2019 Hyundai I30 vs 2020

What's the difference?

There is no denying the Hyundai i30 Fastback N will appeal to a certain type of customer - probably someone who is a bit older and wants the steer clear of the 'boy racer hot-hatch' scene. This is a good car for someone who is young at heart, no doubt about it.

But I'm convinced the best version of an i30 Fastback N is still to come - one with a dual-clutch auto transmission, a bit more sound deadening and a 'comfort' mode for the suspension. Yeah. That'd help build the brand.

As i30s go, this one is an oddball. It doesn't really belong anywhere and it's not even posh enough to whack the Golf in the nose. The N-Line models do that and they do it cheaper, too. It's a bit of a head-scratcher but I guess if you want a diesel i30 with lots of stuff, this is the car for you.

The petrol 2.0 seems even more niche - less power and torque than the cheaper N-Line Premium but, admittedly, cheaper servicing and a more comfortable ride. But you have to wonder: is anyone buying cars like this any more? If they are, they're getting a reasonable deal, no question about that, because, as ever, the i30 is a very good hatchback.

I'm really keen to hear what you think about the design of this car - tell us in the comments if you're a fan, or if - like me - you're just not quite sold on the styling.

It is truly polarising. At the launch, you could almost split it down the middle of Australia's motoring scribes as to which were in the 'like it' vs the 'not so much' camps. Some of the older journos rated it. The younger ones weren't as convinced.

To my 34-year-old eye, the swoop of the roof is just a bit too hunched to make me go 'wow, that's like an Audi Sportback', but I can see plenty of Mercedes-Benz CLA and CLS influence in the rear end.

Hyundai reckons it's more mature looking and will likely appeal to that demographic of customer, too. The drive experience is aimed more at that buyer as well.

That said, it is considerably larger than the hatch model. Overall, the Fastback is 120mm longer (4455mm) and 28mm lower (1417mm) than the hatchback model, while the width (1795mm) and wheelbase (2650mm) go unchanged.

It's the wheelbase perhaps makes the design look a little less streamlined than it could be - if it were longer, the brand would have had more to play with in terms of the rake of the roofline.

Either way, though, it has a better drag coefficient than the hatch (0.297 Cd compared to 0.320 Cd), so it cuts through the air more cleanly.

That new roofline has had an impact on space for second row passengers - check out the interior pictures to see for yourself.

The Premium is a fairly timid sort of car, with none of the aero bits and bobs of the N or even the N-Line. Even the wheels are a bit dull, but if you're looking at a Premium in the first place, you're not after excitement, now are you?

Not that the sporty ones are all that spicy, that's been left to the facelift. Having said that, it's a clean modern design, with shades of the outgoing Peugeot 308 and Golfish middle-of-the-roadness that afflicts the segment.

The cabin is familiar and largely unchanged - it's shame it hasn't yet scored the big new screen found in the Ioniq - but it's all very nicely made and fitted. Some of the plastics could be less scratchy, but you have to go looking for them.

The materials used on the seats and wheels feels a lot like Nappa leather but rather stronger, so one imagines it's not real leather, not that there's any shame in that. Vegan types might be quite keen on it.

If a hatchback is a vehicle with five doors including one at the back that opens to a decently practical boot, then this is a hatchback. Just don't tell Hyundai I told you that, because the brand labels it a five-door coupe, or a Fastback. And one of the arguments for the existence of this car, apparently, is that isn't a hatchback. But, er, it is!

The boot is bigger in the Fastback - it offers 450 litres of cargo capacity, which is 55L more than the i30 hatch. Got kids? This is the next best thing to an i30 N wagon. Oh, how I wish there was an i30 N wagon... But I guess it'd actually be an i30 wagon N, based on the naming convention?

That boot space is a good size, even if it isn't the most practical - you can lower the back seats down, but there's a strut brace that sits behind the seats and seriously impinges load-through room.

The back seats of all so-called 'five-door coupes' are typically less comfortable than they could be, and the i30 Fastback N slots into that category, too.

The headroom is tight for anyone taller than six-foot, particularly for ingress and egress as the roofline is low but the seat is actually rather high. Legroom, knee room, shoulder space and toe room are decent for the size of the car, but not class leading. The seat is comfortable enough, but there are no rear air-vents.

The back has amenities such as mesh map pockets, bottle holders in the doors and a flip-down armrest with cup holders. Up front there's another pair of decaf-soy-latte grippers, big door pockets, some loose item storage and even a Qi wireless charging point if you get the Premium Pack.

The media screen is Hyundai's top-end 8.0-inch touchscreen unit, which has Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone mirroring, built-in sat nav, USB and Bluetooth connectivity and the N computer system (which includes a lap timer, and also allows you to configure the car's settings, but you have to trigger the buttons on the wheel to get there).

If you're in the front seat, you'll find two cupholders, a space under the climate controls for your phone and Qi wireless charging pad, sunglasses holder, a central console bin of a small but useful size and a glove box.

Rear seat room is okay for the segment while boot space is quite competitive at 395 litres and with the seats down, space increases to 1301 litres.

Each door has a bottle holder for a total of four in the car and the rear seat passengers score a pair of cupholders as well.

Since time immemorial, Hyundai has been all about value but the Premium might be pushing things slightly. The petrol comes in at $33,370 and the diesel a hefty $36,100, straying quite close to both N-Line Premium ($34,990) and crackerjack i30 N.

You do get 17-inch alloys, a seven-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, active cruise control, electric driver's seat, sat nav, auto LED headlights, auto wipers, heated and cooled front seats, fake leather trim, powered and heated folding mirrors and a full-size alloy spare wheel.

The 8.0-inch touchscreen runs Hyundai's halfway reasonable software (way better than Toyota's hideous effort) on good hardware. With the USB ports you can hook up your Apple or Android phone with CarPlay and Auto respectively, which is always welcome. The system also includes DAB radio.

As with the other N model, the Fastback is powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine producing 202kW of power (at 6000rpm) and 353Nm of torque (378Nm on overboost - from 1450-4700rpm).

At the time of writing it is only available with a six-speed manual transmission, and is front-wheel drive that features an electromechanical limited-slip diff.

There will be a dual-clutch automatic transmission added to the mix at some point - I'll talk more about that in the driving section below.

The petrol i30 Premium makes do with the 2.0-litre four-cylinder codenamed Nu. It doesn't do too badly, though, with 120kW and 203Nm driving the front wheels through a six-speed automatic, a relative rarity in this segment.

The turbodiesel has a nice round 100kW and 300Nm, also pushing the power through a six-speed auto.

Official claimed fuel consumption is rated at 8.0 litres per 100 kilometres, using 95RON premium unleaded petrol as a minimum.

On our four-hour drive loop through South Australia - which included a few spirited mountain roads, some highway cruising and B-road bruising - we saw 9.1L/100km indicated on the dashboard. That's a good result, I reckon.

Fuel tank capacity is 50 litres.

The petrol's official combined cycle figure landed at 7.4L/100km, which lines up pretty well with our real-world trip computer figure of 8.2L/100km, achieved with a 50/50 mix of highway and suburban travel. Given the 50-litre fuel tank, you'll get just over 600km on a full tank of 91.

The diesel's official figure comes in at 5.6L/100km.

Honestly, the changes described in the press material had me hoping for a pretty different drive experience to the i30 N hatch... but without a back-to-back drive, most people would be hard pressed to pick up on the differences. I'll admit it - I struggled, and Hyundai didn't give us the chance to sample the regular model against this one.

According to Hyundai, the Fastback N model rolls on a "new global chassis calibration" that was honed on the Nurburgring to reward the driver with "controlled and comfortable" handling - the very same tune that will be rolled out on the hatch sometime in 2019, according to the brand.

That tune incorporates a softer front suspension with reduced roll stiffness, which apparently makes it more comfortable but also more chuckable in corners. I thought the i30 N hatch was already pretty good at that, but oh well.

There are longer, softer bump-stops, as well as a new, narrower front anti-rollbar, plus the adaptive dampers are revised as well.

As for drive modes, you can choose from Eco, Normal and Sport drive modes, as well as N mode with an ESC Sport setting, and a configurable N Custom mode (my fave: Normal steering, Normal suspension, everything else in Sport+).

But I found that the Normal mode was still a bit too firm in a lot of situations, with the rear rebound after a bump making for a pretty bouncy ride over rough back roads, and sharp edges around town still upset progress to a reasonable degree. Put the suspension in its hardest mode and the ride is even more punishing, but that's to be expected. The steering weight is a bit too stiff, and though the rack is only two turns lock to lock, the turning circle is pretty large at 11.6m.

The i30 Fastback N is marginally heavier (12kg) mainly at the rear, which affects the weight distribution - the company says the ratio is 59.7 per cent front and 40.3 per cent rear, where the hatch is 61.8/38.2. That probably won't matter to the vast majority of owners and customers, but it theoretically helps with the more tail-happy character of the Fastback.

Unleashing the grunt of the engine and throwing the shifter between the gates, allowing it to do the throttle-blipping for you on downshifts - it takes a while for it to get old. But like most other front-wheel drive hot hatches, you can induce understeer if you approach a bend with too much heat, and there's also a bit of a battle to be had with the steering wheel under hard acceleration, with some torque-steer tug noticeable.

On the road you will still find yourself smiling stupidly when you lift off the throttle and hear the pop and fart of the exhaust system... provided you can hear it. If the surface is coarse - like a lot of highways and main roads in Australia - you might struggle, because there's a lot of road noise intrusion into the cabin. Some extra sound deadening wouldn't go astray.

Many of my criticisms are more around the perception of the new body type than the actual drive experience, which is still great for a high-powered hatch... fastback... coupe... whatever.

But with Hyundai's own marketing people telling us that this is a softer and more grown-up offering, I expected its character to match its more mature appearance a bit more than it did.

It took discovering that this car existed and then driving it for me to realise that it has been a long time since I drove an i30 with "normal" suspension rather than the sportier tunes. It reminded me that the i30 is a pretty plush kind of rider when you combine the 17-inch wheels, higher profile rubber and the independent rear suspension not available at the lower end of the range.

Surprisingly, despite being a bit softer, it handles very tidily and I spent the week rather enjoying the mix of pleasant ride and reasonably pointy handling. It won't scare a hot hatch either in the power or chassis department, but its relaxed yet poised nature was quite nice.

It's quiet on the freeway, too, pounding out west as I did one sunny morning in rather cold conditions. The heated seats worked very quickly (number one son thought they were perhaps rather too effective for his delicate posterior) and the cabin was at a pleasant temperature before I'd even hit the first set of lights.

The slightly squidgy tyres came into their own on the motorway, delivering a very quiet and comfortable ride and the usual panic-braking on the M7 when some goose in a truck sails into your lane to stop running into some idiot doing 60km/h in a 100km/h zone didn't unsettle it one jot.

The i30 lands here from South Korea with seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, low-speed AEB with pedestrian detection, blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, lane departure warning. reverse cross-traffic alert and driver attention detection.

The i30 range scored a maximum five-star ANCAP assessment in April 2017.

The standard factory warranty offered on all Hyundai models is five years/unlimited kilometres and that extends to the i30 N models, too. It covers "non-competitive racetrack driving, and the fitment of high-performance semi-slick tyres" - so unless you start modding your i30 N, you will retain your warranty.

Plus there's a lifetime capped-price servicing plan, with intervals set at 12 months/10,000km, whichever occurs first. The costs are very low for the first five years of ownership, with the first, second, third and fifth visits costing $299, and the fourth set at $399. So, a total over five years of $1595 (before consumable items are added) at an average of $319 per annum. Not bad.

And if you service your car at Hyundai, you will get up to 10 years' roadside assist included. It rolls over for every year you remain loyal.

Hyundai offers a five year/unlimited kilometre warranty with 12 months roadside assist. Keep servicing with Hyundai and you'll get a roadside assist extension.

The 2.0-litre model has longer intervals between services and is cheaper when you get there, which will add up over the life of the car. You need to head back to the dealer every 12 months/15,000km and the first five services will cost $1395. While that's $10 more over five years, it lets you cover up to an extra 25,000km during that time. Subsequent services aren't as expensive as the diesel's.

You need to service the turbodiesel-powered i30 Premium every 12 months (good) or 10,000km (hmmm) and all Hyundais carry a lifetime service plan, so you know how much a service is going to cost you for the life of the vehicle.

The first five services costs $1385, for an average of $277 per year, which is fine if you stay under the 10,000km but starts to add up a bit if you go over. The prices kick up substantially for the sixth and seventh services, but never hit AMG-stratospheric prices.