complained of being too hot even though we had the air con on full most of the time in order to cool it down. It feels like in the front you have to freeze in order for the back to be comfortable and I am sure the optional black roof on our car did not help with the heat issue. The controls for the air con are very simple and well located on the central console. With two rotating knobs and a digital display with a few buttons underneath it is very simple to use.

Also, the rear window is almost flat, allowing the sun to come in much closer to rear-facing infants and making it even brighter and hotter in the back Thankfully the windows are tinted and we did not have to use an added shade on the rear side windows for Bub.

Visibility is good out of the front of the Kona, which is what I find with most SUVs, but it is the visibility from the driver headrest back that is poor once you put any rear-facing child seats in, which causes you to lose the majority of your visibility.

The side mirrors and reversing camera are helpful for this and I have also found the side traffic alerts to be helpful in the Kona due to the poor visibility.

There are lit vanity mirrors for both passengers in the front.

The interior lights in the front are press on lights and there is one light in the central ceiling in the back it is just reachable by the driver.

I often will reach back to turn on the interior light if I am driving at night time, I find my little girl gets less distressed traveling at night that way. It helps if I can reach the interior light from the drivers seat so I can turn it on and off whilst driving. I often find my daughter will need it on as we start our journey in the dark but once she falls asleep I can turn it off.
It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.

Driving the Kona is good! It’s a fun little car; it’s nippy, nimble and has really fast acceleration. However, you do feel the jiggles of the road surface and again my daughter has complained in this car of being ‘too bumpier Mummy!’ You feel all the bumps and surfaces in the back especially. The Kona is a lot of fun on country roads and is excellent around bends and you can have a lot of fun if you’re driving on your own!

When parking the Kona you really have to rely on your reversing camera and side mirrors because the visibility from the back is not good with child seats installed.

The headrests in the back we found not to be conducive to holding a baby mirror in place. The mirror rotated around and moved on the headrest, which I know my daughter found frustrating.

There is a handle above the back doors for a child’s toy to hang. I find this useful with infants especially as it gives them something to look at and play with in the car.

There are just two 12V sockets in the front of the car, but none in the back for a powered Esky. However I am not sure you would fit an Esky in the boot of the Kona!

The door surfaces would be wipe cleanable. They do mark quite easily and I’ve noticed that over the week they have grease and scuff marks on them, as does a lot of the car.

The general aesthetics of the Kona are great! Hyundai has gone to a lot of trouble with designing this car's interior. There is contrast acid yellow trim throughout to match the exterior, and when the car looks as good as this on the outside it’s great to have an interior that looks just as individual.

There is contrast piping and stitching on all the seats and contrast trim around the air vents, start button, gear lever etc. Even the seatbelts are in contrast acid yellow! I worry for the seatbelts that they will stain very easily being in this acid yellow colour and I can just imagine a banana covered hand or a drink rubbed into them and they would look really dirty. So as cool as they are, I’m not sure how practical that would be for the long term in a BabyDrive!

Legroom is a big problem in the Kona, our week has been a constant jostle between driver and passenger legroom! The car is very small inside the cabin and in the boot. The overall feeling travelling inside the Kona is being cramped. It’s a very pleasant and nicely designed car, however, I found it too small for our family car.
I am 162cm and sitting in front of a rear facing child seat I have just 12cm of knee room, which reminded me somewhat of budget airline travel!! The glove box was unusable when someone is sitting in the front passenger seat too. We found because the car boot is so small you end up with lots of things in the cabin with you that would usually be stored in the boot, which added to the cramped feeling.

The Hyundai Kona is equipped with six SRS airbags as standard; dual frontal and side airbags for both front passengers and curtain air-bags for the front and rear side passengers.

The Kona has just been tested by ANCAP and scored a five-star rating. Its overall score was 35.07 out of 37. The breakdown scores were 14.07 out of 16 for the frontal offset test, 16/16 for side impact test and 2/2 for the pole test.

The Kona range comes with blind spot sensors, brake assist, emergency braking hazard stoplights display, driver attention detection, electronic stability control, front collision mitigation high and low speed, front collision warning, hill descent and hill holder, lane departure warning and lane keeping active assist, park distance front and rear, rear vision camera, traction control, tyre pressure monitoring with logging/display, warning rear cross traffic when reversing,

Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound.
I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!