Hyundai i30 Rental Car
Quick spin
Price guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $21,990.
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): A plastic rubbish bag hanging from the glovebox
Crash rating: Five-stars (ANCAP)
Fuel: 91 RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 7.6
CO2 emissions (g/km): 182
Also consider: Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, a taxi
Overall Rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 4.0/5.0
Safety: 4.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.0/5.0
X-factor: 2.5/5.0
About our ratings
No car in the universe gets as much attention as a press car. Cars supplied to the media are typically prepared to within an inch of their lives. Some even travel along the production line with a special code on them that effectively says "press car", to make sure everyone does the bolts up tight.
They then get run-in by experts and checked and double checked before they are handed over to the media. They are again thoroughly checked between each booking.
And yet, faults still come through, which is why we reckon it's fair game when you do come across a problem. If it's happened to a press car it can happen to anyone's car.
We can occasionally dodge this process by either buying a car or renting one. While there aren't too many AMG Benzes at the Hertz counter, the mass market brands are quite vulnerable to having a motoring journalist exposed to real cars.
And so over the break I found myself by fluke behind the wheel of a Hyundai i30. Not my first choice of car. It was supposed to be a Getz (a car I hate because of its lack of anti-lock brakes, rubbery gearshift and even more rubbery road holding, but love because it's cheap to rent). Turns out I got upgraded because tight-wads like me had already exhausted the supply of Getzes on the ground.
It's been more than two years since I'd driven an i30 and, well, I was pleasantly surprised.
It was brand new so it was hard to gauge how it stood up to wear and tear, but I genuinely enjoyed it. The quality of the cabin materials was sound, the cabin layout and size was still comparable to newer rivals. And the boot was huge.
I still don't know how Hyundai sells it at the price it does.
I also enjoyed how it drove -- though I still have strong reservations about the wet weather grip of the Kumho Solus tyres that appear to be on most Korean cars. I've driven more than two dozen different cars on the same tyre pattern and have come away unimpressed on each occasion.
The Kumho Solus feels superb in the dry, it has a precise, accurate feel and good grip -- but this goes out the window when it's wet. The i30 has won many awards but one leading award organisation -- which has handed a gong to the i30 several years in a row -- recently admitted it did not test the car in wet conditions during its annual test-a-thon.
Other observations: keep the blue interior lighting, massive cargo area with tie-down hooks, the numerous power sockets, and large door pockets. But for the next model I'd also love auto up power windows, slightly better switch gear feel -- and, of course, better tyres.
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