2018 Hyundai I30 Reviews

If you need a good little car to get around town, then you could feasibly be looking at one of these three - the Hyundai i30, Mazda 3 or Toyota Corolla. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, so we assembled them to find out which is best for about $25k.

Hyundai's i30 now stretches from a bargain $19,990 hatch to a rip-snorting $39,990 hot hatch, the i30 N Performance. But will it make the competition sit up and take notice?

The i30 range opens with the bargain basement Go. The manual petrol kicks off at $19,990 with the automatic weighing in at $24,990. In between are the auto petrol and manual diesel.Standard are 16-inch steel wheels, air-conditioning, reversing camera, cloth trim, remote central locking, cruise control,  auto headlights, power windows front and rear, heated powered door mirrors (auto only) and a full-size spare tyre.The six-speaker sound system has AM/FM radio, Bluetooth and USB and is controlled via a dash-mounted 8.0-inch touchscreen. iPhone and Android users will be pleased to know all i30s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so if there's no sat-nav, it doesn't matter. The Go is available with two engines, the 120kW/203Nm in manual or auto and the 100kW/280Nm for the 1.6-litre diesel manual and 300Nm in the seven-speed twin clutch auto.The basic five-star ANCAP safety package amounts to seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, hill-start assist and brake-force distribution. The Smart Sense safety package adds a ton of gear, including forward AEB, forward collision warning, blind-spot detection, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and active cruise. Irritatingly,  the Smart Sense safety package is unavailable in the manuals and AEB really should be standard on all i30s.

The most popular i30 is the Active, starting at $20,950 for the petrol manual and stretching to $25,950 for the DCT diesel.Standard are 16-inch alloy wheels, air-conditioning, reversing camera, cloth trim, remote central locking, cruise control,  auto headlights, power windows front and rear, heated powered door mirrors (auto only), rear parking sensors, LED daytime running lights, sat nav, and a full-size alloy spare.The six-speaker sound system has AM/FM/DAB radio, Bluetooth and USB and is controlled via a dash-mounted 8.0-inch touchscreen. iPhone and Android users will be pleased to know all i30s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.The Active is available with two engines, the 120kW/203Nm in manual or auto and the 100kW/280Nm for the 1.6-litre diesel manual and 300Nm in the seven-speed twin clutch auto.The basic five-star ANCAP safety package amounts to seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, hill-start assist and brake-force distribution. The Smart Sense safety package adds a ton of gear, including forward AEB, forward collision warning, blind-spot detection, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and active cruise. Irritatingly,  the 'Smart Sense' safety package is unavailable in the manuals and AEB really should be standard on all i30s.

After the Active, the i30 range branches into two streams - performance and comfort. The Elite is the first of the comfort models, below the Premium. The Elite is available only with the 2.0-litre petrol and diesel engine with the seven-speed dual-clutch auto priced at $27,790 and $30,490.Standard are 17-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, active cruise control,  auto headlights, fake leather seats, steering wheel and gear shifter and keyless entry via smart key technology, power windows front and rear, heated powered door mirrors , rear parking sensors, LED daytime running lights, sat nav, and a full-size alloy spare.The six-speaker sound system has AM/FM/DAB radio, Bluetooth and USB and is controlled via a dash-mounted 8.0-inch touchscreen. iPhone and Android users will be pleased to know all i30s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.The five-star ANCAP safety package is composed of seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, hill-start assist, brake-force distribution, forward AEB, forward collision warning, blind spot detection, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and active cruise.

The second in the comfort stream is the Premium, starting at $32,790 for the 2.0-litre petrol and $35,490 for the diesel.Standard are 17-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, cloth trim,  cruise control,  auto headlights, fake leather seats, steering wheel and gear shifter, and keyless entry via smart key technology, power windows front and rear, heated powered door mirrors, rear parking sensors, LED daytime running lights, sat nav, electric drivers seat, auto LED headlights, sunroof, electrochromatic rear vision mirror, and a full-size alloy spare. The six-speaker sound system has AM/FM/DAB radio, Bluetooth and USB and is controlled via a dash-mounted 8.0-inch touchscreen. iPhone and Android users will be pleased to know all i30s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.The five-star ANCAP safety package is composed of seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, hill-start assist, brake-force distribution, forward AEB, forward collision warning, blind spot detection, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and active cruise. 

While the Elite and Premium are more comfort-focused, the SR and SR Premium are aimed at the warm-hatch market. Powered by a 1.6-litre turbo petrol, the sporty pair kick out 150kW/265Nm. The six-speed manual SR is $25,990 while the seven-speed 'DCT' dual-clutch auto is $28,950.Standard are 18-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, cloth trim, active cruise control, rear parking sensors, auto headlights, fake leather seats, steering wheel and gear shifter, and keyless entry via smart key technology, power windows front and rear, heated powered door mirrors, rear parking sensors, LED daytime running lights, sat nav, and a space-saver spare.The SR Premium is basically the same apart from a sunroof, front parking sensors, heated and ventilated electric front seats, and is DCT only, retailing at $33,950.The six-speaker sound system has AM/FM/DAB radio, Bluetooth and USB and is controlled via a dash-mounted 8.0-inch touch screen. iPhone and Android users will be pleased to know all i30s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.The five-star ANCAP safety package is composed of seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, hill-start assist, brake-force distribution, forward AEB, forward collision warning, blind spot detection, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and active cruise. 

Hyundai's first proper hot hatch wasn't an afterthought - from day one of the new i30's development, the N was part of the deal.Powered by a 2.0-litre turbo engine developing 202kW/353Nm, the i30 N is an absolute rocket and it's here to eat the VW Golf's lunch, loudly and with great precision.As we only get the N Performance version, standard are 19-inch alloy wheels, and it also has bigger performance brakes, its own specification of Pirelli P-Zero tyres, an extra selectable drive mode known as N, dual-mode exhaust, sports front seats, mechanical limited slip diff, torque vectoring, auto rev matching and active dampers.You'll also find a handy set of front seats trimmed in leather (the steering wheel and gear shifter are fake leather), dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, active cruise control,  rear parking sensors, auto LED headlights, keyless entry via smart key technology, power windows front and rear, heated powered door mirrors, LED daytime running lights, sat nav, and a space-saver spare.The six-speaker sound system has AM/FM/DAB radio, Bluetooth and USB and is controlled via a dash-mounted 8.0-inch touch screen. iPhone and Android users will be pleased to know all i30s have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.The five-star ANCAP safety package is composed of seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, hill-start assist, brake-force distribution, forward AEB, forward collision warning, blind spot detection, lane-change assist, lane-keeping assist, rear cross traffic alert and active cruise. 

I'm not the biggest fan of children, I don't like anyone that screams that much, to be fair, so you can imagine my excitement when I was told we were off to a five-year old's birthday party on Saturday. My girlfriend demanded we go and the gathering was out at Wilton of all places (80km south of Sydney). The

Hyundai's i30 N is the first beast to be set loose from the company's high performance N Division, and we've finally driven it on Australian roads.