back to article Hyundai i30 Turbo: Softly, softly, catchee Audi

When The Reg went for a spin in the Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell, one of the most common reactions we got was “who knew the Koreans would be leading the field in this sort of tech!” i30_side_moors Surprisingly nice to drive, surprisingly nice to look at. The Hyundai i30 Turbo is just surprisingly nice Indeed. A decade and a half …

  1. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Hyundai / Kia prices...

    I once stumbled across a Kia sedan on display in the mall. Years and years ago. Not a bad looking car. The paper in the window told me that the price was a bit north of $40,000.

    Yikes!

    1. Eponymous Cowherd

      Re: Hyundai / Kia prices...

      Yeah, Kias aren't the budget brand they once were. Kind of a shame really, as my 2010 Cee'd Eco SW is a fantastic car for the money. Nice to drive and really does do 60+ mpg.

      I actually really like the look of the current Cee'd, but they are not longer a "reasonably priced car"

      The same thing has happened to the other budget marques like Skoda, much more main-stream these days.

      The real budget buy in Europe at the moment is Dacia. Just Mrs Cowherd just bought a Sandero as a run-around to replace the pile of shite Chevrolet (which expired at 5 years old and 29K miles). For £9.5K you get a car only a little smaller than a Golf, powered by Renault's grunty little TCE-90 engine. Sat-nav / media centre, air-con, cruise control, etc.

      On the down-side, you can see where they have cut costs, hard plastic interior trim, cheap rocker switches, etc, and the design is a little dated looking. It is, however, very pleasant to drive and it is one hell of a lot of car for under £10K

  2. jason 7

    I own a i10.

    I live in a city centre and a 1.2L with 85HP and £20 Road tax does very nicely. Cruises on the motorway just fine and doesn't feel like a small car once inside. Chose it over several other more 'mature' brands.

    1. mintymiller

      Re: I own a i10.

      Yes the older i10 in particular was excellent value for money. Learning to ignore the stupid gear change indicator so that you use the gears and engine correctly, it shifts well, cruises at 80 on the motorway without complaint and is remarkably quiet for such a small car. I think it's still the most recommended small car for under 10 grand.

      1. jason 7

        Re: I own a i10.

        Yes the gear shift indicator is very annoying. As is the central locking only working for all doors from the drivers side (apparently an upgrade is available). But other than that, a good car for the money.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        Re: I own a i10.

        I've the 1.0 new i10 and love it. Works well with my Win-phone, meaning most phone, text, mapping and music can be controlled by touch or voice.

        Handles well,

        The interior feels as big as my old focus and you can chuck it around when you need it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I own a i10.

      Older i20 for me, picked it up for a shade over £4k IIRC. Kumho tyres prompt some understeer at moderate speeds but so long as you are aware it's OK.

      This i30 could be sensible 2nd hand buy in a few years, I don't expect it'll hold its value.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @jason 7

      In a city centre top speed does not matter at all; the only things of use are how fast can you get away from traffic lights and how does it handle stop-start traffic jams.

      If the city is hilly then maybe also getting up hills with good grip in winter conditions.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: @jason 7

        I live in the lakes where overtaking opportunities are rare so sometimes you do need a vehicle that has a bit of boot. The dual carriageway sections are quite short too, so if you want to overtake SAFELY (not hoon around, the roads are also slimy and covered in gravel) then you need a car that can pick up quick (otherwise you get stuck behind tourists and slow vans) nad get past the slow vehicles. Our SMAX is an old school 2.5T, the same as the old ST before the new thirstier powershift/ecoboost engines. They are pretty decent engines and can pick up very quickly for 1.8 tons of steel (providing you are over 2500 RPM as the lag is noticeable). Ive test drove a new powershift/ecoboost and wasn't impressed, the lag was a lot more noticeable and the fuel economy no better (even though it lost a cylinder and 500cc).

        Not driven anything lower than 1.8 in a long time but I'd be interested to see the power curve on this - probably more worthwhile getting a diesel for overtaking...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fuel economy

    With the revelations of recent days, I have to ask whether this Hyundai is really less economical than the competition or whether the Koreans just haven't worked out how to fiddle CO2 emissions tests?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fuel economy

      Hmm, don't know about emissions, but I had a Hyundai Ix35 which did nowhere near its claimed 49mpg. Not even close. All other cars I have bought at least could occasionally get close to the claimed mpg figure if driven like a saint.

  4. joed

    2 markets, big difference

    I guess US is poor stepchild - not even independent rear suspension (elantra gt that looks to be closest match, irs absent across all compact lineup). I guess you get what you paid for - lower $ here, but the only "important" similarities are big rims.

    And just forget about 2(3) door option.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: 2 markets, big difference

      That depends. You get other kit as standard.

      In Europe you get heated seats (something all of us who have a bad back would quite appreciate) only on top of the line models. Looking at the pics, I think I see the buttons (they are on the sides of the console), but not sure. The low spec i30 and i20 definitely do not have them here.

      Compared to that USA AFAIK gets it across the range. Even crappy rentals have it.

      There are other parts of the spec which USA gets as standard while we don't/

      1. joed

        Re: 2 markets, big difference

        Never cared for heated seats. Now, having heated steering wheel option is too much to ask for (maybe once one included all the crap the automaker had on sale). The grass is always greener elsewhere but to me it seems that EU buyers are offered more logical/practical choices while US customer is easily impressed with bling and ends up with big, heavy but often primitive pontoon on 4 wheels (and 72 months of car payments).

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 2 markets, big difference

      Elantra GT _is_ an i30.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hmm...

    This reader doesn't much care for the old trope of adding "ee" to words to make some sort of faux-Asian stereotype. Especially as the review itself was a quality piece of writing.

    Saddest of all is the woeful lack of hot hatches in the US. Small cars here are woeful.

    1. ckwon

      Re: hmm...

      Hear hear on the "ee" thing. Seems like The Register has crossed a line (say hi to Jeremy Clarkson). Would feel much better if you corrected it, pronto.

    2. BenDwire Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: hmm...

      Oh dear; I feel for you. I hope this calms your jangled nerves:

      The headline is simply a pun on "Softly, softly, catchee monkey" which has nothing to do with mocking asians, and everything to do with Baden-Powell (of Boy Scouts fame) and possibly even earlier Scottish folk. It simply means "patience and steadiness will accomplish your goal".

      And on that bombshell ...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: hmm...

        Fair enough, but a phrase from the era of the darkest days of British colonial racism espoused by one of its nuttier proponents is hardly reassuring.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: hmm...@BenDwire

        If you had to explain the pun, it's no longer humorous.

    3. Fehu
      Thumb Up

      Re: hmm...

      Up voted for pointing out the woeful state of American small cars. Even sellers of non-American types just look at you blankly when you ask if that "fill in the blank" comes in a 3 or 5 door hatch with a six speed. If they do bother to rouse from their dream of the ever expanding pickup truck to speak to you, they'll say something like Americans don't like hatchbacks or manual transmissions. Odd, I must have been traded to another country in my sleep. Hope it has universal health care.

  6. K

    It would be fairer

    To compare it to a Fiesta ST and Clio RS rather than a Focus ST etc.

    On a cost front I paid < £20k for my Focus ST3 with most of the trimmings (trick is to find a garage who had one the exact spec your looking for either on display or a demonstrator, and you will instantly save 20%).

  7. ThorWarhammer

    Is that Appleby Cricket ground you're parked outside ??

  8. ecofeco Silver badge

    ~44k dollars?

    Oh hell no.

    1. annodomini2

      Re: ~44k dollars?

      Exchange rate is 1.52, so $34,200.

      20% VAT, so $28,500 before sale tax.

      There is also 'new car tax' which depends on the emissions.

      So it will be about $27,000 before taxes for a representative of US prices.

  9. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    No

    Skinny tires knocks it out for me immediately. They won't last 5 minutes on Kent's roads (where even the potholes have potholes).

    1. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: No

      You threw me there - to me "skinny tyres" are tall and thin (2CV tyres are the skinniest I know). What you are referring to are "rubber bands" in my world :-)

      1. jason 7

        Re: No

        I switched back to good old steel rims. The freedom and carefree attitude you get far out-weighs the style downside. Alloy wheel phobia is a distant memory for me.

        Kerbs? Bring em on!

  10. Jan 0 Silver badge
    WTF?

    I'm feeling short changed by El Reg

    First I read an article where PCM didn't mean Pulse Code Modulation.

    Now here's an article about a Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell, that doesn't mention fuel cells! I thought I was going to read about a car that had leapfrogged hybrids and sniggered at batteries.

  11. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Someone's missing the point

    You don't buy a turbo hot hatch for low mileage, you buy it for shits and giggle factor.

    It's still got better figures (HP and milage) than my decade old 2 litre lump.

  12. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    Fuel economy

    You never got close to the rated fuel consumption because it's a turbo. This is not exclusive to Hyundai; unless you keep them off boost they all do that. Burning 40% more fuel than the quoted rating is pretty much par for the course from modern turbocharged "economy" cars.

    And these days with peak torque arriving below 2k RPM, you can pretty much never keep them off boost.

    It is surprisingly porky for a small hatch though, at almost 1400kg.

    1. Chz

      Re: Fuel economy

      BMW's equivalent of the same engine is actually quite miserly. It just vents the turbo if you're not stepping on it and I've seen a 118i (very similar power to the Hyundai) return just shy of 50mpg on the motorway. Of course it's a BMW, so it does a little bit more but it is in a lower tax band!

      1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

        Re: Fuel economy

        This Hyundai has ~35% more power than the UK-spec BMW 118i

        It seems that the 118i is a different beast in different markets, so the Australian market review I dug up of it is perhaps not fully representative of the UK model since it has a slightly larger engine, although the power is the same. Regardless, the Australian magazine review returned fuel consumption on a combined test cycle slightly better than this review of this Hyundai, but critically it was 70% greater than BMW's claim. As we say here, croikey.

        1. Chz

          Re: Fuel economy

          Looks like they readjusted their model names for 2015. The old 118i is now a 120i. Everything else stays the same. The 2011-2014 118i is 170hp and 49mpg, so within spitting distance in power with the same turbocharged 1.6L. The point being that BM tunes the little engines more for economy than performance, yet the power difference is within 10% and the fuel economy I've seen in the real world considerably better. There is nothing about a turbocharged engine that makes it inherently thirsty, just that in the vast majority of cases petrol turbos are tuned for power over efficiency.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fuel economy

      With a Ford Escort mk 6 tipping scales at 1200 kg, (and that´s a lot of hatchback going on), that's one fat porky.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hyundai 1 - Me 0

    Bought a Hyundai back when I was poor.

    New car lasted less than 30,000km.

    Engine shat itself, even though serviced by the book.

    Clutch died the day after the warranty expired! (I managed to get Hyundai to pay for parts)

    I'm no boy racer.

    Even the garage who serviced it asked whether I had wound the clock back.

    They literally didn't believe me when I said no.

    Not again.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hyundai 1 - Me 0

      We have a Hyundai, it's 10 years old and has done 150,000 miles (240,000 km) and is still going strong.

      Great car.

  14. Jon B

    Euro Styling

    It seems that every make of car is jumping on the 'ridges along the door handles level' bandwagon this year.

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Euro Styling

      Or 2011, as is the case for this car.

  15. 0laf

    35-41mpg for a 186hp hatch.

    It's not bad really is it.?

    As someone else mentioned petrol turbos are like that, pretty efficient if you keep your foot off the boost but drink like a student otherwise.

    But £22k for a Korean car? Sorry nope. It'll be worth £12k as soon as you sign for it. Nice second hand buy with the long warranty. 2yr old one probably in the sweet spot.

  16. Yugguy

    Awesome used buy

    Give it four years you'll be able to get it for peanuts and have a reasonably quick well-specced car.

  17. Ian Watkinson

    "Hyundai's car can't quite match the absolute depth of quality of the considerably more expensive Golf GTI,"

    So is it more than 30% or 8k not as good?

    I30 - £22,650.00 5 year unlimited miles.

    Golf - £27,500 3 year limited mileage warranty.

    Adding 3 years cast iron warranty it about 2k for VW brinnging the golf to

    £30k vs £22k for I30.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm

    Give me a big lazy straight or Vee, 6 with long country road legs.

    Stuff fuel econ.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Hmmm

      I suspect this car is not for you. But thanks for telling us what you would prefer, it's helped the thread greatly.

    2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Hmmm

      Managed to get 35 mpg from a 3.7L V6 yesterday.

      Highway, naturally...

    3. Yugguy

      Re: Hmmm

      I completely agree but tragically the days of those kind of engines in mainstream cars are well gone. By that I mean Ford, Vauxhall, their performance models used to be sweet V6s or with the Focus the lovely 5-pot 2.5 but now they're all just boring 4-pot turbos.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hmmm

        Yes and no.

        Still very much enjoying my 2013, 200kw, 4.0l, 6cyl, 6 speed.

        1. Yugguy

          Re: Hmmm

          Sounds grand but not in the UK unfortunately, not these days.

    4. Down not across

      Re: Hmmm

      Give me a big lazy straight or Vee, 6 with long country road legs.

      Stuff fuel econ.

      Hear hear.

      I prefer V8 or V12. That said, I6 tend to be rather nice and well balanced engines. On motorway, larger displacement engines are not even that bad for fuel if you can keep constant(ish) speed.

      "There is no substitute for cubic inches"

  19. thomas k

    no bumpers

    I don't understand this "style" trend of no bumpers. Looks like even knocking into a shopping cart would cause major damage to that grill.

  20. SharkNose

    Good effort, but...

    Only Hyundai I've yet seen that looks like I would be tempted to consider one. But..the BHP/MPG does not seem to work out well enough for me.

    I have a five year old BMW 3-Series coupe, with a 3.0 petrol engine, normally aspirated, producing a very understressed 220-230BHP, yet it will return 36-38MPG when driven like a hooligan on the motorway, and between 40-46MPG when a little more restraint is used. Of course the BMW was a £30K+ car when new, but I bought it when it was three years old for only £14K. Emissions of 160gms so very similar tax to the Hyundai.I don't know the performance figures off by heart but they are certainly a lot brisker than the Hyundai, with a top speed of at least double the national limit I'd guess.

    The Ford Focus ST looks a much better buy for only slightly more cash. Yes it has slightly max power looks isn't that par for the course with hot hatches?

  21. Jim 59

    Hyundai's are now good looking cars, especially around the front, where many other cars are now a tarted up mess.

    It will be interesting to see which manufacturer becomes first to drop the rising shoulder line, an annoying design cliche that serves no purpose other than to block rear visibility. It won't be Hyndai.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are you kidding?

    I got "upgraded' to an i30 by a hire car company in Greece. Not a turbo AFAIK, but taught me one thing - don't touch Hyundai with a barge pole. "Fur coat and no knickers" as my wife labelled it - it looks good, but had thoroughly underwhelming performance. Underpowered, it required massive down shifting to go up even gentle hills, it could not hill start or pull away quickly at corners without turning the aircon off, and the internal digital display was totally unreadable in bright sunshine (and no clues how to rectify that). Coupled to these issues it grounded on even gentle berms. It also did not have parking sensors which, combined with the less than stellar rear visibility, made manoeuvering in tight spaces a fraught and tedious process. The additon of a turbo may have solved some of these issues, but I for one would not chance it. No substitute for a real car.

    1. uncle sjohie

      Re: Are you kidding?

      I had the same experience, but with a Ford Fiesta on the Azores, those dinky 3-cylinder eco-soy-bean-latte engines always struggle with hills. 65hp in a Fiesta just doesn't cut it with any kind of elevation, even here in the Netherlands. That's just how it works out because of physics.

      1. Adam JC

        Re: Are you kidding?

        Is that the 1L Ecoboost engine? They're 100HP not 65hp and I can assure you, they're more than up to the task of shoving a focus down a dual carriageway at a rate of knots let alone a fiesta.

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