Used Hyundai Kona cars for sale

Used Hyundai Kona pros and cons

Is a second hand Hyundai Kona a good car?

The Hyundai Kona is a medium-sized SUV, which is to say that it’s roughly half-way between the likes of the Ford Puma at one end, and the big Citroen C5 Aircross at the other.

Inside there’s a pair of big screens for instruments and infotainment, lifted from bigger, more expensive models. Thankfully, Hyundai is one of those brands which realises that you still need proper physical buttons when you’re driving, so there are plenty of those too, which means you’re not constantly having to stare at on-screen menus. We just wish it had fewer warning bing-bongs (it’s one of those cars that just likes to warn you about EVERYTHING) or just an easier way to switch them all off. 

There’s lots of space in the back seats and a decent 466-litre boot. There’s no loading lip either, and an adjustable boot floor, so this is a very useful car.  

That said, its boot space is beaten by the similarly-priced, but bigger, Citroen C5 Aircross and the Citroen is the comfier car to drive too. It’s not that the Kona rides like a race car, but it’s quite firm and fidgety, as if Hyundai’s engineers set the suspension too stiff so as to control the weight of the hybrid engine’s battery. 

On the upside, that makes it a bit more entertaining in corners than you might expect, but actually the Kona’s best performance comes on the motorway, where it’s a smooth and refined long-distance cruiser.

What to look for when buying a used Hyundai Kona

This generation of Hyundai Kona is very new, so it’s hard to get a solid grip on what might go wrong with it. We do know from the previous model that the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox doesn’t like doing lots of slow stop-start miles, as that can cause premature ageing of the clutches. It won’t be an issue for this model yet, but beware of that later in its life. 

This version of the Hyundai Kona is too new to have appeared in the Driver Power Top 50 Cars To Own list, but Hyundai finished a solid mid-table 17th out of 32 brands in the Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, with 22% of owners reporting a problem with their car.

Of course, all versions of the current Kona will still be covered by their original five-year unlimited mileage warranty, which should give you some peace of mind.