2022 Toyota Corolla Cross vs. 2022 Kia Seltos

Before the 2021 Kia Seltos, most subcompact crossovers suffered from at least one major flaw. They were cramped, or cost too much, or got lousy gas mileage, or lacked an option for all-wheel drive. The Seltos’s novelty was its thorough competence. And the 2022 model year has introduced even more features for the money. 

The update comes just in time, as the Seltos faces a tough rival in the 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross. This all-new subcompact crossover is another winner in spaciousness, fuel efficiency, and value for the money. Like the Seltos, it’s like a competent small crossover, just smaller and less expensive. For this review, we tested the Seltos and the Corolla Cross to compare them across eight categories and name an overall winner. Keep reading to learn which one we chose and which sounds like the better small SUV for you.

The Corolla Cross has a lower base price than the Seltos — $22,195 versus $22,590 — but the Kia provides a lot more features for the money. 

The base Seltos LX has standard all-wheel drive instead of front-wheel drive (a $1,300 upcharge on all three Corolla Cross trim levels) along with alloy wheels instead of plastic wheelcovers. The next-up Seltos S ($22,790) charges $1,500 extra for AWD, and it’s equivalently equipped to the midlevel Corolla Cross LE ($24,545); both add push-button starting, automatic climate control, blind-spot monitoring, and leather-wrapped steering wheels. For leatherette upholstery and a power driver’s seat, there’s the Seltos EX ($25,890 with standard AWD) or the Corolla Cross XLE ($26,325 with front-drive standard). You can also get the Seltos in two trims with a more powerful engine: the Nightfall ($26,790) and SX ($28,090), which are most similar to the S and EX, respectively. Each model is the better deal if you’re attached to a specific feature (the Toyota is the one to get for adaptive cruise control, the Kia for a sunroof and GPS navigation), but the Seltos has the clear overall price advantage. 

Winner: Kia Seltos

Unlike many subcompact crossovers, the Corolla Cross and Seltos are shaped like real SUVs rather than the taller hatchbacks they are. They’re both upright and moderately boxy. The difference is in the details. 

The Corolla Cross is a milder-looking take on the half-size-larger Toyota RAV4. It has a more upright front end, but softer curves and other details. It looks serious, not sporty, whimsical, or tough. The Seltos adds a bit of those qualities without going over the top. The Kia has a more sharply creased body, slimmer headlights, hidden front and rear lighting (a section of headlight spreads into the grille, and the reverse indicators disappear into a chrome bar), and front and rear bumpers styled with simulated skid plates. Our Nightfall test vehicle also has a two-tone paint job and blacked-out wheels. To our eyes, the Seltos has more personality. It’s up to you whether you prefer that personality or the milder Corolla Cross. 

Winner: Tie

Inside, the Corolla Cross shares much of its dashboard with the Corolla sedan. That’s a good thing. We like the Corolla’s simple, classy, and ergonomically sensible dash, and the dashboard itself is nicely finished. Up above your head, the headliner and sun visors look and feel cheap, but the overall cabin ambiance is pleasant. 

Still, we’ll give the win to the Seltos. Its dashboard has less soft-touch material than the Toyota’s, but to us, its creatively textured hard plastic comes across as cheerful rather than merely cruddy. Its buttons and gear selector operate with uncommon precision, too. But the bigger difference is the infotainment system. The base Corolla Cross L has a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system, while the rest of the lineup upgrades to an 8-inch unit. Meanwhile, the Seltos LX has an 8-inch system while the 2022 Seltos adds a 10.25-inch unit across the rest of the lineup. Some people might pick the Toyota’s interior styling, but Kia clearly wins for infotainment.

Winner: Kia Seltos 

The Corolla Cross is one of the largest subcompact crossovers. At 175.6 inches in length, it’s nearly as long as some compact models and nearly 4 inches longer than the Seltos. Still, the Kia has more passenger space. 

Toyota does provide a higher seating position and roomier rear seat than most subcompact crossovers. The Seltos just does even better, with more room to stretch out in the back. We also liked the Seltos’s better-bolstered front seats, and all but the base LX have either partial or full leatherette upholstery. The Seltos is also more widely available with heated front seats.

Winner: Kia Seltos

Both the Seltos and Corolla Cross have excellent cargo space for subcompact crossovers, topping some larger models. But the Toyota does a bit better. 

The front-wheel-drive Corolla Cross provides 26.5 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seat and 66.8 cubic feet with the rear seat folded. All-wheel-drive models, like our test vehicle, dip slightly to 25.2 cubic feet behind the backseat and 65.5 cubic feet with it folded down. The Seltos fits a bit more behind the rear seat — 26.6 cubic feet with front- or all-wheel drive — but total volume is 62.8 cubic feet. We made use of the Seltos’s extra space behind the backseat while taking our family of four to the airport, and we appreciated its adjustable-height cargo floor (lower it for more volume, raise it to create a flush surface with the folded seatbacks). But the Toyota has more total space. What’s more, while the Corolla Cross is rated to tow a 1,500-pound trailer, the Seltos isn’t rated to tow at all. 

Winner: Toyota Corolla Cross

The Corolla Cross rides and handles with the inoffensive competence of a Corolla sedan. (The name isn’t a coincidence.) The ride gets a bit busy on the highway, but it absorbs bumps smoothly without giving up all measure of handling poise. By contrast, the Seltos has a firmer ride that’s stiffer over bumps but livelier around curves.

That much is a matter of preference. But Kia wins this category under the hood. The base Seltos’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine makes a mere 146 horsepower to the 2.0-liter Toyota’s 169 hp, but we found the Kia to be quicker, quieter, and peppier. It’s not any of those things, either, to be clear — just better than the Corolla Cross. Then, if you want more zip, you can upgrade to the Seltos’s 1.6-liter turbo. It makes a generous 175 horsepower and an even more impressive 195 lb-ft of torque. We didn’t always get smooth shifts from its seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (the base Seltos engine and all Corolla Cross models have continuously variable automatics), but it made the Seltos more enjoyable to drive overall. 

Winner: Kia Seltos

The Seltos gets good gas mileage for an SUV. The most popular configuration (the 2.0-liter engine and all-wheel drive) returns an EPA-estimated 27 mpg in the city, 31 mpg on the highway, and 29 mpg combined. Switching that base engine to front-wheel-drive (an option only on the S trim level) improves things to 29 mpg city, 35 mpg highway, and 31 mpg combined. The turbo, sold only with AWD, pulls off 25 mpg city, 30 mpg highway, and 27 mpg combined. In two tests of turbocharged models, we averaged about 31 mpg in mixed driving. We also improved to 32 mpg in a stretch of mostly highway driving. 

Still, the Corolla Cross does even better: 31 mpg in the city, 33 mpg on the highway, and 32 mpg combined with front-wheel drive, and 29 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, and 30 mpg combined with all-wheel drive. In our AWD test vehicle, we averaged 31 mpg, no better than the turbocharged Seltos. But sticking with apples-to-apples EPA testing, the Toyota is more economical. It’s also easier to find a max-mileage front-drive Corolla Cross than a front-drive Seltos. 

Winner: Toyota Corolla Cross

The Corolla Cross is a new model that hasn’t yet been crash tested. The Seltos, meanwhile, earned a Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, reflecting top marks in crash tests and its automatic emergency braking system. Its only weak mark is the headlights on all but the SX, which earn the lowest Poor rating for their illumination. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration results were mixed, resulting in a middling four out of five stars overall; NHTSA marked down the Seltos a bit for frontal-impact protection. 

Both crossovers are packed with standard safety features, including many that Kia had left off the base Seltos LX last year. These include forward automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assistance. Both crossovers also add blind-spot monitoring on most trim levels, though only the Corolla Cross has rear automatic braking (on the top XLE trim level). And while Kia limits adaptive cruise control — a handy driver’s aid — to the top Seltos SX, it’s standard on every Corolla Cross. For now, the Seltos wins for being the only of the two SUVs with proven crash-test performance, but that will change if the Toyota at least matches its IIHS and NHTSA scores. 

Winner: Kia Seltos

We like the new 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross. Roomy, affordable, comfortable, and economical, it has broad appeal in the subcompact crossover class. We think it could tempt people from larger SUVs as well who don’t demand a lot of power or the most possible interior space. Still, our pick remains the 2022 Kia Seltos. 

The Seltos brims with more spunk and personality than the Corolla Cross, yet with minimal impact on its everyday livability. It costs less, too. It would make sense to pick the Toyota if the Kia’s stiffer ride or hard interior plastics bother you, you’d like to tow a small trailer, or you’re attached to adaptive cruise control. Otherwise, the two little SUVs are nearly equivalent except for the areas where the Kia is clearly in the lead: power, quietness, infotainment, rear seat space, and value for the money.

Winner: Kia Seltos