2021 Hyundai Kona vs 2021 Honda CR-V

After three years on the market, the Hyundai Kona continues to wow with great features, strong styling, and decent specs. Hyundai offers the Kona in several trims: Essential, Preferred, Trend, Luxury, Urban Edition, and Ultimate. A Hyundai Kona Electric model is available as well, but we'll cover that in a separate overview. A high-performance new Hyundai Kona N will be available for the 2022 model year.

The Hyundai Kona competes with subcompact SUVs that include the Kia Soul, Kia Seltos, Volkswagen Taos, Mazda CX-30, Subaru Crosstrek, Nissan Kicks, Hyundai Venue, and Toyota C-HR. Given its size and price, buyers may also cross-shop the larger Hyundai Tucson. New car buyers have many other choices, then, but the Kona still stands out as a value-forward crossover with plenty of standard features.

Even in a grim year, Honda is selling a staggering number of CR-Vs. The CR-V is the best-selling Honda in Canada, edging out the home-built Honda Civic. The CR-V is also the second best-selling compact SUV, just behind the Toyota RAV4. And it was the sixth best-selling vehicle in Canada in 2021.

So, it’s hard to argue against the CR-V formula. Honda’s been at this almost as long as crossovers have been a thing, launching the CR-V in 1997—a year after the RAV4 debuted.

The funny thing is, aside from sales volume, there’s only one thing the CR-V particularly excels at. Aesthetics are subjective, but it would be hard to argue the CR-V is the best-looking vehicle in its class. It’s not the cheapest. It’s not the best equipped, especially at the middle to lower trim levels. It’s not the fastest, nor is it the quietest, or the most fuel efficient. It’s not even the most reliable, showing up nowhere in J.D. Power's Most Reliable list.

So, what makes it so appealing to Canadian consumers? Let’s see if we can figure that out.