2019 Hyundai Kona (Iron Man)

My first new car, and a great sporty high hatch, with 2 tone paint and tech.

ℹ️ Info

~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2021-12-14

Bought my first new car, for myself, ever (at 55). I’ve bought Melissa a few new cars, I leased one, and I have bought many nearly new cars. I just never brand new. It was a Hyundai Kona: Ironman Special Edition. I’m not even that much of an Iron Man fan (the Super Hero that is, I like the song), but the black and red two tone was cool. So I bought it sight unseen, got it below sticker (Costco Discount), and it came in and was an even better Dark-Grey and Dark-Red. Nice, but short lived.

Everything was an improvement over my trade-in: the Mazda CX-7.

The Mazda was a pretty decent little SUV -- it was pretty good driving dynamics (for an SUV). But the Kona had a much better suspension, was smaller, lighter and more performant. You pop it into sport mode and it was great for an econobox high hatch.
The Mazda had a few blind spots, the Kona didn't.
The Mazda was light on Tech -- Kona had a heads up display, lane holding, integrated phone charging matt, it worked with Apple's CarPlay, blind spot detection, a backup camera (finally), keyless entry/ignition.
The Mazda was big on the outside, but small on the inside (for its size). The Kona was a much smaller on the outside, with as much room for passengers (less for Cargo), but it was wonderfully utilitarian.
The Mazda had a slushbox transmission, this had a respectable DST (Fast shifting automatic, with manual override).

🗒️ Note:
Part of the reason I changed is I wanted to get an EV for years, and being in Texas, I felt I needed something bigger and a pickup wouldn't be bad. Plus, I liked the HummerEV. But I wasn't completely trusting of GM. And the more I looked into it, the more I liked the specs/tech of the Tesla CyberTruck. Especially the FSD / Full Self Driving. So I bought a Model Y because the hold their resale value, and I'd get to see if that was the technology I was hoping it was.

The Kona was more a high hatchback than an SUV -- but it was better in San Jose. When we moved to Texas I replaced it with a Tesla (Model Y), because I wanted something more substantial and more than that -- the Kona was having a transmission quirk. Going into reverse to first, or sometimes just into first it would SLAM. (Pop between gears). I don't know what it was doing, but it was wrong. And of course the dealer couldn't figure it out. So I just sold it, and bought a car that wasn't going to give me a headache.

After a couple of years, I had my eye on a Tesla (Model Y) -- and the Hyundai was popping out of gear, and the dealer couldn't figure it out. I hate that. So I sold my car through CarMax -- got MUCH better value out of it, than through a traditional dealer. It was a great experience. And the car was cherry. Someone lucked out on a hard to find car.

📷 Photos

Photos/Cars/2019 Hyundai Kona (Iron Man) • [4 items]

Kona and me (at the dealer, the day of the purchase). I used Costco, and got a discount instead of a surcharge. They they under-paid me for the trade-in.