Kia Seltos vs Toyota Corolla Cross vs Volkswagen Taos | CUV Comparison

In the hearts and minds of Canadian consumers, compact and subcompact SUVs have pushed aside the humble hatchback and serviceable station wagon. We’ve rounded up three little sport-utes here: the Kia Seltos, Toyota Corolla Cross, and the Volkswagen Taos, those last two all-new. We’re putting them head-to-head to see how they all stack up for performance, price, practicality, and other factors.

Crossovers are big business these days but as we move into the cities they do seem to be getting smaller and that’s because a lot of them they’re taking up the space that station wagons used to be in and we’ve got three of them here that we’re going to do head to head we have the volkswagen taos we have the kia saltos and we have the toyota corolla cross all of

Them 2022 models right now we’ll talk about the price celtos comes in the cheapest at thirty three thousand two forty five as tested next up we have the corolla thirty three thousand nine ninety and in the middle we have the taos at thirty eight thousand one ninety five now price is not everything we’re gonna be looking across the board at how these things drive

What their engines are like what it’s like to be inside them what it’s like with cargo so beyond the price these all have a lot in common they’re all compact crossovers they’re all top of the line trims they’re all all-wheel drive and they’re all new for 2022. so we got a lot of driving to do and a lot of comparison to do so let’s get in these cars and let’s see

What they give us so let’s start with the curl across so here we are in the toyota corolla cross which is the least expensive and the most fuel efficient of the three so elliot give me some numbers so this curl across is the top trim coming at nine hundred ninety dollars it gets 7.8 liters run through a two liter engine and a cvt transmission and that i think

Is where i have a little bit of difficulty with this car that cvt a lot of them are so smooth and so nice and they feel like conventional transmissions and this one’s going back to when they first came out it’s a little rubber bandy you gotta wait for it to catch up so because we don’t have the turbo we’re looking at an engine that isn’t as powerful necessarily

As some of the others so what are our numbers the corolla cross comes in with 150 foot-pounds of torque compared to 184 in the taos and 195 in the celtos that makes a really big difference when you’re pulling off the line or especially if you’re trying to merge into highway traffic it does and it’s it’s a noisy combination now as we’ve often said these things are

Not race cars so we understand you’re going to the grocery store you’re going to work you’re doing whatever it’s more than enough engine the curl across though it does seem to be very well catered to people who simply need a car with a bit more room despite having the same footprint as the other two it’s not actually necessarily as roomy it’s got great front

Headroom but the rear headroom and especially the rear leg room are quite limited cargo in the curl across is the least with the seats up but just barely 750 liters to the salto 752 or 790 in the taos now you and i have often said we like the simplicity of a non-turbo engine especially if you’re keeping the vehicle for a long time and all three of them across

The board have a five-year 100 000 kilometer powertrain warranty as far as comprehensive goes this one has the lowest at 360. the taos is 480 and the celtos it carries right through 5-100 but are we going to really need to fix this engine and transmission we like to think or at least hope not this is a very well-known powertrain coming out of the toyota prius

In this case it doesn’t have that hybrid technology but it still has a very well established track record and as far as driving goes the steering and the handling i have to put this one third it’s the steering is vague there’s not a lot of feel to it it’s not a lively vehicle another thing that we’ve talked about is the infotainment system and of the three this

One seems the oldest and the most dated it does it’s a slow system it has very limited functionality and it requires on cell phone apps which just really should not be acceptable well it’s the only one of the three that doesn’t have built-in navigation and i understand that a lot of people use their phones for navigation but a lot of people don’t and when we’re

Starting to get up into uh this range you know but then again it’s the least expensive of the three so there are going to be compromises on the other hand it’s also the only one with the power liftgate that is true and overall i must say the cabin here is not exciting but it feels classically toyota and that it’s solid i have no doubts about its longevity i

Agree with you there and it’s well designed now one thing i will say we talked about noise levels and the taus is noisy this vehicle is noisy too and the one thing i really notice is when i’m going over expansion joints here the back end booms it really echoes through the cargo compartment and okay not the end of the world but if you’re on a road like this all

Day long it it gets a little tiresome can you live with that it’s going to depend on each person and i think you know toyota has that reputation for reliability and that’s going to take the corolla across a long way the only thing i’m wondering as we mentioned is it going to take away from the rav4 are people going to go a little bit higher to get the rav4 good

Question it’s something that when you’re in the toyota showroom you’re going to have to look at both of them okay so here we are in the volkswagen taos and it is the priciest of the three as tested 38 195 it’s got a 1.5 liter turbo four-cylinder it makes 158 horsepower and 184 foot-pounds of torque it’s got a seven speed direct shift gearbox and that’s an

Automatic that shifts faster than a conventional automatic what it does is it sets up as soon as you’re in a gear it sets up for the next one so you get these these smoother faster shifts as far as fuel goes it’s in the middle for published fuel as far as headroom goes it’s the tightest of the three it has the most in the rear and its last four front room leg

Room and it’s second for rear so you’re behind the wheel this time tell me what it’s all about i think this personally to be the most pleasant of the three to drive around in so definitely i do agree there is some shuttering on deceleration it’s unfortunate too that acceleration isn’t always perfect in this either this has one of the strangest throttles i’ve

Come across in a modern vehicle there’s a slight hesitation when you start onto the pedal and then it lurches forward in city traffic it it can be a little bit jarring out here on country roads it’s fine you’re absolutely right i noticed that as well the throttle response is a little bit odd but i have to say i do love driving this vehicle it is so nimble the

Steering is is so nice and tight i really do like that one thing about the volkswagen when you get in the seats they’re not cushy they’re they’re very hard and that turns off a lot of people but one thing i’ve noticed with the european auto manufacturers and volkswagen of course being one of them is the seats are hard but they’re supportive so when you’re in

Them initially you say oh you know that’s not so good but when you’re in this car for two three hours you get out and your spine is supported everything feels good and one thing i do like is heated seats with three settings which is becoming far more common these days and i like the interior it’s handsomely styled we did notice there’s a couple of things there

Where the quality could be just a little bit better but overall i kind of like it and and i like the fact that we have real but wheel buttons real dials for things it’s a handsome package i think it really holds a lot of the things that we miss in a lot of other vehicles yes these hard buttons fantastic the infotainment is okay i’d say between the three it falls

Pretty much dead in the middle it has a very good stereo now um two of our vehicles have premium stereos and and this is one of them overall there’s an awful lot to like in this vehicle and it comes down to how do we compare them to the other two that’s the big question as with any vehicle there’s stuff in it that could be better but there’s an awful lot of stuff

In this that’s very good so do you think we should try the next one i think we shall then let’s do it it is the top trim but it also happens to be the least expensive of the three at 33 245 but for that you get heated and ventilated seats and you get a heated rear seat in addition to the heated steering wheel so you get quite a bit for it we’ve got a 1.6 liter

Turbo engine making 175 horsepower and 195 foot-pounds of torque and it’s mated to a seven speed direct shift gearbox so what’s it like behind the wheel of the three it is the most responsive although i really really am still complaining about the noise of this powertrain steering is great braking is tight but i just can’t get over that engine noise it’s just

Rattly and unpleasant and i do not like it see i can live with it and again this is the whole reason why people have to really test drive these things i’m i love the way that it handles i love the way that it steers it’s the most responsive of the three i like the transmission even though it has the same style transmission as in the volkswagen i find this one’s

A lot smoother one thing i will say about this car is that for all the features it’s got and it’s even got a head-up display and and sunroof it has single zone automatic climate control and for me anything over 30 000 it’s got to be dual zone i mean that that’s that’s only right because i travel with my husband he doesn’t seem to think that my idea of warm is

His idea of warmth and i like to have that dual zone and the other two have it so it’s obviously doable but again it is the least expensive of the three so i guess you have to give something up though they aren’t as comfortable i will say these definitely are the most exciting seats to look at there’s a nicely perforated vinyl the materials throughout have been

Well considered they’ve got a nice soft touch panel on the dash they’ve got this neat mood lighting that can beat along to your music you’re so inclined it’s a little bit gimmicky but it works as much as i’m not a fan of having to access things through touch screens i’m content using this system well and also it has buttons for all of the menus when you want

To bring them up in in the system we have buttons and dials for the climate control only one dial because it’s single but you can work almost everything with a button and one of the buttons and it’s unique among the three is that you can lock the all-wheel drive and that’s only at low speeds if you go over a certain speed and i think it’s something like 30

Or 40 kilometers an hour it will come out of that following on that nice interior i think this all around feels the most modern of the three and we’ve spoken to the quality of the driving experience but i’d also like to note that the technological experience is also very good the celtos uses hyundai kia’s excellent driver assistant suite it’s definitely the

Strongest of the three hyundai kia system is fabulous all three of them are good it’s just you’re right i think this one is the smoothest and the most intuitive of all of them as great as the driving experience is i will say that one of my big gripes here in the saltos is the over-the-shoulder rear visibility it’s got very small rear quarter windows which is

To be expected in modern vehicles and especially crossovers having said that there is far better visibility in the towns and even in the curl across it it is one of those things where it looks great on the outside it looks far more stylish than the other two do but when you’re doing that shoulder check that back window is just a little bit too small it affords a

Very interesting character line back there with that chrome trim but that’s as far as it goes well we have to form over function and when you’re driving you want function over form you know overall the big deal with kia and its sister company hyundai has always been about giving you an awful lot for the least amount of money and in this segment that is a very

Important thing because people like stuff and the celtos gives you a lot of it you have the heated plus the ventilated seats you have the heated rear seats the heated steering wheel which they all have of course but the head-up display and you can show this to your friends and say look at all this has and it was the least expensive you know you’re you’re only

A touch over 30 over 33 000 okay i don’t have that much money in my pocket right now either but in the in the marketplace that’s not a bad price for a fully loaded vehicle like this so the only things it doesn’t have when you compare it to the other ones the corolla cross has a power lift gate which the other two do not have and it has the single zone climate

Control whereas the other two are dual so for all the other features i think this one has to be the best equipped of the bunch overall it does seem to be the winner for value for money i can’t argue with that so i think what we’re going to have to do is look at all three of them and do our comparisons and we’re going to have to pick a winner for both of us it is

The celtos it’s the most powerful it feels the nicest on the road and really does feel the best put together it also feels the most modern of the three although the other two do have some very strong advantages and that’s why we had a little bit of trouble deciding who was going to be number two and who was going to be number three with the corolla cross okay i

Was not that keen on its transmission but then we also detected some things with the taos as well the corolla cross isn’t all that fast but then we’re looking at an audience that may not be racers they’re just going to the grocery store or they’re going to work i like the way the taos looks i think it’s the best looking of the three but of course styling isn’t

Everything i don’t think the corolla cross drives as well it’s a little vague and as you said it’s kind of soapy feeling but you get the most front leg room you get the most headroom and you get a lot of cargo space so we’re looking at advantages to both and i think what really made the difference was the price where the corolla cross came in as tested as 33 990

Whereas the taos is forty two hundred dollars more i agree the test has a lot going for it but for forty two hundred dollars more it is a bit of a tough sell it certainly feels the most mature package of the three and has some great stuff like those dynamic headlamps the corolla cross is a new product but it is a known quantity with a proven drivetrain and the

Best fuel economy that we have of all these three so here we have of these three our winner the kia saltos and for driving dot ca i’m jill mcintosh and i’m elliott alder and for more news and reviews be sure to visit us on instagram and twitter you

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Kia Seltos vs Toyota Corolla Cross vs Volkswagen Taos | CUV Comparison | Driving.ca By Driving.ca