Kia Sonet Vs Toyota Urban Cruiser: Which SUV To Buy?

The sub-4m SUV segment has always been a competitive space. The last couple of years have witnessed a substantial rise in popularity, thanks to the entry of famous car manufacturers. The latest entrants into the segment, Venue’s cousin- Kia Sonet, and Vitara Brezza twin – Toyota Urban Cruiser have been creating quite a buzz for some time now.

Through this particular article, we will be discussing the two exciting cars head-on, to get a better idea of which car will prove to be the better bet, in case you have been planning to drive one home.

Price

• You could own a Sonet at a much lower price point as compared to the Urban Cruiser if you are tight on budget. The Sonet is also offered in a wider spectrum with a much larger variant base playing to your needs. It also goes higher in the upper range.
• The Urban Cruiser much like the Glanza comes in very limited variants for a much more specific customer base. The car seeks to ride on the popularity of Vitara Brezza but with a sense of reliance which is Toyota's real selling point in the Indian market.

Dimensions

• Now, very obviously the cars we are talking about are sold in the sub-compact SUV segment which is one made to evade the taxes while giving a ‘feel’ of the original thing. Both the vehicles with largely identical dimensions stand near to any one of the premium hatchbacks with a bit shorter wheelbase and larger boots.
• The Sonet does good on practicality with an identical wheelbase and a larger boot, the urban cruiser does disappoint a bit with a small boot (smaller than some hatchbacks) and nearly the same wheelbase. 

Engine Options

Petrol

• The Urban cruiser houses the super reliable K-series Engine which happens to power popular Maruti offerings like S-Cross, Ciaz, and Brezza. But as far as the comparison is concerned, this engine might leave you wanting for more, especially after comparing power figures with Sonet’s powerful Turbo unit.
• It is important to note that Sonet also offers a 1200cc unit which produces around 82bhp power. The engine though is not the talking point and is available only to expand the customer horizon of the Sonet. The highlight is the 1000cc turbocharged unit which fares pretty well against the Urban Cruiser’s 105PS/138Nm producing unit.
• Needless to say, the engine options in Kia Sonet are borrowed from the Hyundai Venue. Also, the fact that Sonet is equipped with the newly developed iMT transmission, gives it quite an edge over Urban Cruiser.

Also Read: Kia Sonet 2020: First Drive Impression

Diesel

• The Kia Sonet is also available with the diesel engine option and it is offered in two states of tunes. It produces 100PS of max power and 240Nm of peak torque with manual gearbox combination. On the other hand, its 6-speed automatic version is the same unit as that of Kia’s Seltos and Hyundai’s Creta, making more power and more torque than its manual counterpart.
• The Diesel variants also offer great fuel efficiency as is evident with the aforementioned figures which are pretty generous for the segment.
• The Urban Cruiser is based on the Vitara Brezza, hence it misses out on a diesel engine option, which definitely an advantage for the Sonet here. 

Kia Sonet Vs Toyota Urban Cruiser: Features

As far as the feature list is concerned, both these cars come well equipped giving decent values for the money spent. Here we have only highlighted the stand-out features offered by both these cars, as mentioning the entire feature list will make no sense.

Exterior

• LED headlamps, LED Tail lamps and LED DRLs are pretty much the standards now so, no surprises there. Other than this, Sonet has both front and rear parking sensors and the inclusion of the Sunroof means that it offers the sense of airiness inside the cabin.
• The Urban Cruiser though misses out on sunroof, it gets rain-sensing wipers which surely helps it in garnering some cookie points over its Kia counterpart.

Interior

• On the inside, Sonet outperforms the Urban Cruiser in all aspects. While the Urban Cruiser gets a decent dual-tone cabin check listing customary inclusions like height-adjustable driver seat, Sonet manages to one-up it with luxuries like leather upholstery and ventilated front seats on offer, which the Urban Cruiser misses out on.

Comfort and Convenience

• The Urban Cruiser performs decently on this front with an engine start/stop button, keyless entry, automatic climate control, height-adjustable driver's seat, cruise control and voice control. The Sonet on the other hand comes with luxuries like inbuild air purifier, wireless charging and rear AC vents in addition to all the basic bells and whistles that its Toyota counterpart provides.
• The Urban Cruiser also offers a 60:40 split seat and Sonet doesn’t.

Entertainment & Communication

• Pretty much like the trend set by Sonet almost on all the other fronts, it manages to outdo the Urban Cruiser here as well thanks to a larger 10.25-inch infotainment system helping it edge out the 7-inch unit offered with the Urban Cruiser. The Korean car also gets a 7-speaker Bose premium sound system. 
• It is important to note that while both of them support Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity, the Sonet also comes with Kia’s connected car tech which also allows access to important information on fingertips through the UVO mobile phone application.

Also Read: Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza: First Drive Review

Safety

While both these cars pack all the basic safety features, Sonet completely blows Urban Cruiser away, thanks to a host of advanced segment-first safety features. To list a few, the stylish SUV packs Brake Assist, Vehicle Stability Control, Tyre pressure monitor, Electronic stability control and up to 6 airbags. This comprehensive feature list is well and truly capable of putting the current segment toppers to shame.

The Urban Cruiser, on the other hand, does not offer anything extraordinary, offering standard safety features like dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors and a reverse camera.

Conclusion

With all due respect to the popularity of Vitara Brezza, the Sonet manages to completely outdo the lookalike of the popular Maruti SUV quite comprehensively. Not that the Urban Cruiser is a bad offering but the Sonet with a wider spectrum of powerful engine options, much more energetic design, fairly long comfort, and safety feature list, just comes across as the hands-down favourite at the end of this comparison.