2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid vs. Hyundai Kona 1.6T: Cortina’s Revenge

I can imagine Miguel Cortina, the editor who manages our comparison tests, sitting at his desk and wringing his hands in evil glee. “What can I do to Gold to mess with him?” he asks himself. “I can’t order him to count the grains of sand in the Mojave Desert. I can’t send him to mow Iowa. Oh, I know—I’ll assign him a comparison between the Subaru Crosstrek and the Hyundai Kona. No, better still, the Crosstrek Hybrid and the Kona 1.6T! Mo-ho-ho-ho-ha-ha-ha-haaaa!”

It is at this point that he pauses long enough to grow a moustache long enough he can twirl its waxed ends between his fingers.

Why is this comparison so diabolical? Because the Subaru Crosstrek and Hyundai Kona are two of the best subcompact crossovers on the market. The Subaru narrowly lost to the Hyundai in our 2024–25 Big Test of Small SUVs, in which we called the Crosstrek a great all-arounder for folks who love road trips. The Kona, meanwhile, impressed (and still impresses) us with a spacious and modern interior, though it did lose a later comparison test to the Volkswagen Taos.

Spoiler alert: You cannot go wrong with either one of these subcompact SUVs. Miguel, you devilish fiend, you.

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Crosstrek Hybrid: Third Time is the Charm

What’s changed for 2026? The big news for Subaru is the addition of a hybrid drivetrain, or perhaps we should say another hybrid drivetrain, because this is the third one to be installed under the Crosstrek’s hood. The latest effort employs a power-split transmission, similar to many of Toyota’s hybrid cars and crossovers, in which the engine and two motor-generators provide input to a planetary gearset. In fact, the Crosstrek Hybrid uses some Toyota components. (Toyota owns a stake in Subaru.)

Downstream of the transmission, though, the drivetrain is all Subaru. While some hybrid SUVs use an electric motor to drive the rear axle, the Crosstrek maintains a fully mechanical all-wheel-drive system, same as its other vehicles. This penalizes fuel economy a bit, but it ensures the Crosstrek Hybrid can go as far off-road as any conventionally powered Subaru. One of the many things we’ve long admired about the Crosstrek is that it fulfils its promise of adventure, and we think this was a smart compromise on Subaru’s part. For our test, we chose a top-of-the-line Limited model, optioned up to $38,410.

Not one to let Subaru steal the spotlight, Hyundai also has Kona news for ’26. The vehicle itself is unchanged, but Hyundai has simplified the lineup to four trims (SE, SEL Sport, SEL Premium, and Limited) with the N-line models dropped (bummer). Otherwise, it’s the same Kona we’ve come to know and love. The Kona, of course, is not a hybrid; while there is a Kona hybrid in other markets, the U.S. only gets internal combustion and all-electric variants. Cortina chose the optional turbocharged engine, because of course he did. To best match our range-topping Crosstrek, the Kona you see here is also a Limited model, with the addition of a set of floormats bringing its sticker price to $35,990.

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I Need an Old SUV and a Young SUV

With what I am pretty sure could pass for an evil glint in his eye, Cortina opined that a different drive route might cast a new light on these vehicles. He encouraged me to use our old Palos Verdes loop, as opposed to the Malibu loop I prefer, which is closer to my house and the MT staff’s favorite pastrami place. I’m sure the real reason for Cortina’s suggestion is that Palos Verdes is about 40 miles from where I live in the San Fernando Valley, which, in Los Angeles traffic, is approximately a three-day drive. Very funny.

I roped features editor Christian Seabaugh into helping me, because why should I suffer alone, and we started out with a thorough walkaround and climb-through of our two contestants. Our findings agreed largely with those from the Big Test: We love the Kona’s dare-to-be-different styling, though we do wonder how well it will age. The Crosstrek looks more conventional without being conservative; the basic look has not changed since the Crosstrek made its debut in 2013, though the details in this latest iteration are more chiseled and defined. The Crosstrek is a good-looking vehicle and less anchored to its time than the Kona.

Timeless Exterior Hides a Timed-Out Interior

That said, Seabaugh and I agreed that Subaru’s conservative approach is a drawback in the cabin. While material quality is comparable—excellent in both SUVs—everything in the Kona looks newer, nicer, and better. We’ve repeatedly praised the Kona’s column-mount transmission shifter, which frees space for a roomy center console. Nifty hide-away cupholders (which are actually hemispherical pods that rotate away when not needed) provide lots of odds-and-ends space, as does a shelf in front of the passenger.

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Hop from the Kona to the Crosstrek, and you feel like you’ve zapped backward in time to an era when the folks who designed the center stack didn’t necessarily talk to the folks who designed the dashboard. Two bottles in the cupholder and a phone on the wireless charging pad eat up all the center-console storage space; anything else must go under the armrest or in the door bins. The Crosstrek’s dated interior does have one advantage: The seat heaters use 1980s-era rocker switches, so they stay on until you turn them off. (Pet peeve: Self-timed seat heaters that dictate when your butt is warm enough.)

A Screen Setup Superior in Spirit but Substandard in Substance

The Kona also has an advantage in its screen setup, which surprised us. The Crosstrek’s portrait-oriented screen should be the best for map displays, but Subaru took poor advantage of the layout, particularly when mirroring a phone through Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Considering how much info could be displayed on all those light-emitting diodes, using the Subaru system requires way too much screen poking and menu swiping, and the native graphics look 20 years out of date. The Kona, despite the disadvantage of a horizontal screen, does a better job with phone mirroring, and its user interface responds more quickly and looks way more modern.

The Kona also had a decided advantage in the back seat. While knee- and legroom look a little tight, the Kona has space under the front seat to put your toes, which the Subaru lacks, plus the bottom cushion is longer and more supportive. The Subaru has a nice, high seat, but it feels more cramped, and there are no A/C vents for rear riders. On paper, the Kona’s cargo space is bigger, but when it comes to packing stuff in, it’s a wash. The Crosstrek loses its underfloor space to the hybrid battery, while the Kona gives it away to a spare tire.

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Let’s Go Drive Two Great Crossovers

Time to drive. Both of us were eager to try out Subaru’s latest hybrid powertrain, particularly Seabaugh, who owns a previous-gen Crosstrek with the plug-in hybrid drivetrain. (To clarify, this new powertrain is a conventional hybrid, not a plug-in.)

We’d hoped for a significant performance boost over the nonhybrid version, but the hybrid only picks up 0.2 second in the quarter-mile run compared to the regular Crosstrek. Still, we found the electric motor provided a welcome surge of low-end torque that helps the Subaru move off smartly. The Kona’s powertrain, in contrast, suffers a slight but detectable case of turbo lag and felt more sluggish than the Crosstrek off the line. Once it gets moving, though, the Kona runs like a greyhound, while the Crosstrek is more like a St. Bernard. Performance is nearly a wash; in our testing, the Subaru made it to 60 in 7.9 seconds, while the Hyundai needed 7.7.

Refinement? No. Economy? Yes.

What surprised us was the Subaru powertrain’s lack of refinement. Like most hybrids, the Subaru gets rolling on battery power and then brings in the engine, but unlike most of today’s hybrids, there’s a noticeable jerk when the engine fires. The whining of the motor-generators, especially under deceleration, had us looking for cops in the rearview mirror, as the sound is akin to a far-off siren. Toyota has been building power-split transmissions for nearly 30 years, and newer designs are much more refined. This one feels like something dug out of cold storage.

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The Subaru stood out in fuel economy. The Crosstrek Hybrid is rated for 36 mpg across the board (city, highway, and combined), while the Kona is rated for 25/28/26. All day long, driving as normal people would and not robots on a test cycle, we saw low 20s in the Kona and low 30s in the Subaru. With a big 16.6-gallon fuel tank, the Crosstrek should be able to hit 600 miles on a full tank, nearly twice as much range as the Kona.

One SUV is Better to Drive, and One Drives Better

In all other respects, the Crosstrek is the better-driving crossover. The steering feels a bit more vague off center than we expect from a Subaru, but once through that dead spot, it gives pleasant, useful feedback. The Kona’s steering, by contrast, feels lifeless and overly heavy in the curves. The Subaru rides better, especially on the really rough section of our loop (a road through the famous Portuguese Bend, which is in the process of a slow, inexorable slide into the Pacific Ocean). Both cars handle acceptably well, with good grip and confidence in the turns, but the Subaru feels more alive and engaging.

The Kona’s (optional) Highway Driving Assist (HDA) is one of the best driver assistance systems on the market. One button sets the cruise and lane guidance, and the Kona is happy to steer itself down the highway provided you keep a guiding hand on the wheel. (One annoyance: If you turn off cruise control, lane guidance stays on, and it can come as a surprise to find the Kona still trying to steer itself.) But the Subaru, with its EyeSight system, is nearly as good. It doesn’t stay quite as centered in the lane, but we liked the LED lights reflected in the windshield that indicate when the system is active.

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Picking a Winner Among Winners

Our loops complete, Seabaugh and I parked, and he stared glumly at me.

“I don’t understand how we’re supposed to figure out which SUV wins,” Sebaugh said. “Is Miguel just trucking with you?” (“Trucking” wasn’t the word he used, but it rhymes with the one he did.)

“Miguel is totally trucking with me,” I said. “But truck him. Let’s pick a winner.”

“And how the truck are we supposed to do that?” Seabaugh asked.

Here’s what it comes down to: The Subaru Crosstrek is more fun to drive, has more comfy front seats, and gets way, way, way better gas mileage, with no significant penalty in performance compared to either the Kona or the non-hybrid Crosstrek. The Hyundai Kona has a more modern interior, a more intuitive (though still complex) infotainment system, and a bigger, better back seat. Ride comfort and trunk space are a wash, and ADAS is close enough for jazz; maybe the Hyundai’s is a smidge better. Yes, the Kona is significantly cheaper, but what the Crosstrek charges up front it’ll save you in gas over its inevitably long lifetime. Neither of these vehicles really does anything tragically wrong, and for that both Hyundai and Subaru should be commended.

Still, it’s my job—well, mine and Seabaugh’s really—to declare a winner, if for no other reason than to send a clear message to Cortina that I cannot be beaten down. For its notably superior fuel economy and its more engaging demeanor, we’ve given the nod to the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid, but we would not hesitate to recommend purchasing the Kona.

There, Miguel, I did it. What’s next—are you going to ask me to compare a Corvette to a Kenworth, or a Bugatti to a baloney sandwich? Bring it on, Cortina. Bring it on!

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2nd Place: 2026 Hyundai Kona Limited 1.6T

Pros:

-Modern styling
-Brilliant interior, roomy
-Comfy back seat

Cons:

-Could be more engaging to drive
-Slight turbo lag
-How well will the styling age?

Verdict: With modern styling, excellent technology, and a roomy back seat, the Hyundai Kona remains one of our favorites.

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1st Place: 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Limited Hybrid

Pros:

-Excellent fuel economy,
-Epic range
-Good fun to drive

Cons:

-Dated and suboptimal infotainment
-Tighter back seat
-We’d like more urge

Verdict: Subaru’s Crosstrek is our choice for go-anywhere adventure, and now it’s even more efficient.