Small issues/quirks

I totally agree with that assessment. We are paying a premium for the drive train. Otherwise the car is not in near luxury territory for price. The standard Kona is thousands less. One has to look at these cars that way. I for one prefer the EV drivetrain, and am willing to pay the price for it.
 
Hahn said:
OK, so a HUD display is a bare bones feature and memory seat is a luxury item? Hummm :)
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Hyundai has to make price/construction decisions. These cars typically attract techies, so a HUD would be a feature nerds like us would like. I agree a memory seat would be nice, although I have an SEL with manual seat. Most of us that buy these cars have researched them extensively, know the cars better than the sales people, and in the end live with some compromises even at these price points. I love the car myself despite a few quirks.
 
Yes it is price/construction decisions and yes I fell short in my research missing the lack of memory seats, didn’t even occur to me but I should have caught that. I had to look at gas Kona’s because EV isn’t available at the local dealership. Once again that wouldn’t have been a deal breaker, I would have still bought the car, it was just interesting that memory seat is a bank buster. My Sonata PHEV has memory seats. Also the mechanical passenger seat is a North American thing, in Europe the Kona has electric passenger seats. I don’t know if the driver seats remembers anything though. Apparently Europeans have more disposable cash.

I’ve probably lost 15% of my hearing while driving the Kona EV these past couple of weeks with all the Bells chiming and Whistles blowing. When I buy a car I buy it as if I were going to drive it for 10 years because . . . Well I keep my cars for 10 years. Past 30 years I’ve been driving Acura, Legend, CL, TL (why would you drop the name Legend?, It’s a Ford Mustang not a MLX) We traded my wife’s 2010 RDX in for the Kona. I always buy the top trim line. 2010 was a year before blind spot detection came in. Now the car practically drives its self. I was blown away with all the 2019 Sonata PHEV Limited had on it. Kona EV Ultimate has even more (except for the seats) So having to rough it for the drive train isn’t true. Hyundai’s price/construction decisions should be left to the consumer which it is with the various trim levels offered for each model. It is a “quirk” that the Kona doesn’t offer electric passenger seats or memory seats in North America.

That said, If I had “money” I would have bought a top of the line Tesla. My intro to EV was a ride in my brother-in-laws friends Model S. I’d never felt Gs accelerating in a car before. Living in the desert a battery doesn’t last very long so I was leery of Hybrid or EV cars. Hyundai’s lifetime battery warranty is what pushed me over the line. In my 30 year marriage with Acura the only thing any of my cars went in for other that routine maintenance was the Takata airbags in both my TL and my wife’s RDX. Acura gave me a rental for 3 months (waiting for parts, would have given us 2 but I thought 1 was enough) which turned out to be a Sonata. For a rental it was a nice car.

I love my 2019 Sonata PHEV, the 28 mile range covers about 80% of my driving. I had to start working on my wife to go to the Kona. She had range anxiety. The RDX never left Phoenix, I doubt she has driven more that 90 miles at a time and that would be rare so 258 miles should be more than enough. It didn’t help that right out of the box we had to drive 300 miles to get it home. Topped it off at the Ca/Az border and got home with 32 miles to spare :) It hasn’t taken long for her to fall in love with the car. It’s was charged after the initial trip, (8 hrs) today it’s at 48% so range isn’t an issue.

So except for the seats (in North America) it’s a heck of a car with more bells and whistles than you can ask for. I can’t imagine what there will be in the next 10 years. For now I guess I’ll just have to rough it. Alexa, please make me another margarita, no salt. I hate roughing it.
 
For me I was coming from a 2015 Volvo, so I was accustomed to a more luxurious feel. While Volvo offers many features like blind spot detection and adaptive cruise control, my car didn't have those add-ons, and it was always a regret that I didn't have them. So with the Kona, I went with the Ultimate trim line to get all of those bells and whistles. Longer drives are just easier and less tiring with those features.

My wife doesn't care for the HUD very much - I don't know if that's because it isn't adjusted right for her. I kind of like the thing - it gives you a simplified display without lots of visual distractions.

The Kona navi is better - a more polished look, and it doesn't mispronounce things like the one on the Volvo. The real-time traffic alerts on the Volvo were basically useless - the re-routings that it would offer were oftentimes idiotic. The Kona does a decent job of this as well.

The only thing I miss are the dual-zone climate. The lack of memory seats doesn't bug me that much.
 
FYI, my base model 2018 EU model has no luxury features other than auto climate: no leather, HUD, sunroof, heated seats or steering wheel, no NAV and no Bluelink. It still cost NZ$75k of hard earned cash, noting that our incomes are numerically much the same as they are in North America.
 
KiwiME said:
FYI, my base model 2018 EU model has no luxury features other than auto climate: no leather, HUD, sunroof, heated seats or steering wheel, no NAV and no Bluelink. It still cost NZ$75k of hard earned cash, noting that our incomes are numerically much the same as they are in North America.
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Wow, that's a lot. If I run the figures through a currency calculator my Canadian spec "base" Kona works out to around 57k after taxes in New Zealand dollars or 39k after incentives. At least you have all the good weather...priceless:)
 
KiwiME said:
FYI, my base model 2018 EU model has no luxury features other than auto climate: no leather, HUD, sunroof, heated seats or steering wheel, no NAV and no Bluelink. It still cost NZ$75k of hard earned cash, noting that our incomes are numerically much the same as they are in North America.
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Hikes! Pricey.
 
Well, fortunately it does have LFA, which works on about 4 out 5 corners. I carry a pipe wrench for the fifth...
But I was taken by the inclusion of the heat pump, which Australian models don't have and would have required a factory order to get that on the i3, which otherwise minimally optioned was around $90k. The Model 3 was not out at that time but now is exactly the same price as the base Kona (in SR+ trim).

I also have HBA (high beam assist), SCC and a 32A Type 2 cable, so can't complain too much. And.. we do have the weather, which right now is very warm.
 
Luxury is in the eye, or bum, of the beholder, I guess. When I was a lad I was awed by my first ride in a car that had power windows. Now I drive one with so many features that I've counted almost a hundred controls, not including those on the touchscreen.

Powered seats do seem rather pointless without memory.
 
SkookumPete said:
Luxury is in the eye, or bum, of the beholder, I guess. When I was a lad I was awed by my first ride in a car that had power windows. Now I drive one with so many features that I've counted almost a hundred controls, not including those on the touchscreen.

Powered seats do seem rather pointless without memory.
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My car has memory seats i get in it and just drive away, the seats never change on me...
The bells and whistles just add to the ride. Sometimes something rings and i say now what the hell was that all about..
 
GPM432 said:
Sometimes something rings and i say now what the hell was that all about..
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This time of year, I get the ding warning me about freezing temperatures - that happens a minute or two after I pull out of the garage.

I sometimes have a light tough on the wheel, and it dings because it thinks that I don't have my hands on the wheel. I even had LKA disengage beause it thought I didn't have my hands on the wheel.

Those are the main dings that I get..
 
Oh, It absolutely unremitting between the binging,bonging and my dash camera talking to me about my wifi connection and nearby speed camera's. I am pretty sure my mother never came close to this level of nag. I am starting to tune out the noise a bit and starting to turn off some of these silly warnings. I really don't need the car to tell me its frosty outside.
 
apu said:
Oh, It absolutely unremitting between the binging,bonging and my dash camera talking to me about my wifi connection and nearby speed camera's. I am pretty sure my mother never came close to this level of nag. I am starting to tune out the noise a bit and starting to turn off some of these silly warnings. I really don't need the car to tell me its frosty outside.
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As indicated previously by others on this forum, the "icy road warning" can be shut off in the dash settings under "convenience" menu.
 
I wish that both paddles on the steering wheel were not actually attached to the steering wheel. I think that if they were fixed to the steering column & always remained in the same place it would be easier to always use the braking paddle. As a turn is maneuvered & the steering wheel slides between your fingers you could still use that brake paddle instead of having the other paddle under your left hand.
I feel this would avoid the “OMG the car isn’t slowing, this is the wrong paddle, I have to use the foot brake pedal” rush of thoughts.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
HappyKonaGirl said:
I wish that both paddles on the steering wheel were not actually attached to the steering wheel. I think that if they were fixed to the steering column & always remained in the same place it would be easier to always use the braking paddle. As a turn is maneuvered & the steering wheel slides between your fingers you could still use that brake paddle instead of having the other paddle under your left hand.
I feel this would avoid the “OMG the car isn’t slowing, this is the wrong paddle, I have to use the foot brake pedal” rush of thoughts.
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I rarely use the paddles myself - using ACC to regulate the speed instead.
 
ericy said:
I rarely use the paddles myself - using ACC to regulate the speed instead.
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That only works if there's someone in front of you (and you're content to sit behind them). And it doesn't do squat for you at a stop. I use the paddle to slow and come to a stop 95% of the time. Last week I drove 20 kms city and highway and tried to engage ACC. I couldn't because I hadn't touched my brakes since starting the car. Had to tap them in order to engage it.
 
The paddles can be useful, but I think it's madness to rely on them when maneuvering, precisely because they're not always in the same place. There is no efficiency advantage in using them rather than a light touch on the brake pedal.
 
I love my Kona, but I think the paddles are silly. The Kona should offer multiple levels of regen as it does, with the final regen option being true one pedal driving like I had on my Bolt. It is just software. They can do it, and elected not to for some reason. With that done everybody gets their choice of regen. One pedal driving is so nice, it is too bad we don't have it. Having to use a paddle on the left for what the brake pedal is for is hard to figure.
 
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