2021 Hyundai Kona vs 2022 Jeep Compass

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.

Jeep now considers itself a premium brand. That means it prices its vehicles a little higher than the equivalents offered by mainstream nameplates but still below the traditional luxury marques.

In exchange for this price premium, Jeep offers class-leading off-road capabilities, admission into “the club” of Jeep owners, and, with some of its models, high-end trim levels loaded with upscale materials, finishes, and features.

This year, Jeep improves the 2022 Compass in an effort to better qualify it as a premium entry. Based on a week spent in the ritzy Compass Trailhawk Elite, we think the SUV is better it was than before. But does it meet the expected standard? Not quite.