Hyundai i30 2017 Review - International

Cheap but not always cheerful, it was the Excel that once defined the Hyundai brand Down Under. But as the Korean car-maker and its products have matured, it's been the i30 that's taken up the role of brand centrepiece.

And that's especially the case in Australia. With more than 37,000 i30s sold here in 2016, the i30 is a local favourite. The flip side is Australia counts as one of the most important single markets for the car.

The i30 was Hyundai’s first i-car and the first vehicle the brand chose to be designed, developed and tested in Europe. Eventually it was even manufactured there. Benchmarked against Volkswagen’s iconic Golf hatch, it has been described as “the DNA car” for Hyundai. It's not a car Hyundai can afford to get wrong.

Just as well then that in the i30’s brand-new third generation, Hyundai hasn't.

Bigger, with more equipment, added safety tech and a step up in fit and finish, the new i30 is a very different car from the one it replaces. No, it’s not the match of the Volkswagen (yet!), but after two days in the car on surprisingly quiet roads in Korea, we can vouch for the fact it’s made significant ground. Given traditionally sharp Hyundai pricing, it will make a compelling choice for many.

Prices still TBA
Hyundai Australia is still to confirm specifications, model/grade strategy and pricing even though the local arrival of the new i30 is tagged for April. Indeed, Hyundai Australia doesn’t expect to announce the full details on the new car until just weeks before.

We can confirm that a significant suite of safety aids will be offered in i30, at the very least as options. These include Autonomous Emergency Braking, Smart Cruise Control, Lane Keeping Assist System, Driver Attention Alert, Speed Limit Information and Blind Spot Detection.

The car will also arrive with LED lighting – both headlights and daylight running lamps. In top-spec models there’ll even be smart versions of the LED lights that include auto high-beam and shaping functionality.

Little surprise then that Hyundai Australia sales boss, Scott Grant, has already flagged that the new car is unlikely to continue the company’s ‘$19,990 drive-away’ tradition. Grant says the PD-series i30 delivers “a step change even at the entry-level… That needs to be recovered to some extent in terms of pricing”.

Hyundai says it is not consciously seeking to move the new i30 into more premium territory, but you can expect at least a strong desire to enrich the i30’s sale mix Down Under.

To this end we would bet on option packs being added to the normal three- or four-grade model-walk in the i30 rollout. Think premium wheel and tyre packages, panoramic sunroofs, climate packages with heated and cooled seats – and then there’s the abovementioned safety suite.

European styling
Hyundai is making a decent fist of becoming a global company with 10 development centres across the globe and five styling studios. It’s from the European drawing boards that the new PD-series i30 springs – and one glance is confirmation thereof.

I can see a touch of Peugeot 308, a dash of BMW 1 Series and even a bit of A3 – hardly cut-price company. The end result is the master of its own domain, however – and a handsome one at that.

If the more grown-up external styling isn’t enough to make it clear this is a very different car from the outgoing GD, the interior is a slap in the face… In a good way! There’s been a step-change in styling inside the new i30 – away from the fussy, vertical layout of the old car to a much more European and premium horizontal orientation.

The move to a tablet-style treatment for the new-generation infotainment system may not be to everyone’s tastes, but the finished item is well executed and delivers Hyundai some additional flexibility in screen sizing and the like. Sat-nav, Apple Carplay and Android Auto are all integrated.

In general, materials and fit and finish have all been improved. New front seats are one of the highlights of the ergonomic makeover.

By the numbers
Hyundai’s own measurements place the i30’s headroom (front and rear) and rear legroom as marginally superior to the Volkswagen Golf 7 on which it was benchmarked. The Hyundai does, however, have a more appreciable advantage in terms of rear shoulder room and a bigger boot (395 litres v 380).

The i30 is 40mm longer overall than the GD-series car it replaces and a whopping 85mm longer than the Volkswagen 7. At 2650mm, the new i30’s wheelbase is unchanged but is still 13mm longer than the Golf's.

The biggest changes, and those that benefit the car’s proportions and stance, are width and height. The new i30 is 15mm lower and wider than its predecessor. Only the growth in the front overhang lets the home side down. Blame the new “cascading grille” and look for it to feature in all next-generation Hyundai models.

Under the skin is an all-new platform that uses more than twice as much high-strength steel as the outgoing GD-series. This boosts body rigidity by more than 20 per cent and reduces the weight of base chassis, the company claims.

The changes to the body-in-white from GD are manifest -- key dimensions, suspension geometry, material types, etc. While the platform itself was designed in Korea, the final chassis configuration and other aspects of the car were honed in Europe.

Two petrols, one turbo-diesel
Aussies will be able to choose from three powerplants. The entry-level engine is a 2.0-litre direct-injected petrol four cylinder which replaces the existing 1.8-litre multipoint injected engine. The new 120kW/203Nm engine is matched to a choice of six-speed manual and automatic transmissions.

Initial fuel economy figures of 7.3L/100km have been quoted for the manual variant. Formal ADR fuel numbers will be announced closer to the car’s launch.

Hyundai has revised its 1.6-litre turbo-diesel four for its debut in the new i30. With 100kW and 300Nm, the engine is expected to be matched solely to a seven-speed DCT auto Down Under.

European figures have the diesel achieving 4.4L/100km when tested using a manual transmission. The DCT should do better.

The pick of the new i30’s powertrain line-up should be the same engine and DCT gearbox as featured in the very capable Elantra SR. In the new i30, the 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four is rated at 150kW and 265Nm.

That decent torque number comes at even lower revs than its diesel stablemate (just 1500rpm v 1650) – and is delivered over a wider rev range.

Models powered by the 1.6 turbo will be the only i30 variants fitted with independent rear suspension for our market. Both the 2.0-litre and turbo-diesel will be matched with a torsion-beam rear suspension.

At launch, all Aussie i30s, save for the i30N, will be sourced from Korea. In previous generations, some variants have come from European factories.

Behind the wheel
A mix of specifications and tunes, the 1.6 turbo-petrol and 1.6 turbo-diesel i30s we drove were all fitted with dual-clutch boxes. They were also all independent rear suspended cars.

Given all Aussie i30s will also benefit from a local electric power steering and suspension tuning program, the relevance of our Korean drive impressions to full Aussie-spec cars may be called into question. But all the signs are positive. Very…

The simplest way to sum up the change in how the i30 drives is “all grown up”. There is a refinement and maturity to the new car that in the previous generation was not absent but was lacking.

The new i30 is, in contrast, more composed and more communicative than previous generations.

Suspension changes aside, I can vouch for the fact the turbo-diesel PD-series i30 is powered by a quiet, refined, willing and a thoroughly modern oiler that should prove economical across a range of driving situations. On the freeway, you’re hard pressed to pick the diesel from its turbo-petrol counterpart.

There’s good acceleration from highway speeds and even from a standing start turbo lag is minimised. It’s not 2.0 TDI Golf or Mazda3 diesel quick, but it’s handy just the same.

Unlike some diesel small cars, the i30 does not appear to suffer significantly from the extra weight of the diesel powertrain over the front-end either. Indeed, the neutral balance of both turbo-diesel and turbo-petrol i30s is one of the impressive refinements of the new chassis.

Hyundai’s 1.6-litre turbo-petrol and twin-clutch combination is improved again in this new car. This is an impressive powertrain made even more so thanks to the overall polish and refinement of the new i30.

Maximum torque of 265Nm is just 35Nm shy of the revised CRDi turbo-diesel and (as noted above) is actually produced from lower in the range -- this translates to decent acceleration from almost any real-world speed.

It's hard to draw conclusions from such a short drive and small sample size, but it appears Hyundai’s seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is improved also.

The cabin is one of the highlights of the new car. It has a genuine feel of quality to it – even if a couple of plastic parts weren’t as well matched (in terms of grain and colour) as they could be. Most of the touch points are soft or textured and the switchgear has a premium feel to it.

I’m reluctant to pass any more judgement on the new i30 until full local spec and pricing are confirmed and we drive the locally tuned cars on our roads. That said, even now I’m prepared to say the new i30 is an excellent measure of the evolution and growing maturity of the Hyundai brand.

It’s right about now that Aussies need to start looking at this hatch as far more than just a $19,990 drive-away one-trick pony…

2017 Hyundai i30 pricing and specifications:
Price: TBC
On sale: April
Engine: 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder; 1.6-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder
Output: 150kW/265Nm; 100kW/300Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: TBC
CO2: TBC
Safety rating: Not tested