I’ll go with the flow! Philip Nolan
Hyundai’s new model is a real looker and just oozing with style
HYUNDAI’S i30 hatchback and estate are fine-looking cars – but nothing prepared me for the looks of the new i30 Fastback, a work of art in a segment of the market not noted for outstanding beauty.
Chief designer Thomas Bürkle, under the watchful eye of Hyundai and Kia creative director Peter Scheyer, was inspired by the sand dunes of Egypt, where he spent part of his childhood, and the result is a coupé silhouette that flows just like a dune. ‘This is a car that nobody expected,’ he has said, and he’s right. It catapults Hyundai into a different league in the style department and hopefully makes a bold statement about where the brand is headed in the future.
From the low cascading grille along the pronounced shoulder line to the soft allure of the rear light cluster and bumper, it is hypnotically gorgeous, and the extra length over the standard hatch also means that headroom in the rear has not been sacrificed to make way for the tapering roofline.
It sits on either 17-inch or 18-inch alloys, depending on the trim level, and they too are exclusive to this car, adding to the premium feel.
Inside, the story is very much the same, with an appreciably increased appetite for quality materials. There is a big eight-inch floating touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and an optional wireless charging plate for compatible phones.
The big question, of course, is just who actually will buy it. In that segment, the world has turned to SUV bodystyles, so whether there’s an appetite for a coupéstyle car remains to be seen. My guess is that it will hold appeal mostly for single young men and women as yet unburdened by the practicalities that come with parenthood, and who want instead to drive a car that looks like cars used to look before they all turned into mini tanks.
They also will find the i30 Fastback is a much more engaging drive than the often flabby crossovers.
It sits low to the road, and with finely tuned suspension and good power from the peppy 120hp turbo-charged 1.0-litre petrol three-cylinder engine, it feels much more than the sum of it parts, offering a genuinely enjoyable ride that leaves you connected to the handling with a lot more urgency than an SUV.
It’s available also in 1.4-litre petrol variant, which I haven’t driven, but I can’t see how you could improve much on the smaller power plant. Compact turbo petrol engines have, in recent years, become the stars of most carmakers’ ranges, burbling along without complaint and doing far more than what is demanded of them.
They do so frugally too. This i30 offers fuel efficiency of six litres in city driving, 4.6 outside town, and 5.2 combined. While not in the same league as hybrids or some smaller diesels, that’s still not going to break your wallet, and nor will annual motor tax of just €200.
It has a lot of useful features too, including smart self-adjusting high-beam headlights, follow-me-home lights, daytime LEDs, cruise control with speed limiter, rear parking sensors, trip computer and USB charger.
On the safety front, you get active head restraints, front, side and curtain airbags, autonomous emergency braking, driver attention alert, electronic stability control, hill start assist, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, and tyre pressure monitoring.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the Hyundai Kona compact crossover, and noted it probably will sail into the ranks of the bestselling models in the country.
It has a practicality that oozes appeal to all ages, but I think the i30 Fastback will be a harder sell. The hatchback version of i30 is more practical, and for those seeking extra space, the i30 Tourer, the estate model, probably will make more sense. Anyone looking for an SUV bodystyle will opt for the Kona or the dominant Tucson, which leaves the Fastback maybe a little adrift.
Hyundai have confounded expectations before, though, to become one of the bestselling marques in Europe, and this car definitely has a European sensibility about it.
I hope some people do actually buy it, because it has a touch of poetry to it, a look that is out of the common run and that leaves it apart from the herd in a class of its own.
I enjoyed looking at it maybe a little more than I enjoyed driving it, but that’s no harm either. Sometimes, you just want a car to brighten your day, and the i30 Fastback certainly did that.