The Hyundai i30N: A Fun and Performative Hot Hatch

I recently had the opportunity to review the Hyundai i30N, and I must say it's a car that definitely warrants consideration for anyone looking for a fun and engaging driving experience. As I sat down with my test car, I was immediately struck by its sleek and sporty design. The exterior colors available, limited to flat red and flat black, are certainly bold choices, but they also add to the car's aggressive stance on the road.

One of the standout features of the i30N is its extensive configurability. In custom mode, Hyundai allows you to tailor every aspect of the car's settings, from engine aggressiveness to electronic limited slip differential. This level of control is truly impressive and gives the driver the ability to create their perfect driving experience. With a simple menu system and intuitive controls, it's easy to adjust everything to your liking.

Of course, no discussion of the i30N would be complete without mentioning its performance. The car's 2.0-liter turbocharged engine produces a respectable 270 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque, making it a formidable opponent on the road. But what really sets the i30N apart is its handling and responsiveness. With a chassis braking system that allows for more precise control, the car feels incredibly agile and planted.

However, not everything about the i30N is sunshine and rainbows. One notable drawback is the lack of standard features in terms of color options. If you want to customize your car's appearance, you'll need to shell out extra money for anything beyond the two flat colors available as standard. Additionally, the absence of adaptive cruise control, which uses a radar system to maintain safe distances from other cars, leaves the i30N somewhat lacking in this regard.

But these are minor complaints when compared to some of the other benefits that make the i30N such an excellent choice. For one, Hyundai's commitment to building performance-oriented cars is evident in every aspect of the vehicle. The car's weight savings, achieved through the use of lighter wheels and a reduced unsprung mass, makes it incredibly responsive and agile on the road.

Perhaps one of the most impressive features of the i30N is its exhaustive list of gauges and monitoring systems. With everything from oil temperature to turbo pressure displayed prominently on the instrument cluster, the driver has access to an incredible amount of information at their fingertips. And for those who enjoy pushing their cars hard, the addition of a performance timer allows you to track your acceleration and lap times with ease.

In terms of track use, Hyundai's extended five-year warranty is a welcome bonus. This means that even if you do decide to push your car hard on the track, you won't have to worry about invalidating your warranty. And speaking of track days, the i30N's manual transmission model is capable of impressive acceleration, with a 0-60 time of just 5.9 seconds.

In my own testing, I found that the automatic launch control mode, which was supposed to be capable of achieving the same 0-60 time as the manual, struggled with traction and wheelspin. However, once I managed to get past these initial issues, I was able to achieve a respectable lap time on the track. The i30N's performance is undoubtedly impressive, but it's clear that this car is all about finesse and control rather than outright brute force.

Ultimately, my verdict on the Hyundai i30N is one of cautious optimism. While there are certainly some drawbacks to be found, such as the limited color options and lack of advanced driver assistance systems, the car's numerous strengths make it an excellent choice for anyone looking for a fun and engaging driving experience. With its customizable settings, impressive handling, and extensive list of features, the i30N is definitely worth considering – but do your research and test drive before committing to a purchase.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the hyundai i30n and it's a little bit like korean fried chicken because it's hyundai's take on the classic hot hatch recipe and we'll be finding out in this video just how tasty it really is now i'm going to talk about the exterior of the interior explain the upgrades of the standard i30 and some changes that highland i've made to this car as part of a recent midlife facelift obviously i'm going to launch it as well to see how quick it is for north 60 miles an hour i'm at watson and you're watching car wow buy sell car wow the i38n is powered by a two-liter four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine now honda have tweaked it slightly so it's now got 280 horsepower which is an increase of five horsepower over the previous car however torque is now up to 392 newton meters which is 39 newton meters more than before we'll find out just how quick it is in a bit when i launch it now if you like these kind of videos make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn your notifications on so you don't miss a single upload the i38 has upgraded brakes over the standard i30 though hyundai hasn't changed them as part of the facelift they're the same as they were before so you've got 360 millimeter discs up front and 314 at the rear both gripped by single piston calipers let's try them out okay let's do an emergency stop from 60 miles an hour see how long it takes his car to stop right how long did it take 35 meters and today average the i38n has loaded stiffened sports suspension compared to the standard i30 it actually sits eight millimeters low to the ground it also gets adaptive dampers as standard and for this latest generation version hydra's tweaked that setup ever so slightly it also gets beefier anti-roll bars than the standard car plenty of chassis bracing and an electronically controlled limited slip differential on the front axle the i3m comes with either a short throw six-speed manual or an eight-speed dual clutch also with launch control obviously it's front-wheel drive only unlike the toyota gr yaris which is four wheel drive and if that's more your bag click on the pop-up bar up there for the link in the description below and watch my video on that car okay let's see what this hyundai i30 is like to drive let's go for it oh yeah good gear shift solid oh let's go to end mode for maximum attack oh my gosh i think i've now got maximum discomfort in my spine this car is skipping about all over the place the suspension is too hard in end mode what i'm going to do is switch into custom where i've set everything else up for maximum attack but the suspension is soft even then it's still quite firm so the car does stay nice and level in the bends it's flowing more down the road rather than just skipping down it oh that's good the rev matching on this car is brilliant so it's also good just the balance of the car it really gives you loads of confidence just tuning it around the steering is sharp and precise it's a total maniac you get some great noises from the exhaust you know just changing gear for the hell of it oh oh the gear shift is good it's not as slick as the gear shift on a honda civic tie bar on track you'll notice the civic just seems just more keyed in now if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car click on the pop-out banner over there for the link in the description but still overall this is an absolute blast to drive on a twisty road the end version of the i30 has a much more aggressive nose on it with big air vents it's got this red piping here as well and as part of the midlife facelift they've added these little bits there and some new headlights the leds obviously you've got 19-inch alloy wheels as standard the designs are different than before but you still get red brake calipers over the center car you get this side skirt here which is essential obviously on a hot hatch as is the roof spoiler no change there though what is new the design of the tail lamps as before you've got your i3m badge there you've also got fake diffuser that's just like on the previous generation version however what they have done is move the red piping from here so it's on this part of the car they've also made the exhaust pipes slightly larger so i think the exhaust within is about the same size now the sewing price of this car is 34 000 pounds so you can save almost 2 000 pounds off on through car wow and if you want to see how much money you can save on your next car click on the pop out banner up there or for the link in the description below to go to the car wow alternatively a later date just simply google help me car wow and me and my team will help you get your ideal car and make sure you pay a fair price for it compared to the normal i30 the n gets a sport steering wheel with an n on it you also get some drive mode buttons an n on your rev counter some shift up lights there's aluminium pedals an n knob you also get some stitching that's contrasted and you get n floor mats n kit plates and some n sport seats and these are actually new compared to the previous i-38 but they even have this little illuminated end badge on them which is really cool what's also new is this larger infotainment screen obviously one of the key things with a hot hatch is that not only should it be fun to drive it should be easy to live with and so this hyundai i38 needs to be able to cope around town one of the things that you get standard is all around parking sensors and reversing camera which is handy when it comes to slotting the car into space and you got decent visibility and stuff like which is all good and it's really easy to maneuver the steering weight is quite chunky even when you have the car in normal mode but it's not too bad and so it's quite easy to park and maneuver you do notice that the clutch is a little bit on the firm side so if you do a lot of town driving and you want a sporty car then you probably want the automatic version of this i30n now one of the big complaints about this car previously was the fact the suspension was too firm even when you had it in its softest setting so hyundai's worked on that and i'm happy to report that it is better than before it still has a firm edge to it and i think the honda civic type r in its softest mode is still a bit better over bumps than this but it's not too bad so then intel and overall it's not brilliant but it's not terrible either another key feature of a hot hatch is that it's still practical for your family so look there's plenty of room in the back seats loads of headroom and new rooms especially good i think it's because these sport seats are even thinner and the seats get on the standard i-30 so it's even better here in the sporty model so to the seats here in the back because you get this lovely grippy alcantara material on them oh there's also some sporty floor mats as well to lift the cabin a bit when you get out on faster roads you do appreciate the punch from this car's engine so i'm at 50 and fourth put my foot down it responds really well hold any lag and then you can just punch past other cars to overtake but then once you're up to speed you notice probably the biggest issue with long distance driving in this hyundai the tires make a lot of noise when you're going at 70 miles an hour that gets a new nerds after a while you do end up turning the stereo quite a bit another thing i noticed the seat base is quite firm so you can get a bit of an achy bottom after a long time behind the wheel in fact as a daily it's livable this car is a lot of fun and obviously it's compromised in certain areas to make it fun in others and i can accept that the big capacity of the i-38 is less than the standard 30 is at 381 liters still that's okay though is it really when you compare it the boot capacity of a skoda octavia vrs if you want to see my four-in-depth video review of that car click on the pop-up there i'll throw the link in the description below anyway that brings up to five or nine things about the i-30n there are only two standard colors flat red and flat black neither of which you really want you have to pay extra for anything else and you definitely want this color because it's the best it's 585 pound though i've got the card set up exactly as i want it in custom mode like that trouble is though when i turn it off and restart it it always defaults to normal modes after the pressing of buttons again why can't i just have the car start as i like it it's my car if you want the automatic version of this car you have to pay an extra 2 000 pounds well actually you have to pay an extra 2 500 pounds because for the first year of road tax the automatic is 500 pounds a year more than the normal manual the normal i30 is available with adaptive cruise control so it uses a radar to keep you safe distance from the car in front however that radar system is not available on the i30n this is normal cruise control which is useless one of the manufacturers managed to add chassis braking to their sporty cars and keep it hidden under the floor hi and i have fitted this bar which is in the boot and it affects the practicality you can remove it if you wanted by unscrewing some bolts but really you shouldn't have to do that it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car unlike many other manufacturers hyundai lets you configure all the different settings of the car individually so you can create your perfect setup in custom mode so you can choose different settings for the aggressiveness and responsiveness of the engine how quick the red matching is for the gearbox how aggressive the electronically controlled limited slip differential is how noisy the exhaust is how much the esc intervenes how weighted the steering is and how stiff the suspension is brilliant the i-38 appears to do a big to the latest noise regulations because there's no soft limiter here and this exhaust system is super raucous go and start it up and rev it oh yeah antisocial these sports are two kilograms lighter than those in the old car and the wheels are 14 kilograms lighter overall and that's unsprung mass which helps improve the handling hyundai's come with a five-year warranty now the one the i38 actually extends to track use so you won't invalidate your warranty if you hoon it endlessly around the track well so long as you don't modify the car the i3n has a load of performance related gauges and you can show two of them at once so the gauges are oil temperature coolant speed power torque and turbo plus you have a g meter as well on top of that you have a performance timer so you can actually measure your lap times and your acceleration say not to 60 70 80 90 100 how far will it go up 120 is the maximum allow you to measure too high and i says the manual version of this i30 should do not 60 in 5.9 seconds which is 0.2 of a second quicker than the old car but let's see what i can get and he's my suspicious timing gear up here i'm trying not to spin up the wheels too much whilst also not bogging down come on bit of boggage but no spinach oh it's spinning there and traction there again seven point one six all right let's try with traction off see if we can do better it's a bit better spinning there though it's pulling through better 6.75 not 5.9 though is it maybe i've had the auto launch better speaking which that is supposed to be not 60 in 5.4 seconds i think might have the same problem with traction and real spinach and stuff so then what's my final verdict on the hyundai i38 should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should shortlist the i30n it really is a good fun hot hatch i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did give it a like click on those windows there for some more videos and on that box there to go to carl to see how much your car is really worth you just upload some photos and our dealers will bid on it and if you want to sell it to one of them you just pick the best offer they'll come to your house take your car away put the money straight in your account it's completely freethis is the hyundai i30n and it's a little bit like korean fried chicken because it's hyundai's take on the classic hot hatch recipe and we'll be finding out in this video just how tasty it really is now i'm going to talk about the exterior of the interior explain the upgrades of the standard i30 and some changes that highland i've made to this car as part of a recent midlife facelift obviously i'm going to launch it as well to see how quick it is for north 60 miles an hour i'm at watson and you're watching car wow buy sell car wow the i38n is powered by a two-liter four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine now honda have tweaked it slightly so it's now got 280 horsepower which is an increase of five horsepower over the previous car however torque is now up to 392 newton meters which is 39 newton meters more than before we'll find out just how quick it is in a bit when i launch it now if you like these kind of videos make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn your notifications on so you don't miss a single upload the i38 has upgraded brakes over the standard i30 though hyundai hasn't changed them as part of the facelift they're the same as they were before so you've got 360 millimeter discs up front and 314 at the rear both gripped by single piston calipers let's try them out okay let's do an emergency stop from 60 miles an hour see how long it takes his car to stop right how long did it take 35 meters and today average the i38n has loaded stiffened sports suspension compared to the standard i30 it actually sits eight millimeters low to the ground it also gets adaptive dampers as standard and for this latest generation version hydra's tweaked that setup ever so slightly it also gets beefier anti-roll bars than the standard car plenty of chassis bracing and an electronically controlled limited slip differential on the front axle the i3m comes with either a short throw six-speed manual or an eight-speed dual clutch also with launch control obviously it's front-wheel drive only unlike the toyota gr yaris which is four wheel drive and if that's more your bag click on the pop-up bar up there for the link in the description below and watch my video on that car okay let's see what this hyundai i30 is like to drive let's go for it oh yeah good gear shift solid oh let's go to end mode for maximum attack oh my gosh i think i've now got maximum discomfort in my spine this car is skipping about all over the place the suspension is too hard in end mode what i'm going to do is switch into custom where i've set everything else up for maximum attack but the suspension is soft even then it's still quite firm so the car does stay nice and level in the bends it's flowing more down the road rather than just skipping down it oh that's good the rev matching on this car is brilliant so it's also good just the balance of the car it really gives you loads of confidence just tuning it around the steering is sharp and precise it's a total maniac you get some great noises from the exhaust you know just changing gear for the hell of it oh oh the gear shift is good it's not as slick as the gear shift on a honda civic tie bar on track you'll notice the civic just seems just more keyed in now if you want to see my full in-depth video review of that car click on the pop-out banner over there for the link in the description but still overall this is an absolute blast to drive on a twisty road the end version of the i30 has a much more aggressive nose on it with big air vents it's got this red piping here as well and as part of the midlife facelift they've added these little bits there and some new headlights the leds obviously you've got 19-inch alloy wheels as standard the designs are different than before but you still get red brake calipers over the center car you get this side skirt here which is essential obviously on a hot hatch as is the roof spoiler no change there though what is new the design of the tail lamps as before you've got your i3m badge there you've also got fake diffuser that's just like on the previous generation version however what they have done is move the red piping from here so it's on this part of the car they've also made the exhaust pipes slightly larger so i think the exhaust within is about the same size now the sewing price of this car is 34 000 pounds so you can save almost 2 000 pounds off on through car wow and if you want to see how much money you can save on your next car click on the pop out banner up there or for the link in the description below to go to the car wow alternatively a later date just simply google help me car wow and me and my team will help you get your ideal car and make sure you pay a fair price for it compared to the normal i30 the n gets a sport steering wheel with an n on it you also get some drive mode buttons an n on your rev counter some shift up lights there's aluminium pedals an n knob you also get some stitching that's contrasted and you get n floor mats n kit plates and some n sport seats and these are actually new compared to the previous i-38 but they even have this little illuminated end badge on them which is really cool what's also new is this larger infotainment screen obviously one of the key things with a hot hatch is that not only should it be fun to drive it should be easy to live with and so this hyundai i38 needs to be able to cope around town one of the things that you get standard is all around parking sensors and reversing camera which is handy when it comes to slotting the car into space and you got decent visibility and stuff like which is all good and it's really easy to maneuver the steering weight is quite chunky even when you have the car in normal mode but it's not too bad and so it's quite easy to park and maneuver you do notice that the clutch is a little bit on the firm side so if you do a lot of town driving and you want a sporty car then you probably want the automatic version of this i30n now one of the big complaints about this car previously was the fact the suspension was too firm even when you had it in its softest setting so hyundai's worked on that and i'm happy to report that it is better than before it still has a firm edge to it and i think the honda civic type r in its softest mode is still a bit better over bumps than this but it's not too bad so then intel and overall it's not brilliant but it's not terrible either another key feature of a hot hatch is that it's still practical for your family so look there's plenty of room in the back seats loads of headroom and new rooms especially good i think it's because these sport seats are even thinner and the seats get on the standard i-30 so it's even better here in the sporty model so to the seats here in the back because you get this lovely grippy alcantara material on them oh there's also some sporty floor mats as well to lift the cabin a bit when you get out on faster roads you do appreciate the punch from this car's engine so i'm at 50 and fourth put my foot down it responds really well hold any lag and then you can just punch past other cars to overtake but then once you're up to speed you notice probably the biggest issue with long distance driving in this hyundai the tires make a lot of noise when you're going at 70 miles an hour that gets a new nerds after a while you do end up turning the stereo quite a bit another thing i noticed the seat base is quite firm so you can get a bit of an achy bottom after a long time behind the wheel in fact as a daily it's livable this car is a lot of fun and obviously it's compromised in certain areas to make it fun in others and i can accept that the big capacity of the i-38 is less than the standard 30 is at 381 liters still that's okay though is it really when you compare it the boot capacity of a skoda octavia vrs if you want to see my four-in-depth video review of that car click on the pop-up there i'll throw the link in the description below anyway that brings up to five or nine things about the i-30n there are only two standard colors flat red and flat black neither of which you really want you have to pay extra for anything else and you definitely want this color because it's the best it's 585 pound though i've got the card set up exactly as i want it in custom mode like that trouble is though when i turn it off and restart it it always defaults to normal modes after the pressing of buttons again why can't i just have the car start as i like it it's my car if you want the automatic version of this car you have to pay an extra 2 000 pounds well actually you have to pay an extra 2 500 pounds because for the first year of road tax the automatic is 500 pounds a year more than the normal manual the normal i30 is available with adaptive cruise control so it uses a radar to keep you safe distance from the car in front however that radar system is not available on the i30n this is normal cruise control which is useless one of the manufacturers managed to add chassis braking to their sporty cars and keep it hidden under the floor hi and i have fitted this bar which is in the boot and it affects the practicality you can remove it if you wanted by unscrewing some bolts but really you shouldn't have to do that it's not all negative though here's five good things about this car unlike many other manufacturers hyundai lets you configure all the different settings of the car individually so you can create your perfect setup in custom mode so you can choose different settings for the aggressiveness and responsiveness of the engine how quick the red matching is for the gearbox how aggressive the electronically controlled limited slip differential is how noisy the exhaust is how much the esc intervenes how weighted the steering is and how stiff the suspension is brilliant the i-38 appears to do a big to the latest noise regulations because there's no soft limiter here and this exhaust system is super raucous go and start it up and rev it oh yeah antisocial these sports are two kilograms lighter than those in the old car and the wheels are 14 kilograms lighter overall and that's unsprung mass which helps improve the handling hyundai's come with a five-year warranty now the one the i38 actually extends to track use so you won't invalidate your warranty if you hoon it endlessly around the track well so long as you don't modify the car the i3n has a load of performance related gauges and you can show two of them at once so the gauges are oil temperature coolant speed power torque and turbo plus you have a g meter as well on top of that you have a performance timer so you can actually measure your lap times and your acceleration say not to 60 70 80 90 100 how far will it go up 120 is the maximum allow you to measure too high and i says the manual version of this i30 should do not 60 in 5.9 seconds which is 0.2 of a second quicker than the old car but let's see what i can get and he's my suspicious timing gear up here i'm trying not to spin up the wheels too much whilst also not bogging down come on bit of boggage but no spinach oh it's spinning there and traction there again seven point one six all right let's try with traction off see if we can do better it's a bit better spinning there though it's pulling through better 6.75 not 5.9 though is it maybe i've had the auto launch better speaking which that is supposed to be not 60 in 5.4 seconds i think might have the same problem with traction and real spinach and stuff so then what's my final verdict on the hyundai i38 should you avoid it should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should shortlist the i30n it really is a good fun hot hatch i hope you all enjoyed the video if you did give it a like click on those windows there for some more videos and on that box there to go to carl to see how much your car is really worth you just upload some photos and our dealers will bid on it and if you want to sell it to one of them you just pick the best offer they'll come to your house take your car away put the money straight in your account it's completely free\n"