Downsizing is in full effect in the American auto industry.
Engines, vehicles and the carbon footprint of cars are getting smaller.
However, Americans are not ready to give up their precious SUVs yet. Enter this
year’s round of extremely new compact SUVs, or CUVs. Most of the nameplates you
will see here today are no more than a year old. Because this segment is
expanding so rapidly, today we have nine of the biggest contenders ready to be
compared.
Without further ado, let’s look at value. The range in prices here is from $20,290 in the Nissan Kicks SR to $24,475 for the Hyundai Kona Limited. Let’s look at what features typically come standard in this segment. Six of the nine vehicles here have automatic climate control, the only three that don’t are all the domestic cars. Push-button start is found in all of these small SUVs except the GM twins. The Chevy is the only vehicle here without heated mirrors, and the same can be said for Bluetooth capability. Except for the GM twins and the Mazda, Apple Car play can be found in every vehicle, as can Android Auto except in the former vehicles as well as the Toyota. Aside from the Toyota and the Mazda, Sirius XM is found across the lineup. Most vehicles here have a seven-inch touchscreen in the center console housing the infotainment system. However, the Toyota and Buick both have bigger 8-inch units. That rounds out the most commonly shared features of the group, so now let’s discuss individual cars in more detail. The 2019 Honda HR-V EX starts at a reasonable $23,720. It has heated front seats, six speakers, remote entry, a moonroof, and 17 inch-wheels. The headlights are halogen, the taillights are LED, and fog lights come standard as well. The Honda has smart entry with walk away and auto lock, where the vehicle can lock or unlock depending on if the key is in range of the car—without the owner ever touching it. The EX has a wide panoply of safety features, including collision mitigation braking, lane departure and lane keep assist, road departure warning, and forward collision warning. The Honda is optioned well. Now on to the Toyota CH-R XLE, which starts at $22,980. Standard for this price are six speakers, a leather steering wheel and shift knob, auto-folding outside mirrors, remote keyless entry, and this trim is gussied up with 18-inch rims. Not to be outdone by Honda, the CH-R also comes with a lot of active safety tech. Pre-collision warning with pedestrian detection, lane departure alert with steering assist, a blind spot monitor with rear cross traffic alert and dynamic cruise control come standard. The Kia Niro is $23,650. Notable features include six speakers, 16-inch wheels, rear LED taillights, and a smart key. It’s cousin, the Hyundai Kona Limited, is the most expensive of the group at $24,700. However, it comes with a long list of standard features to compensate. LED daytime running lights, headlights and taillights are standard, as well as regular fog lights. On the interior comes heated front seats that have an 8-way power adjustable driver’s chair. A smart key, auto-dimming rearview mirror and a full leather interior round out tangible features of the Hyundai. Active safety features are slightly lacking with only blind spot warning, lane-change assist, and rear cross-traffic alert. The Mazda starts at $22,475 and has daytime running lights, 18-inch wheels, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a smart key, heated front seats, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. Active safety tech is limited to blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert. The
2019 Chevy Trax LT is
one of the older vehicles here, and it is definitely starting to show. It was
lacking some of the most basic features mentioned across the segment, yet
somehow is manages to be the second most expensive car here, at $24,195.
Ironically, this is even more expensive than the Buick, which is supposed to be
the premium version of the same car. It also has remote start, keyless entry,
six speakers, and GM’s OnStar system. Notably, it is one of two cars here with
LTE WiFi. On the exterior are halogen headlights, LED taillights, and 16-inch
wheels. The Buick Encore 1SV undercuts the Chevy at $23,985. The exterior has
18-inch wheels, halogen headlights, LED daytime running lights, and a lot of
noise cancelling material relative to the others. The interior has a 6-way
power adjustable driver’s seat, smart key, and the same OnStar and WiFi as the
Chevy. Nonexistent on both the Chevy and Buick are any sorts of active safety
features, which must be a sign of the twin’s age. The Nissan Kicks SR is the
cheapest of the group at $20,290, but it comes appointed well. The exterior has
17-inch wheels, LED headlights, and fog lights. The interior has an around view
parking monitor, a smart key, remote start, six speakers and a leather steering
wheel and shift knob. Safety features include automatic emergency braking,
forward collision warning, blind spot warning, and rear cross traffic alert.
Finally, let’s look at the Jeep Renegade Altitude, the only 2018 model year
vehicle here. 2019 brings minor changes, like a revised front fascia, but for
our purposes the two model years are very close and will not have a big effect
on where the Jeep finishes in this segment. It begins life at $22,740 and comes
with 18-inch wheels, daytime running lights, heated mirrors, and fog lights.
The interior has six speakers and one piece of active safety equipment, which
is brake assist.
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| 2019 Chevy Trax (allcarseveryday) |
Without further ado, let’s look at value. The range in prices here is from $20,290 in the Nissan Kicks SR to $24,475 for the Hyundai Kona Limited. Let’s look at what features typically come standard in this segment. Six of the nine vehicles here have automatic climate control, the only three that don’t are all the domestic cars. Push-button start is found in all of these small SUVs except the GM twins. The Chevy is the only vehicle here without heated mirrors, and the same can be said for Bluetooth capability. Except for the GM twins and the Mazda, Apple Car play can be found in every vehicle, as can Android Auto except in the former vehicles as well as the Toyota. Aside from the Toyota and the Mazda, Sirius XM is found across the lineup. Most vehicles here have a seven-inch touchscreen in the center console housing the infotainment system. However, the Toyota and Buick both have bigger 8-inch units. That rounds out the most commonly shared features of the group, so now let’s discuss individual cars in more detail. The 2019 Honda HR-V EX starts at a reasonable $23,720. It has heated front seats, six speakers, remote entry, a moonroof, and 17 inch-wheels. The headlights are halogen, the taillights are LED, and fog lights come standard as well. The Honda has smart entry with walk away and auto lock, where the vehicle can lock or unlock depending on if the key is in range of the car—without the owner ever touching it. The EX has a wide panoply of safety features, including collision mitigation braking, lane departure and lane keep assist, road departure warning, and forward collision warning. The Honda is optioned well. Now on to the Toyota CH-R XLE, which starts at $22,980. Standard for this price are six speakers, a leather steering wheel and shift knob, auto-folding outside mirrors, remote keyless entry, and this trim is gussied up with 18-inch rims. Not to be outdone by Honda, the CH-R also comes with a lot of active safety tech. Pre-collision warning with pedestrian detection, lane departure alert with steering assist, a blind spot monitor with rear cross traffic alert and dynamic cruise control come standard. The Kia Niro is $23,650. Notable features include six speakers, 16-inch wheels, rear LED taillights, and a smart key. It’s cousin, the Hyundai Kona Limited, is the most expensive of the group at $24,700. However, it comes with a long list of standard features to compensate. LED daytime running lights, headlights and taillights are standard, as well as regular fog lights. On the interior comes heated front seats that have an 8-way power adjustable driver’s chair. A smart key, auto-dimming rearview mirror and a full leather interior round out tangible features of the Hyundai. Active safety features are slightly lacking with only blind spot warning, lane-change assist, and rear cross-traffic alert. The Mazda starts at $22,475 and has daytime running lights, 18-inch wheels, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a smart key, heated front seats, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. Active safety tech is limited to blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert. The
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| 2019 Toyota CH-R (allcarseveryday) |
Let’s move on from value to styling. Of course, this is the only subjective category I evaluate, and personal tastes will differ from my own. Strangely, the Hyundai Kona is my favorite exterior of the group—the camera doesn’t do it justice. It’s a cohesive, unique whole that is easily distinguishable from the other vehicles here. Some of the others try to be polarizing, such as the Honda and Toyota, which have historically been lauded for vanilla looking cars. In an effort to get rid of this stigma, the CH-R and HR-V take a more aggressive approach to the exterior. The Toyota is one of my least favorite of the group, but the Honda is executed better. The Mazda is fine looking, but I have come to expect more beautiful designs from this company. As for the rest of the vehicles, there isn’t a lot to say. The Kicks and Niro are semi-bland looking, and the Trax and Encore are downright forgettable. I will say that there are certain Encores with dark gray wheels with low profile tires that look much better, but again for the most part not a whole lot going on. Let’s move to interior styling now. The Buick has the most attractive interior of the group, by a lot. Piano black trim and soft touch materials dot the interior, and are reminiscent of the more premium feel Buick is supposed to have. On the other end of the spectrum are the Toyota, Hyundai, and Nissan, which look very plastic fantastic. The Toyota and Mazda also have screens that stand on top of the dashboard instead of being integrated into the center console, and I have never liked that look. The Jeep interior is filled with little Easter eggs, which is cute, but the rest of the interior is rather lacking, and unfortunately reminds me of a Tonka truck.
As you can see, the Nissan won the value contest easily, with the lowest price and a middling to good amount of features. The Chevy was the clear loser, lacking not only basic features, but also any additional ones that would make it stand out versus the competition. Most others fall in the six to seven range.
Passive safety can essentially be split into two categories for this segment. Those vehicles that have IIHS Top Safety Picks or Top Safety Pick Plus ratings, or those that score well but not enough to get either rank. The Buick, Chevy, Toyota, Honda and Jeep scored good ratings in most tests, but had factors holding them back from being a Top Safety Pick, which was probably a result of the weak headlights especially in the Honda and Toyota. The Jeep and Honda both had ‘Acceptable’ ratings for the relatively new small front overlap category, so they will rank worse than the Top Safety Picks and even the GM twins and Toyota. The two Koreans achieved Top Safety Pick Plus ratings, whereas the Nissan and Mazda both got Top Safety Picks.
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| 2019 Nissan Kicks (allcarseveryday) |
Now let’s look at how these powertrains are going to empty your wallet. The Kia has an outstanding 51 miles per gallon in the city and 46 miles per gallon on the highway, thanks to its hybrid powertrain. The next best is the Nissan, at 31 in the city and 36 on the highway. The other vehicles are in the mid to high 20s in the city and low 30s on the highway. The worst is the Jeep at 24 in the city and 31 on the highway, although the other two domestics don’t fare too much better. Nissan was clearly going for efficiency with its weak powertrain, and it mostly succeeded, but clearly Kia did it better. Better performance and fuel economy from the Kia, relative to the Nissan.
Now on to the usability of each vehicle in terms of cargo
capacity. With the second row of seats in the upright position, most of these
cute utes have about 18 or 19 cubic feet of space for passenger’s loads. The
Nissan tops the charts with 25.3 cubes, and the Mazda brings up the rear with
less than half of the former with 12.4 cubes. The Mazda felt tiny to me as I
stepped inside, and it was difficult for me to sit behind my driving position
in the CX-3, and I’m 5’ 10”. Taller people can rule out the Mazda nearly
completely. The Renegade felt spacious and had loads of extra head room for
front seat occupants. The Honda and Toyota felt like a vault in the back seat,
and there was extremely poor visibility in the rear. Speaking of which, if you
fold the second row flat in all of these vehicles, the Honda proves the best
able to hold all of the items from your Ikea shopping trip. At 55.9 cubic feet,
the Honda rivals some larger SUVs. The Kia is a close second with 54.5, the
Jeep is third with 50.8, and all other vehicles hover in the 40s range, except
for the Nissan and Toyota. The Toyota manages 36.4, which is weak compared to
every vehicle but the Kicks. Strangely, the Nissan offers only seven more cubic
feet of space once the seats are down, making it the best with the seats up,
but the worst with the seats down.
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| 2019 Honda HR-V (allcarseveryday) |
Finally, our last area of evaluation, reliability. I get my statistics here based on the extensive research done by Consumer Reports. The Buick and Kia scored the best here, earning a Much Better than Average rating from the magazine. The Honda, Toyota, Mazda and Chevy all got Better than Average ratings, and the Hyundai and Nissan got Average ratings. The Jeep was the only vehicle here to score below average, which a rating of Worse than Average. I am starting to notice that all Fiat-Chrysler cars score below average in terms of reliability for these comparisons, and because the weight of this area of evaluation is pretty heavy, this category always sets them back far. Just make more reliable cars, I guess.
As you can see, the Nissan won the value contest easily, with the lowest price and a middling to good amount of features. The Chevy was the clear loser, lacking not only basic features, but also any additional ones that would make it stand out versus the competition. Most others fall in the six to seven range. For powertrain, the Hyundai scored well for its small but powerful engine and quick acceleration times. The Toyota scores low because it is dangerously slow, and the Nissan has a more modern powertrain but a lack of power, resulting in its low score. For fuel economy, the Kia is the clear victor because of its hybrid powertrain, making even the next best pale in comparison. The outdated domestic cars score low here, but expect more competition from them with the introduction of the second generation Trax, Encore, and Renegade, as these vehicles are all still first generation with only mild updates. For usability, the Honda and Kia scored best for their very good overall cargo capacity. The Mazda scored poorly here because it is simply smaller than the others and more cramped. For reliability, the FCA vehicle of course scored the lowest, but the Japanese cars weren’t the kings here. Anyway, that’s it for this comparison! Thanks for reading!
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| Part one of the results. |
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| Part two of the results. |
