Hyundai i30 N
Performance hatch leaves our fleet
WHY WE RAN IT
To determine whether Hyundai’s first stab at a hot hatch can stand up to its more established foes in everyday life
In the past two years, few newly launched cars have garnered as much attention as the Hyundai i30 N. That’s in part because the hot hatchback segment it joined – one where many long-standing models such as the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Honda Civic Type R sit – is so revered and in part because it’s rare that there’s an all-new entrant to it, and a pretty decent one at that.
During my six months with the i30 N, it has attracted ample interest: the entire breadth of the Autocar team has hankered for a go and there has been plenty of curiosity elsewhere too. There was the very nice youth in Asda car park asking me about the car and telling me he had one on order, there were the middle-aged engineers circling the car on my return to it in a Northamptonshire office car park and it attracted lots of kerbside glances as well.
First, let’s address the elephant in the room: the ride. In its most extreme driving mode, N, the i30 N’s ride was described in its Autocar road test as “too unbearably vicelike to be tolerated for more than 10 seconds or so even on averagely surfaced UK Tarmac”. It concluded that you “quickly learn that the car is at its best before you start dialling up the settings”.
It’s true that it’s a hard ride. It’s the thing that most people talk about when they borrow the car. Going over suburban road bumps that are rife in my area takes some getting used to, even in the softest mode.
But most i30 N owners are more than happy, according to Albert Biermann, the man responsible for the car: “The fans love the N mode. They love it as stiff as possible.”
Despite the criticism, the more you live with the car, the more the ride becomes perfectly acceptable. Sure, I was reminded of its extremity when I borrowed our Golf GTI long-term test car for a week but I quickly settled back into daily life with the i30 N.
Other features also developed for the track, but ones that translate far better on road, are the precise gearchanges and steering feel. During my six months of having the i30 N, the satisfaction of changing gears, especially lower down the range, and cornering it around lovely country roads has never worn off.
The other performance-related trait that stood out is torque delivery. For me, it didn’t have the low-end torque I’d expect of a hot hatch; something the Golf GTI and Peugeot
Hyundai has excelled with its first hot hatch, which suggests great things for the future
308 GTI offer aplenty. The torque of both of those is more linear than the i30 N’s. The upside of that is midrev-range acceleration that is more surprising and exciting, making getting up to motorway speeds from a slip road a fun endeavour.
The exhaust note is the other area of, um, note. It sounds far more like a hot hatch should than the Golf GTI does. It’s even louder than the Civic Type R, known for being lairy. Living on a quiet suburban street meant I kept the exhaust note to a minimum, but for those boy-racer moments, you can customise settings to make it crackle and pop in N mode.
It might be fun to drive, then, but ❞is it practical? Yes. This is a five-door, five-seat car, perfectly suitable for short and long trips. I’ve never once fidgeted in the driving seat on many long journeys and it has hoarded lots of passengers along the way. Probably the least practical feature of the car is the manual child’s lock, which I frantically looked for, and found, as a dial in the inners of a back door after my three-year-old niece tried to get out of her own accord…
The infotainment system isn’t as glossy as the Golf GTI’S, but it functions well and connecting to and using Bluetooth was far easier than in most cars.
Hyundai has stayed on the conservative side with the interior but has rightly spent the development money for its first hot hatch where it should: on an excellent powertrain and track-worthy chassis.
The only issue that came up over six months was a fairly regular warning on the dashboard, suggesting the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system was disabled due to a dirty/impaired camera. It occurred mostly when it was raining but sometimes in fine weather too. It didn’t bother me, but does raise bigger questions over how effective the system would be if it came to a scenario where AEB was needed.
For those in the market for a hot hatch, the i30 N’s price is also significant. The 248bhp entry-level i30 N costs £25,010, while our i30 N Performance costs £28,010. The cheapest five-door Golf GTI is £30,325 and the cheapest Type R £31,525. The Hyundai is also better equipped so, at the very least, you’re going to save two grand, and possibly much more, by going for an i30 N.
Ultimately, the i30 N is a flawed beast but, in its flaws, you also find its charm. Hyundai has excelled with its first hot hatch, which suggests great things for the facelift and also the broader range of N cars being launched over the next few years.
So, the killer question: would I buy it over a Golf GTI? No. But it’s a close call, and many others would. At the very least, the i30 N should be high up on a hot hatch seeker’s shortlist.