Hyundai i40 Tourer Active 2015 Review

Hyundai i40 Tourer Active
Road Test

With so much choice for new car buyers these days, it's sometimes difficult to know where to start. Do you go with a brand you know and trust, or with the best deal, or perhaps the car that offers the longest warranty and lowest running costs? The entry-level $35k Hyundai i40 Tourer may not be a big-selling wagon in Australia (few are!) but after driving it for a week, I reckon it deserves to be.

The Hyundai i40 hits a number of sweet spots. It looks good, is easy to operate, effortless to drive, has clever packaging and plenty of cabin space. At the same time, it isn't so large that parking it becomes taxing.

Indeed, from the moment I hopped into this i40 to the time I handed the keys back, the experience was pleasant and trouble free. From fitting my daughter's child seat to loading the shopping into the boot and simply commuting, it was a smooth experience.

Take the cabin for instance. Even at this entry-level it's well-appointed and elegantly styled, with all the mod cons you could want. The Bluetooth phone pairing software is efficient and I liked that I could use the Siri voice control function of my iPhone through the infotainment system.

Like all Hyundais, incidental storage is outstanding, from cup holders to storage bins, although rearward vision is somewhat limited due to the small rear window. This isn't ideal but a reversing camera comes in handy for parking and slow speed manoeuvres.

I note that my colleague Ken Gratton said the i40's seats lacked shape, though I found no such issues with the car. That said, the longest single drive I completed was about 90 minutes, but after finding an empty beach break then driving home with plenty of body fatigue, the seat was supportive.

Could be one of those 'try before you buy' factors.

The cabin is roomy, with good leg and head room for front-seat occupants and an unusually roomy back seat too. With the child seat in place and the in-laws along for the ride, one seated up front, the other in the back, there were no complaints about the feeling squished in. My driving on the other hand resulting in plenty of feedback... But I digress.

It doesn't have the largest boot I've ever encountered in a wagon of this size at 506 litres (expanding to 1672 litres with the rear seats folded down) but neither is it cramped or lacking amenity with useful side compartments to separate belongings.

My favourite aspect of this car was the powertrain. The 1.7-litre turbo-diesel engine is a charmer, offering adequate low-down torque, meaning you only need to tickle the throttle to get moving and maintain momentum.

The engine is terrifically quiet and refined and since it was updated, the four-cylinder oiler develops more power and torque: now 104kW/340Nm, up from 100kW/320Nm. The extra herbs are welcome and give the car an almost athletic-level of elasticity in stop-start traffic that was appreciated. That said, you will need to drop the hammer when haste is required and when this happens, the engine sounds more like a traditional jangly diesel.

Hyundai's newly-introduced seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, or DCT, is diligent and refined in the i40 Tourer, plucking a new gear when necessary but providing manual overrides via the paddle shifters. It's a great little unit in this application.

Except, that is, during a particularly cold (four-degree) Melbourne morning. After starting the car and reversing it out of the car park, not long after engaging drive and rolling forward, the DCT seemed to find a false neutral. It wouldn't transfer power to the front wheels.

It worked fine after shifting to 'official' neutral and back into drive again, but it's not something I've encountered before.

After a week in the saddle, covering about 450km, the Hyundai's trip computer read 5.9L/100km, which is super impressive considering the claimed efficiency is around 5.1L/100km. After topping up the tank before returning it, the car predicted it could travel another 1050km. Impressive.

Looking for flaws in the car, something to whinge about, I wouldn't find them in the chassis. As with all Hyundai cars sold in Australia, the suspension has been tuned for local conditions and the updates made in early 2015 improve ride comfort.

It's a somewhat calmer, smoother vehicle now but it doesn't seem to have lost any of the tenacity that came from its European development. You can throw it into a corner and be fairly confident it'll track cleanly through, and the brakes are predictably solid.

As with most vehicles from this manufacturer, the steering isn't awash with feedback but its lightness is ideally suited for navigating urban environs and taking the stress out of the car park tango – scenarios a car like this will spend plenty of time doing.

Another neat feature that makes the everyday drive just a little simpler is the auto hold function. Hit the button next to the electronic park brake and it engages whenever the car is stopped, and automatically releases when you touch the accelerator pedal. It's becoming more common on new cars these days but is still a great feature.

This is a very neat and tidy mid-sized wagon. It's not spectacular but it does what you'd expect, and then exceeds a few of these expectations. Things like capped-price servicing and longer-than-average five-year warranty are welcome and the design  of the car, inside and out, mean it can match the glamour of the Europeans.

If it has to be a wagon and it has to be diesel, this is my kind of vehicle. But in all seriousness, there are few cars that can match the i40 Tourer on price and execution.

The Mazda6 wagon is a better vehicle in many respects but it's not leaps and bounds ahead of this quiet Korean achiever. Plus the entry price of an automatic diesel-powered

Mazda6 wagon is almost $7000 more. If you want a Skoda Octavia diesel wagon the story is similar – to the tune of about $3000 more at the time of writing.

The entry-level Hyundai i40 Tourer represents good value but more than that it's an engaging, practical mode of transport that deserves recognition.

2015 Hyundai i40 Active pricing and specifications:
Price: $35,090
Engine: 1.7-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 104kW/340Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 5.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 134g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP

What we liked:
>> Fuel efficiency
>> Smooth, refined drive
>> Practical, roomy interior

Not so much:
>> Rearward vision
>> Gearbox doesn't like the cold
>> Design won't be for everyone

Also consider:
>> Skoda Octavia wagon diesel (from $38,190 plus ORCs)
>> Mazda6 wagon diesel (from $41,780 plus ORCs)
>> Ford Mondeo wagon diesel (from $39,040 plus ORCs)