2021 Hyundai Kona vs 2022 Volkswagen Atlas

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.

Until 2018, Volkswagen seemingly ignored the fact that North America wanted roomy, functional SUVs. But that year, a right-sized Tiguan arrived ready to challenge the leaders in the compact SUV class and the family-sized Atlas went on sale to wage war in the three-row SUV segment. Both addressed criticism that Volkswagen was out of touch by going above and beyond with regard to passenger comfort, cargo space, and utility.

Now, five years later, the 2022 Volkswagen Atlas is essentially unchanged following a substantial refresh for the 2021 model year. And though the 2022 Atlas remains a study in contrast, it is easy to understand why people buy it. Sometimes, size does matter.