Hyundai Kona 1.0 T-GDi SE 2017 first drive

Hyundai freely admits that in the past its cars have often been bought for purely rational reasons and that it wants this new Hyundai Kona to follow on the coattails of the Hyundai i30 N. It hopes this will get people more interested in the brand for more emotional reasons.

Hyundai is hoping to build on the progress made with the Santa Fe and Hyundai Tucson and has forecast that 40% of its total sales next year will be SUVs.

The Kona – which can be had in four vivid colours – is the smallest SUV that the company makes and is intended to compete with the likes of the Nissan Juke, Citroën C3 Aircross and the recently introduced Seat Arona. Next year, there will be an all-electric version, along with a diesel option. For now, we have two petrols - a 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo and a 1.6-litre with all-wheel drive and a seven-speed dual clutch transmission. The 118bhp 1.0 turbo is earmarked to be the best seller in the UK, with most buyers predicted to go for SE specification.

Hyundai would like you to enjoy driving the new Hyundai Kona and has made a point of highlighting that the suspension has been developed for UK roads – because, they say, if it works here, it will work anywhere.

The 1.0-litre cars get a simpler torsion bar suspension at the rear, with all-wheel-drive cars getting a multi-link set-up. SE cars have 17in alloy wheels instead of the 18in wheels in Premium, Premium SE and Premium GT versions.

The 1.0-litre car with the smaller wheels seems to be the optimum set-up for a Kona in the UK. It is still a bit firm – even at speed – but it rides rougher roads better than the larger wheels can. Road noise is less of an issue over particularly broken, patchy surfaces.

This engine is a little bit flat at lower revs and does require a bit of stoking at higher speeds, sometimes making it necessary to change down a cog if you are trying to overtake on the motorway. Fortunately, the six-speed manual gearbox has a nice positive action to it and is slick to use.

The 1.6 petrol is a bit gruff when accelerating and isn’t as refined as the smaller unit around town either. This engine is paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission that can be a bit slow to respond, even in Sport mode. It also somewhat masks the extra performance on offer over the smaller engine.