2021 Hyundai Kona vs 2021 Lexus GX

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.

ost modern SUVs are really car-based crossovers—lifted station wagons, or minivans without the sliding doors. That’s not the case with the 2021 Lexus GX 460.

Like the mythical Loch Ness Monster, the GX is a creature that time forgot. It’s one of the last SUVs with truck-like body-on-frame construction and true off-road capability. That’s because the GX is actually a rebadged Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (a smaller version of the iconic Toyota Land Cruiser not sold in North America), and is related to the Toyota 4Runner. It’s also genuinely old: the current generation dates back to the 2010 model year, and Lexus has kept it in production with some updates of styling and tech over the years.

That makes the GX a fairly odd proposition on the new-car market. It has the off-road capability, not as a lifestyle statement, but because that’s what was still expected of SUVs when it was launched. The GX sits between the RX and LX in the Lexus lineup but has little direct competition. Its only real rival is the much newer Land Rover Discovery.

For the 2021 model year, the GX gets some minor updates. Lexus continues to offer only the GX 460 model, with a single powertrain option, a standard four-wheel drive (4WD) drivetrain, and two pricing levels: base, or the Executive package.