Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Hyundai Sime Darby Motors Will Launch the 2020 Hyundai Kona and Sonata Online of Facebook on 30th October 2020 at 3.00PM

Hyundai Sime Darby Motors or basically Hyundai Malaysia will be officially launching both the Hyundai Kona compact SUV and the Hyundai Sonata sedan officially online over at their Facebook page on the 30th of October 2020 at 3.00pm Malaysian time. If you happen to be free do head over to the page and watch it, especially if you want to know how much these cars will officially cost. HERE is the Hyundai Malaysia Facebook page and you can watch a teaser video there too -  https://www.facebook.com/hyundaimalaysia/


The all-new Hyundai Kona is finally making its way here after quite a while. Its global unveiling was a few years ago in June 2017 and as usual, due to the funny way our market is structured where manufacturers need to balance volume and the high import taxes, the Kona was delayed. Now, it seems they have decided that things are just right in terms of pricing it. Even though it does seem the SUV will be fully imported (CBU) it will still be competitively priced at launch. Which is why we have to watch the launch thingy. Curious to know the actual price if you know what I mean. The rumours say that the Kona will cost from RM115K onwards. Let's just see.

We will be getting the Kona with a 1.6liter TGDi turbocharged engine which makes 177ps and an impressive 265Nm of torque. Nice figures as the front wheel drive SUV crossover will also come with a 7 Speed Dual Clutch Transmission which should make it a snappy drive for most occasions. In FWD form the official 0-100kmh times are nice - 7.7seconds and it should be able to hit 200kmh.

Aside from that, the Kona will be equipped like what most of the current crop of Hyundais - LED headlights, Heads up display, wireless charging for your phone, an infotainment system and the usual basic safety features. No official word on what or if any active safety features are in place. Of course, watch the other local websites that have had a chance to drive the preview cars initially a few weeks ago.

I actually saw the Kona way back in December 2017 over in Perth, Australia while on holiday. They got the car pretty quick and back then, it already caught my eye. It is one of the nicer looking compact SUVs out there in terms of its styling and I had then hoped that Hyundai would have brought it in sooner for Malaysians to buy. Now, it is finally here.



As for the all-new Hyundai Sonata, it should be priced in the RM205K range or thereabouts. The full sized D segment sedan was first launched in March 2019 and does not suffer from the same late launch fate as the Kona here. Still a bit late, but still fresh as Hyundai was still dropping in new variants of the car in September 2019 over in South Korea. So that said, this car is essentially a 2020 car and we are getting it in 2020. 

Handsome looking is what I would call the new Sonata. Inside and out it looks very cutting edge in terms of styling. The LED lights front and back is stunning in terms of its styling and the instrument cluster also looks good. It is in its 8th generation form and it should come with all the usual D segment features. Again, price is the issue and we shall see what actually comes with the price at its official launch this 30th October 2020.

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