Hyundai i30 2021 - SMARTER ??

Hyundai's much improved third generation i30 delivers smarter looks, a wide variety of body styles, efficient engines and stronger standards of safety and media connectivity. In short, if you were shopping in the family hatchback segment, it's a product that certainly adds up on paper, but then the i30 always has. Will this one have more lasting real world appeal against apparently more charismatic rivals? Hyundai makes plenty of very interesting and innovative cars these days, but there are others with quieter, more sensible virtues. Models like this one, the i30 family hatch. This is the third generation version of that design. It was first launched in 2016 and then updated four years on to create the car that we have here. It won't be a headline maker, well not in this standard form anyway, but the i30 has always been hugely significant for Hyundai ever since the first generation FD series version arrived back in 2007 to change the way we all thought about Korean cars. Since then, this Asian maker has transformed itself from being a budget brand to the point where it's now a mainstream quality choice and that process was aided by the i30's evolution into second generation GD series form back in 2011 and subsequently by the original launch of this third generation PD series i30 model five years later on. The later significantly improved version of that mark 3 design that we're going to look at here was announced in mid 2020 and it aims to help Hyundai progress further in its relentless march to complete automotive credibility. It's very firmly a product of evolution rather than revolution, but there is now an upgraded fully electrified 48 volt powertrain lineup also including an extra 1.5 litre petrol turbo unit. There's also a clever new IMT manual gearbox, smarter looks, a better standard of cabin infotainment and plenty of extra camera safety kit, all of which as before features not only with this five-door hatch body style but also with the alternative tourer estate and the fastback body shapes too. There's an improved version of the standalone i30n hot hatch too. All of this from a car that was designed, developed and tested in Europe specifically for European buyers. It all sounds quite promising doesn't it? But then if this i30 is going to be able to keep pace in this closely fought segment it's going to need to be. So let's put this car to the test. In theory the engines that feature with the facelifted version of this third generation i30 are completely new but that's only because they've had 48 volt a mild hybrid tech added into them. As usual with this kind of technology the difference out on the road is quite difficult to feel although Hyundai has provided a selectable energy flow screen on the instrument cluster so that you can see how the system's working. As far as the difference it makes, well there's a fraction more mid-range throttle response and the start-stop system that cuts in a bit earlier at urban speeds but that's about it. Otherwise the line-up's two core power plants the 120 ps three-cylinder one litre tgdi petrol unit we're trying here and the 136 ps four-cylinder 1.6 litre crdi diesel are much as they were before. Obviously the higher capacity black pump fuelled unit has more pulling power 280 newton meters versus 172 but we reckon that most customers will be quite satisfied by what's delivered with petrol power. The one litre lump gets you to 62 in 11.2 seconds only a second behind the crdi variant and the 122 miles an hour top speed is much the same. With the petrol engine it's really just overtakes that have to be planned a bit further in advance that's particularly if you've opted for the 7-speed dct dual clutch automatic gearbox. You might not want to though because Hyundai has significantly improved its six-speed manual stick shift offering introducing an efficient new imt intelligent manual transmission which decouples the engine from the gearbox after the driver releases the accelerator. This allows the car to enter into two possible levels of coasting depending on the conditions. The first leaves the engine idling and the second turns it off entirely although it will of course spring back to life again the moment your foot touches the throttle. The imt manual and the 7-dct auto gearbox also feature with the only completely new engine added to the range as part of this update a 1.5 litre tgdi four-cylinder petrol unit with 159 ps which is what you have to have if you choose to specify sporty n-line trim with this car. It's a willing enough engine with a reasonable turn of speed it makes 62 from rest in 8.6 seconds en route to 130 miles an hour. You can make it feel a bit more urgent than that by playing with the provided driving modes. These are also fitted to the diesel and to the base petrol power plant. There's a choice of three blue themed normal green themed eco and orange themed sport and as usual with these kinds of setups they alter throttle response steering feel and with the auto gearshift change timings. Dynamic performance though doesn't tend to be a priority for i30 folk unless of course they happen to be customers for the top i30n which has also been improved as part of this facelift with a new n-dct eight-speed dual clutch transmission extra high performance driving features standardized performance spec and a slight power hike for the 2 litre tgdi turbo petrol unit to 280 ps. That hot hatch though isn't our focus here the priority with more standard i30 variants is to lower the heart rate rather than to raise it. That's aided by the inclusion of something which has always set this hyundai apart from most other rivals in the family hatch segment and that's the fact that sophisticated multi-link rear suspension is standard right across the range. Some competitors like the volkswagen astra don't offer this at all whilst others like the ford focus and the volkswagen group class contenders like the golf limit it to only the pricier and more powerful variants. You'll only really notice the difference that this makes on poorer tarmac or over potholes or speed humps but over those kinds of surfaces it really does make you feel like you're riding in a larger and more expensive kind of car. Adding to that perception is the fact that this hyundai is impressively quiet actually even the diesel variants are fine at speed although it's a bit clattery at startup. There's a reason for that or more accurately there are several reasons the korean brands worked hard on the rigidity of the body fashioning 53 percent of it from high strength steel that's an unusually high proportion for a affordable family car. The advanced suspension that further helps here the design lacks the sharp edges and the clatter of moving parts which you would typically find in rival setups. Add in things like anti-vibration engine mounts, hollow drive shafts, smoothly profiled door handles and double layered door seals and you begin to get the picture producing a car that is this quiet is all about attention to detail. As for handling well our perspective is as it was before namely that there's still scope for improvement here if hyundai really wants to rival something like a Ford Focus around the twisty stuff although we're not absolutely certain exactly how much point there is in trying to do that. Cornering door handle style after all isn't a priority for many of the brand's buyers and in any case even as it stands this car is already a match for many of its family hatchback rivals in terms of body control and chassis balance. A little ironically the main area that's lacking in this regard steering precision is the one in which the korean designers devoted quite a lot of effort in development of this third generation design. The changes made were supposed to have quickened up the steering by around 10 percent but that's not an awful lot and to be honest any difference is difficult to feel. Still the rack's lightness and parking speeds is welcome and it's reasonably well weighted for highway use that's now embellished by a very mild dose of autonomous drive technology and that's courtesy of the lane follow assist feature that's fitted to this top premium spec model. Now with this at cruising speeds the car will take care of steering duties while also continually estimating the trajectory of the vehicle ahead and adjusting its position accordingly. It's the sort of feature that a typical i30 customer might really like from a car that's now good enough to spring a few surprises on you if you happen to have left it off your segment shopping list. In an age where Hyundai is designing cars of this size with the the look of this i30 isn't going to turn any heads. This facelifted design of the mark 3 design though has more visual appeal than anything else we've seen in this model line to date. Mind you that's not saying very much. First and second generation FD and GD series versions of this car didn't overly prioritize aesthetics only with the original version of this third generation i30 did this Hyundai adopt a sharper sleeker and leaner look that was as one writer put it more Prada than Primark. You can bet that this PD series car's eventual replacement will take it further up the high street still but for the time being the shop window has had a bit of a polish here primarily with the adoption of this wider and far more overt 3D front grille below which sits black themed corner cutouts incorporating beady front fog lights redesigned slimmer headlamps with multifaceted reflector MFR LED technology complete the front end changes. Not much is different elsewhere although these redesigned diamond cut 16 inch or as in this case 17 inch alloy wheels that are fitted to the mainstream models aim to give this profile perspective more of a premium feel. Here as you can see we've got the straightforward five-door hatch and there's also a tourer estate body shape but if you want something more visually arresting than either of the standard body styles can provide then your dealer will steer you towards the fastback i30 variant that was created more with fashionistas in mind. All three body styles feature long bonnets high waistlines and the short front and rear overhangs you see here together with this lower panel crease that gives the flanks some shape. At the rear this facelifted model has adopted a fresh bumper design in pursuit of sleek aerodynamics a change which sees the previously high set reflectors positioned a bit further down the sculpted rear combination lamps their LED lit above base trim taper into a v-shape and that mirrors the effect of the front and sweeping horizontal creases are supposed to make the car look wider plus the black finishing around the subtle roof spoiler here is reminiscent of an i30n. As usual of course what's more important is the stuff you can't see some of which is actually quite old most of the basic structure of this mark 3 design is shared with the previous GD generation model and that was launched way back in 2011 although for this PD series i30's original launch in 2017 Hyundai managed the neat trick of doubling the amount of high strength steel in the body while still managing to shed weight along the way 28 kilos of it in fact there was a slight increase in body size too but this car still isn't particularly large by class standards it's 4.34 meters long and nearly 1.8 meters wide which to give you some perspective makes it slightly shorter and slightly narrower than a rival Vauxhall Astra. Enough with that let's take a seat at the wheel where the look is familiar but the finishing touches are not or at least they won't be if you stretched beyond entry-level spec because then you'll get yourself a more digitalized cabin feel we have here that comes courtesy of a much bigger 10.25 inch central dash infotainment monitor and a 7 inch instrument cluster screen that's a more sophisticated dose of technology that we'll brief you on in just a moment plus the air vents and the steering wheel have been redesigned you can now specify a pewter gray interior garnish finish if you don't like this usual black and there's wireless phone mirroring so no more need for unsightly cables. When we first tested this Mk3 PD series model back in 2017 we described this cabin as much more golf-like but these days that Volkswagen epitomizes a kind of even more advanced cabin screen fest that it was beyond Hyundai's powers to implement as part of this mild facelift. The i30 is no longer at the cutting edge of material quality either quite a lot of what's on offer here feels more suited to the class below. Mind you quite a few owners might be happy to accept that in return for the fitment of two features which aren't typically standard across the range in this class. Lumber support for the driver's seat and a rear view camera. We mentioned the much larger central console display although the previous 8 inch monitor continues on with base SE Connect trim here though we've got that bigger 10.25 inch touchscreen with its clear neat graphics and usefully large lower shortcut buttons although we would ideally also like to have seen the brand incorporate the kind of useful iDrive style controller that you get and arrive on Mazda 3. As you expect this i30's screen has the normal navigation phone radio and media options plus the usual Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone features. There's also a climate section although fortunately not at the expense of physical buttons they're provided further down the central stack here. The screen climate menu adds useful auto dehumidify and auto defog functions. Hyundai is also keen that you should know that this monitor incorporates their latest Bluelink connected car services. These provide live information and control of the car via an app. You can also access various Bluelink options via the display. There's a calendar, weather reports and info on vehicle diagnostics plus there's incorporated Hyundai live services which alert you to speed cameras and provide accurate information on traffic jams and roadworks. We're not so keen on the added cloud-based natural language voice recognition setup which offers to tell you things like whether it's raining in London but apparently can't manage something as basic as finding you a favorite radio station. There are though some really nice extra screen touches that we do like here. There's an icon that allows you to record voice memos for example so if you think of something important while you're driving which you don't want to forget you don't have to reach for your phone or stop and write it down. And there's an intriguing section that Hyundai calls sounds of motion which is a bit like one of those apps you can get that help to send you to sleep at night. Now this feature of course is intended to do the opposite thing via six different options. Lively forest, calm ocean waves and snowy village are each quite soothing but we can't really understand why you would want rainy day or open air cafe. The latter comes complete with people shouting and congested traffic noises or indeed warm fireplace which creates the rather unnerving impression that something in the engine bay has caught fire. The second of the two new fascia screens we mentioned earlier is far less sophisticated. Hyundai calls the seven inch LCD display you view through this three-spoke steering wheel the driver's supervision instrument cluster which sounds really quite grand but actually isn't because unlike with competitor digital instrument monitors it doesn't extend the full width of the instrument binnacle and therefore it can't put full GPS mapping directly into your line of sight. Here instead the colour screen sits rather incongruously flanked by analogue needle gauges, revs on the left and fuel and temperature on the right here. Still it is better than the more conventional arrangement that you have to have with the base spec trim. There there's a usual small 3.5 inch trip computer readout and that sits between the usual analogue dials. This more advanced screen changes colour according to the various drive modes you select but otherwise you can't really do very much to customise it although it is possible to change the information readout in the centre of the virtual gauge. You can choose from a digital speedo or an interactive energy flow diagram for the mild hybrid system plus there are fuel economy and trip computer screen options. What else? Well the seats don't look especially inviting but getting comfortable is easy thanks to plenty of seat and wheel adjustment and for the driver that standard electrically adjustable lumbar support feature we mentioned earlier on. Other things that we like include this central armrest the way that it can slide forward so it's perfectly positioned for your elbow and the grippy three-spoke leather trimmed multifunction steering wheel here which is just the right thickness. Not so good though is rearward visibility thanks to the small rear screen and the relatively thick rear pillars. Over the shoulder vision remains a little compromised for tight parking manoeuvres. Hyundai is apparently aware of this which is why the rear view camera that we mentioned earlier on comes as standard along with parking sensors. Cabin practicality is reasonable and we like the way that most of the receptacle areas are neatly covered for example there's a concertina ring top which slides for the cup holders that you get between the seats although small bottles placed in them will get in the way of your route to the gear lever and there's a rotating lid for this compartment ahead of the gear stick here which has a 12 volt socket a usb port though annoyingly only one of those and potentially a wireless charging mat too. Unfortunately the latter feature only comes with the priciest level of trim. A narrow deep compartment sits behind the electronic parking brake which by the way you only get with this top premium trim level otherwise there's an old-fashioned manual hand brake. Other cabin storage features include a big glove box there's compartmentalized door bins sun visors with ticket clips and an overhead storage area for your sunglasses. Oh and praise be Hyundai has finally got rid of that chintzy little musical chime that earlier versions of this model favoured you with before ignition startup. Time to move into the back seat you get these wide opening doors and the squarely orientated roof makes rear access reasonably easy and once inside well what can we tell you here it's still not one of the roomier rear cabins in the class you'll need a Skoda Octavia for that but by the standards of most other family hatch segment contenders the space provided here is quite competitive and it's probably as much as most buyers will need. As with most other cars in this segment it isn't possible to sit three fully sized adults back here with any real degree of comfort but if there are only two of you then you'll find that there is reasonable space for legs and knees and shoulders. Those approaching six foot in height though could find their heads brushing against the ceiling. Reasonably large side windows and extra rear quarter lights make the atmosphere a bit less claustrophobic and rear folk get their own twin vents they're positioned just here above this reasonably low transmission tunnel. Netted mat pockets in the backs of the front seats provide somewhere to pack loose items and there are small bins at both doors they're very small actually they're limited by the size of the speakers here. Hyundai has forgotten to add overhead individual reading lights but the usual Isofix child seat mounts feature on the two outer chairs there are coat hooks in the overhead grab handles and on the b-pillars plus there are recesses in the door pulls and twin cup holders in this central armrest. Finally let's take a look in this Hyundai's boot. The tailgate is simple to open thanks to a proper handle here in the panel that's something that rivals now don't bother with. It isn't particularly light to lift up and there's quite a high lip to lump your stuff over when the hatch is open but the aperture is quite wide and the 395 litre capacity is class competitive. It's a deep square space that's 14 litres bigger than you'll get in a Golf and 54 litres bigger than a Focus although plenty of other contenders in this class do offer more. If you need more trunk room in an i30 the fast back body shape provides 450 litres while the Tourer estate provides 602 litres. All i30s get what Hyundai calls a luggage board in theory a variable height boot floor although this might as well not be provided because there's not enough space underneath the board to allow you to vary its height. You can tilt up the leading edge of the cargo base to access a few small underfloor compartments but that's about it. Four securing rings help to lash down items and you also get a 12-volt socket on the right and bag hooks on both cargo sidewalls to stop your shopping bags from spilling all over the carpet. A ski hatch is provided for longer items. If you need more space and you want to push the rear backrest down there's up to 1301 litres of carrying capacity available. The fast back body style extends that to 1351 while the Tourer estate or the figure there is up at 1650 litres. The days are long gone since Hyundai's were available at bargain basement pricing but that doesn't mean that the Marks models can't still be seen as good value. This improved third generation i30 is certainly class competitive in that regard but we were a bit disappointed that prices have risen so much in such a relatively short time. I mean when we first tested this Mark 3 i30 design in 2017 the starting price figure was around £17,000 these days it's £21,000. Still you do at least now get extra equipment and more sophisticated powertrain and transmission technology as part of that deal. Engine wise with this hatch variant you choose from one or 1.5 litre petrol units or a 1.6 litre CRDI diesel all with 48 volt mild hybrid electrified tech included. In each case there's the option of DCT seven speed automatic transmission for an extra £1,200. The basic i30 range is built around the five door hatchback body shape we're trying here. A lineup that from the launch of this facelifted model priced in mainstream form up to around £27,000 across three main trim levels SC Connect, N Line and as in this case premium. I think in terms of needing around £1,800 to move from this 1 litre petrol model to the alternative 1.6 litre CRDI diesel. If the standard i30 hatch body shape isn't quite what you're looking for then there is an extra model for model fee of around £700 to pay if you want the more versatile tourer estate. The five door fastback body style is costlier still. Prices there kick off from around £26,000 but this is because that more stylized variant comes only with sporty N Line trim and only with the higher capacity 1.5 litre petrol engine. The potent 280 PS i30 N Hot Hatch offered in five door or fastback forms that's treated as a standalone model and that costs from around £34,000. There is a lot of choice on offer then for potential i30 buyers. A choice this model line needs not only to differentiate itself from the competition but also from arguably more eye-catching options within Hyundai's own model lineup. After all the same kind of budget that you'd pay for a mid-spec i30 could also get you the brand's more eco-conscious Ioniq hybrid or if you don't like that one then what about the company's trendy Kona SUV. Assuming though that you're happy to stay with a conventional family hatch the kind of thing we have here you'll want to know exactly how this Hyundai's pricing compares with key class rivals. Now before we get into discussing the usual segment suspects it is worth pointing out that all the same engineering here features in this model's close cousin the Kia Cee'd and that is useful to know because equivalent Cee'd models undercut their i30 counterparts by just over a thousand pounds. Beyond the Hyundai Kia conglomerate potential i30 customers will typically be considering cars like Ford's Focus which is just over a thousand pounds pricier than an i30 in base petrol form but it is comparably priced in base diesel guys. A Volkswagen Golf is as usual much pricier than this Hyundai I think around 2,500 pounds more in equivalent petrol and diesel forms but you can get Golf engineering priced more affordably in this class in the Seat layout and Skoda Octavia. They're similarly priced to this Hyundai in petrol form but they'll cost you 500 to a thousand pounds more as a diesel. What else might a potential i30 customer be looking at in this sector? Vauxhall Astra perhaps that would save you around a thousand pounds but it's quite an old design now and it can't match this career model's engine or safety technology. Two Japanese contenders Honda's Civic and the Mazda3 they're both comparably priced to an i30 in base petrol form. They're better but they can't be had as diesels. There's also Citroen C4 that's very comparably priced to this Hyundai but it's probably a bit too quirky for a typical i30 customer. A Renault Megane is a decent match against the diesel i30 but in base TCE petrol form it's less efficient and about a thousand pounds more. A Peugeot 308 that's pricier still as is a Mini Clubman. Mainstream versions of that only come with a relatively inefficient 1.5 litre petrol engine. Once we would also have considered a Toyota in this class as a close competitor here but the model in question that's Toyota's Corolla it's much pricier because it only comes now in fully electrified full hybrid self-charging form. That's very different from the token mild hybrid tech that features on this Hyundai. At the other extreme if you are happy with the base one litre petrol engine that we're trying in the i30 here then you might also want to consider a couple of budget priced class entrants. They only come with smaller petrol engines that's Skoda Scala and Fiat's Tipo but these obviously lack the sophistication that you'll pay extra for with this Hyundai. Enough on price and market comparisons let's assume that having considered all the options you've decided on a mainstream i30 hatch or tourer model and you want to know exactly what's going to be included for your money. Well a pretty reasonable amount as it happens. Even entry-level SE Connect variants get 16-inch alloy wheels, automatic headlamps with high beam assist, power folding door mirrors, front fog lights and some significant electronic camera driven safety features too which we'll cover off for you in just a few moments. Inside with SE Connect spec there's air conditioning, there's a rear parking camera with rear parking sensors, there's a powered driver's seat with lumbar support, a ski hatch for the rear bench and cruise control with a speed limiter. Infotainment that's taken care of by an 8-inch central dash touchscreen media centre display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. There's also Bluetooth, voice recognition and the DAB audio system too with a pair of speakers front and rear and two tweeters. If you want a bit more in terms of equipment you'll be encouraged to find the £3,000 premium Hyundai wants to upgrade you to the premium level of trim we're trying here. That gets you lots of extra niceties of course, larger 17-inch alloy wheels, full LED MFR headlamps, LED tail lights, rear privacy glass, front parking sensors and keyless entry. Inside premium spec models get heated front seats with power adjustment for the driver, part artificial leather upholstery, dual zone air conditioning, there's a heated steering wheel and a wireless phone charging pad. There is also a useful auto defog system which clears the windscreen more quickly on misty days. The key upgrade you get with premium spec though lies with cabin screen tech, a 7-inch driver's supervision instrument cluster LCD screen is added into the instrument binnacle and the centre console display grows to 10.25 inches in size, gaining navigation, cloud-based natural language voice control and also a full suite of Hyundai's Bluelink telematic services with a five-year subscription. You can access various Bluelink options via the central display too, there's a calendar, there's weather reports and info on vehicle diagnostics and incorporated Hyundai live services too, they alert you to speed cameras and provide accurate information on traffic jams and roadworks. Plus there's a downloadable Hyundai Bluelink app, now via this using your smartphone you can remotely lock or unlock the car and you can be advised if the alarm goes off. Using the app via your phone you can also access maintenance info on your i30, you can send places of interest data to the car's navigation system and you can find the vehicle in a crowded car park if you've gone and forgotten where you put it. The other trim option available to i30 customers is sporty N-line spec although that'll be of minority interest because it only comes with the 1.5 litre petrol power plant that few i30 customers tend to want. N-line trim can't be had with the i30 Tourer estate but it's the only trim level available with the fastback body shape. It gives you a sportier look that's courtesy of 18 inch alloy wheels, a special black radiator grille with chrome inserts, unique body coloured bumpers, glossy black door mirrors and the twin muffler rear exhaust. Inside there's special N-line branding for the steering wheel and for the gear knob, there's also unique cloth upholstery and a black roof liner, otherwise the spec is broadly similar to that that you get with this premium trim. The final variant in the range, the i30 N Hot Hatch isn't our focus here but we'll mention that these days that potent model is only available in top 280 PS performance guys and that means you get 19 inch Pirelli P Zero high performance Hyundai N tyres, distinctive red N brake calipers and larger brake discs, 18 inch at the front and 17 inch at the rear. An ELSD electronic limited slip differential too and a variable exhaust valve system, they are also features included in the performance package to provide the optimal racetrack style experience. Right let's talk you through the i30 lineup and brief you on the key mainstream model equipment features, what about options? As usual with Hyundai there aren't that many, the brand believes that customers will prefer to move up a trim level rather than go box ticking. You can add some useful practical items though like a liner or a mat for the boot area and floor mats of either the velour or all weather kind. LED door projectors with i30 puddle lights are available too along with i30 branded entry guards. You can add extra chrome to the side trimming lines, the mirror covers and tailgate and of course there are a wide range of optional metallic paint colors. We have the Amazon Grey here, you'll probably need to budget for one of those because the only standard shade is solid engine red. Let's finish with the perusal of the safety stuff on offer, Hyundai claims to have considerably improved its smart sense package of camera safety features for the i30. A close perusal of the small print though reveals that the extra elements that have been added only make an appearance with this top premium level of trim and they can't be had with the other two spec levels, so from a safety point of view they pretty much continue as they were before. Still all i30s meet the class standard in this regard and that means of course that an autonomous emergency braking system which includes forward collision warning comes as standard. That's the kind of setup that as you drive scans the road ahead searching for potential collision hazards. Now if one's detected you'll be warned, if you don't respond or perhaps you aren't able to respond then the brakes will automatically be applied to decrease the severity of any resulting accident. Other standard safety features are more familiar, there are twin front side and curtain airbags and they're linked to an e-call emergency button system which will alert the rescue services with your exact GPS location if they go off in a crash. You also get Isofix child seat fastenings in the rear and active front head restraints that prevent whiplash. In addition as usual with a family hatch of this kind there's ESC electronic stability control, tyre pressure monitoring and hill start assist control to stop the car from rolling backwards when you pull away on an incline. As you'd also expect in this segment the ABS anti-lock brakes are aided in panic stops by a brake assist feature plus an emergency stop signal which flashes the hazard lights to warn following motorists. If you want more you'll have to stretch to a premium spec variant like this one, do that and you'll also get three further camera driven features. First is blind spot detection which works on the move to stop you from dangerously pulling out if there's a vehicle in your blind spot, rear cross traffic alert that's there for when you're reversing out of space to let you know if any vehicles are approaching from the side and finally there is the only really new safety feature at this premium level and that's lane follow assist. Now here smart sensors and the forward-facing camera detect when the car drifts from the centre of its lane and it applies steering torque to hold the road positioning for safety. The car also estimates the trajectory of the vehicle ahead and adjusts its position accordingly, it's all very reassuring. Hyundai is progressing its engine technology in leaps and bounds when this third generation i30 first arrived back in 2016 it ushered in the brand's latest TGDI tech including standardised ISG, intelligent stop and go power plants and the downsized three cylinder one litre petrol unit that we're trying here. For this update all this has been further embellished with the brand's latest 48 volt electrified mild hybrid tech which likely tinsels all three available mainstream engines with a tiny lithium-ion battery which just about justifies the electrified hybrid marketing spiel. Unlike a self-charging full hybrid engine, the sort of thing that you get in this class on say a Toyota Corolla and the sort of thing that Hyundai itself offers on its comparably priced Kona SUV, mild hybrid engines of the sort now fitted to the i30 can't ever run independently on battery power, instead with this kind of setup a belt-driven integrated starter generator replaces the standard alternator and enables the recovery and storage of energy that's usually lost during braking and coasting to charge a tiny 48 volt lithium-ion air cooled battery pack. The starter generator also acts as a motor integrating with the engine and using the stored energy that it harvests to provide extra pulling power during normal driving and acceleration. That's as well as running the vehicle's electrical ancillaries and helping the power plant's stop-start system in urban traffic. Measuring the difference that all this makes to fuel and CO2 readings is difficult because since we last tested this car the industry has switched to a completely new WLTP cycle of efficiency measurement. Based on our experience with similar mild hybrid tech though in other models, many of this Hyundai's competitors also now offer it, we'd put the efficiency gains at between five and ten percent which means that we can classify them as marginal but worth having. You will though want to know how that pans out in terms of the actual figures that you'll be budgeting with and being taxed on. Well for the base one litre TGDI unit we're trying here you're looking at up to 61.4 mpg on the combined cycle and up to 121 grams per kilometre of CO2. The returns quite impressively being identical regardless of your choice between manual or automatic transmission. Unlike Hyundai rivals in this class often limit their mild hybrid tech to pricier variants, Ford and Volkswagen being cases in point which is why the base one litre petrol versions of the Focus and the Golf which you would price match against this base petrol i30 trail it in terms of economy with fuel returns in the 52 to 54 mpg bracket. Hyundai's alternative 1.5 litre TGDI petrol engine is predictably some way behind this smaller unit in terms of efficiency stats that returns up to 44.8 mpg and 142 grams per kilometre in manual form or up to 46.3 mpg and 138 grams per kilometre as an automatic. As for the 1.6 litre CRDI diesel well the days are past when that was the most efficient engine in the range. It now lags slightly behind the one litre petrol unit in manual or auto form returning up to 58.9 mpg and up to 126 grams per kilometre of CO2. With manual gearbox diesel or petrol models all these returns are aided by the brand's latest IMT intelligent manual transmission. Now this decouples the engine from the gearbox after the driver releases the accelerator and that allows the car to enter into two possible levels of coasting depending on the conditions. The first leaves the engine idling and the second turns it off altogether. What else might you need to know? Likely residual values, well they're a lot higher than they used to be on mainstream Hyundai models independent experts reckon that after three years and 36,000 miles your i30 will still be worth around 37% of what you originally paid for it which is pretty class competitive. You can do slightly better than that if you opt for either this one litre petrol model or for the top i30N hot hatch. An even stronger buying incentive is the five year unlimited mileage warranty that comes as standard. Now this is backed up by breakdown cover that lasts the same length of time and free annual vehicle health checks too over that period. Now true rival brand Kia claims to better that package by offering a similar seven year deal but there you're limited to 100,000 miles. As for servicing well your i30 will need a garage visit every year or every 10,000 miles whichever comes around first. If you want to budget ahead for routine maintenance there are various Hyundai Sense packages which offer fixed price servicing over two, three or five year periods. You can pay for your plan monthly and you can add MOTs into the three and five year plans for an extra fee. The final financial consideration of course is insurance. Rating starter group 10 for a base SE connect variant with the one litre TGDI petrol engine. The other spec and engine combinations reside in groups 11 to 16. Obviously the i30N performance hot hatches attract a much bigger premium. They sit in group 28. Some family hatchbacks have standout qualities say in efficiency, handling or sheer style. The i30 isn't one of those but the combination of virtues that it does offer continue to make this car difficult to ignore in its segment. Plus if you potentially prioritize any of these sorts of things this i30 still hopes to have your number. Efficiency for example is addressed by this updated model's new mild hybrid tech. For handling well then you turn to the i30N hot hatch and for sheer style there's a more eye-catching fastback version. So seemingly every box is ticked. If there is a disappointment it's that along the way this model's traditional selling point, sheer value, has been somewhat diluted. The prices Hyundai is asking here are competitive but they no longer significantly undercut the established volume players in this segment and that means that this updated mk3 model has to be judged by a more testing set of standards against some very talented rivals indeed. Mainstream variants like this one lose out to some of these competitors in terms of sheer charisma or dynamic drive engagement but there aren't any other significant areas in which you could say this i30 was really lacking. This Korean brand's stated aim was that this should be a car for everyone which aside from being impossible to achieve is also a recipe for what could have been a very compromised end result. The lazy way to review this model is to dismiss it in just that way. Live with it though as we've done as part of this test and its attributes begin to shine through. For complete desirability in this segment you sense that in the future a touch of unpredictability might be needed from Hyundai when it comes to a volume seller of this sort. Something truly groundbreaking that still ticks all the boxes on every family hatch buyers wish list. With little doubt that one day the brand will provide it. Indeed the i30n hot hatch and the fastback body style prove the company's willingness to take that step. In the meantime though it's ultimately hard to do too much better for the money which means that for the time being at least the eyes still have it.