Kia Seltos vs Toyota Hyryder vs Honda Elevate vs Volkswagen Taigun: Space & Practicality Comparison

Find out which of these compact SUVs is ideal for your family

The constantly growing compact SUV segment has much to offer. There are many cars in this segment, some similar to each other, and some different in a lot of ways, but all of them are trying to do one thing – becoming your family’s next car. So, we recently took 4 cars from this segment: Kia Seltos, Toyota Hyryder, Honda Elevate and Volkswagen Taigun, to see which one offers the best space and practicality, and has the most to offer.

Looks

The 2023 Kia Seltos is one of the latest cars of this segment. It was launched back in 2021, but the Kia SUV received a major facelift earlier this year. Its overall design language hasn’t changed much from its previous iteration, but it sure looks much better. The Kia SUV offers great road presence with its modern and beefy design, the highlights of which are the new grille and bumper, stylish 18-inch alloy wheels, connected tail lamps and the dual-tip exhaust. All of this comes together to make the Seltos look premium and upmarket. The Seltos also grabs the most attention out of the four.

Honda Elevate also carries a premium appeal, but in a subtle manner. It has a simple, no-nonsense design, which can be seen with its flat profile, big rectangular grille, chrome elements and sleek lighting setup. However, it also has some rugged elements, like the door cladding, thick wheel arches and big rear bumper, which makes its overall design sober yet muscular.

The Toyota Hyryder brings some curves in the segment. Its curvy fascia, sleek LED DRLs, massive grille and thin front bumper makes its design stand out from the rest. While these elements, along with the stylish alloy wheels and sharp cuts all around add some modern feel, the wheel arches, door cladding and massive skid plate at the rear also gives it a muscular look. All of this together results in a great road presence.

While all the aforementioned SUVs in this comparison have a premium design in one way or the other, the Volkswagen Taigun is the one that has a sporty appeal. The thin horizontal grille merges seamlessly with the headlight setup, the same horizontal design can be seen in the tail lamps, the profile has sharp straight lines running across the length and the dual-tone alloy wheels add a pinch of sportiness.

Boot Space

When it comes to keeping your family’s luggage, the Honda Elevate is the most useful. It comes with a boot loading capacity of 458 litres, and you can easily keep 3 suitcases (large, medium and small), 2 soft bags, and an overnight bag.

Next is the Taigun, with a boot capacity of 385 litres. Here, the boot is deep, and you can place 3 suitcases (large, medium and small) and a soft bag easily.

The Seltos, on the other hand, has a flat boot, so you can’t stack bags over each other. Its 433 litres of boot can store 1 medium and 1 small suitcase, and 2 soft bags. However, keeping a large suitcase leaves space for only 1 small suitcase and 1 soft bag.

Lastly, the Hyryder offers the least boot capacity. The boot floor is raised due to the presence of a battery, and there isn’t much space left to keep your luggage. But the non-hybrid variants of the Toyota SUV have a boot loading capacity of 373 litres, which allows you to keep 2 suitcases (medium and small), and 2 soft bags, similar to the Seltos.

Rear Seat Experience

Out of the 4 SUVs in the comparison, the Kia Seltos has the best rear seat experience. They aren’t the most comfortable, but there are a lot of other factors that make its rear seats ideal for your family. There is good amount of legroom and knee room, and even after the presence of a panoramic sunroof, the headroom does not feel compromised. The backrest already has a good recline angle, and it can be reclined even further. Plus, 3 passengers are the most comfortable here. Moreover, the height of the door armrest and centre armrest is the same, windows have sunshades, there are seatback pockets and a centre console for storage and you get 2 type-C charging ports.

Next is the Honda Elevate, which gets more supportive rear seats. It has great legroom and headroom, and the headrests are the most comfortable out of all. While you do get slightly less underthigh support, the footrests being at a natural angle increase the rear seat comfort. Also, due to large windows which let in a lot of light, you also get good visibility of the cabin from the rear seats. For storage, it gets seatback pockets with a separate compartment for your phone, and for charging, it only gets a 12V socket. But the centre armrest is at a much lower height and angle, which makes keeping your arms on the door and centre armrests feel uneven. And since the armrest goes much lower, it comes in contact with your legs, which further impacts comfort.

The rear seats of the Taigun are the best in comfort and support. There is ample headroom, knee room, and legroom, and the underthigh support is adequate as well. But there are a lot of factors that ruin the rear seat experience. First is the poor material quality, which can be seen in the squeaky light switches and the motion of the grab handles. Also, there is no leather padding on the doors, which you can find on the other cars. Second is the space of the seats. The middle seat protrudes outwards, which makes seating uncomfortable for 3 passengers.

Last is the Hyryder, which offers average rear seat comfort at best. While it does get good quality materials in the cabin, like leather padding on doors, and comes with type-C and USB charging options, the rear seat comfort is compromised due to less legroom, close to no headroom, and low cabin visibility due to massive front headrests. But the bigger problem is the panoramic sunroof’s shade, which is made of a thin fabric that does not stop light from coming inside the cabin, and ends up heating the cabin.

Interior

The Seltos’ cabin has a more sophisticated look than before with its black and beige cabin. The quality of the materials here is good and the fit and finish is great as well. There is soft touch leatherette material on the door pads and dashboard, a leather wrap on the steering wheel, and tactile button. It gives the Seltos’ cabin the appeal of a premium car.

The Elevate also gets soft-touch materials inside the cabin, but what stands out is its simple and sober layout. The cabin feels very sophisticated due to subtle wooden inserts and the tan upholstery. However, the quality of the buttons is not as good as that of the Seltos.

Next is the Toyota Hyryder, which also gets soft-touch materials on the cabin, along with chrome inserts, but the cabin layout looks a little complicated. The buttons here feel clicky and tactile as well.

Finally comes the Taigun, which has a lot of plastic elements on the dashboard and doors. The quality of these plastics feel very rough, specially on the door pads and hand brake, which does not give you the feeling of sitting in a premium car.

Practicality Charging

When it comes to practicality, the Seltos takes the lead. It gets a dedicated mobile tray with wireless charging and cooling, a storage below the charger to keep your wallet or keys, two cupholders in the centre console with a removable partition, and a glovebox with a good amount of storage. In terms of charging options, apart from the wireless phone charger, it also gets a 12V socket, a USB charger and a type-C charger.

Taigun also gets good storage space inside the cabin. Up front is a big storage which doubles as a wireless phone charger, and in the centre console you get two cupholders and a key slot. The glovebox is of a good size, and for charging, you get two type-C chargers and a 12V socket.

Next is the Elevate which doesn’t have many storage options. The major storage is integrated into the dashboard, which doubles as a wireless phone charger. Other than this, it gets two cupholders in the centre console and a decent sized glovebox. Here, you get two USB chargers and a 12V socket, but no type-C charging ports.

The Hyryder is a little short on cabin storage. The storage area in the centre console is occupied by the wireless phone charger, apart from which you only get two cupholders. The glovebox is also of an adequate size. For charging, you only get one USB charger and a 12V socket.

Features

When it comes to features, all SUVs have a lot of them in common, including a touchscreen infotainment system, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, automatic climate control, wireless phone charging, push button start/stop, cruise control, auto day/night IRVM, sunroof and keyless entry. But each of these SUVs have some highlighting features.

The Seltos gets the most complete features list with a great feature experience as well. The highlighting features include a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, powered driver seat, dual-zone climate control, ventilated front seats, panoramic sunroof, heads-up display, 360-degree camera, blind spot monitor, ambient lighting and a suite of ADAS features.

The second is the Hyryder which gets wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, something that you don’t get with the Seltos. It also features ventilated front seats, a panoramic sunroof, a heads-up display, and a 360-degree camera.

The Taigun also gets wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and ventilated front seats, but misses out on a panoramic sunroof, a heads-up display, and dual-zone climate control.

Last is the Elevate, with the shortest features list. Here, you do not get a digital driver’s display, 360-degree camera, panoramic sunroof, and ventilated front seats. Also, while you do get ADAS with the Elevate, it is only a camera-based unit, and is less accurate than the camera-/radar-based ADAS of the Kia Seltos.

Drive Experience

The Kia Seltos has the most versatile powertrain options, and also gets the most powerful turbo-petrol engine, not just among the four SUVs in this comparison, but also in the segment. This engine, paired with the DCT, offers a smooth and effortless drive experience, and delivers smooth city driving and quick overtakes on the highways. In our performance tests, the Seltos turbo-petrol had the quickest acceleration in the 0-100 kmph run and kickdown (20-80 kmph).

The Taigun is a fun-to-drive SUV with both its turbo-petrol engine, and gives a sporty drive experience. However, this sporty experience comes at the cost of smoothness, especially in the 1-litre turbo-petrol engine, which is not so refined.

The Hyryder hybrid offers a unique and premium drive experience. It is completely quiet inside the city as it runs solely on electric power, and on highways, it gets a quick electric torque for effortless overtakes. On top of this, it gave a mileage of 22 kmpl inside the city, which you don’t get in any of the other cars here. However, the mild-hybrid engine of the Hyryder does not offer such a good drive experience, and can only be considered average, compared to the strong-hybrid engine.

The Honda Elevate offers a laid-back and relaxed drive experience with its 1.5-litre petrol engine and CVT. This is the only car in this list which does not come with any other engine option, and while the drive experience in the city is smooth, it does take some time to take overtakes on the highways.

Comfort

Even in comfort, the Seltos offers the best experience. It sits on 18-inch alloy wheels and still offers a comfortable and balanced drive experience. When driving on bad roads, the suspensions absorb bumps easily and there is very little movement inside the cabin. When going over speed breakers, you won’t feel much movement inside, and the car settles pretty quickly. So whether the roads are good or bad, the passengers in the Seltos will remain comfortable.

Compared to the Seltos, the Elevate does get a little more movement inside the cabin, that you’ll feel on bad roads. But it is still very comfortable and has a firm ride quality. However, it has a noticeable body roll, which does not make it feel stable on the highways.

While the Hyryder gives you a comfortable drive experience on good roads, bumpy and broken roads are surely felt inside the cabin. When going over such terrains, the movement is felt inside and sound transfers to the cabin as well. If you do pick up the Hyryder as your family, you’ll have to slow down on bad roads.

The Taigun has a sporty drive experience, which also means that on bad terrains, the jerks are felt the most, and you will definitely have to slow it down to avoid sudden movement inside the cabin. But when the roads are good and open, you'll get an exciting drive experience.

Verdict

First, let’s talk about the Hyryder hybrid. If you want your family SUV to offer a smooth performance and give great mileage, then this is the perfect option. Also, apart from its powertrain, it also gets a good set of features for your daily use. But you’ll have to live with the poorly executed panoramic sunroof, and make a compromise on the boot space.

The biggest buying factor of the Volkswagen Taigun is its engine, which delivers an exciting and sporty performance. But compared to the other cars in this segment, it already feels outdated due to its ageing cabin. The Taigun needs a major facelift to come on par with its rivals, but this update is still a while away. However, it is worth noting that it has a 5-star safety rating from Global NCAP, which the other cars don’t. So if your priorities are safety and an exciting drive experience, the Taigun will be perfect for you.

The Honda Elevate is a practical car with the segment’s biggest boot, and the cabin theme and material quality give it a sophisticated appeal. Yes, you do have to compromise on some features, but you get all the features you’ll need for your daily commutes. Also, given its lower price, these compromises don’t seem to be much of an issue.

Lastly, the Kia Seltos, the most powerful SUV in the segment, and also the one with the most balanced ride comfort. The Kia SUV offers you the biggest features list with great execution, so much so that it can challenge cars from a segment above, and your family will feel the most comfortable in the Seltos. You do have to compromise a little on the boot, and we still don’t have a safety rating. But we expect that it will get at least 4 stars in the Bharat NCAP crash tests. With all of this, the Kia Seltos has proved itself to be an all-rounder, and can be the perfect SUV for you and your family.

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