Does the 2022 Hyundai i30 N with DCT still sound as good as the manual? That's what I was keen to find out - the facelifted i30 N now has more power and more torque, along with bigger brakes and a fresh exterior.
It now also comes with the option of a dual-clutch transmission for the first time. Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to see if it's any good!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2022-hyundai-i30-n-review
More Hyundai content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/hyundai
More Hyundai i30 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/hyundai/i30
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:03
Interior 03:24
Infotainment 04:59
Safety Tech 07:31
Practicality 08:15
On the road 11:40
Verdict 23:37
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#hyundai #i30n #review
It now also comes with the option of a dual-clutch transmission for the first time. Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to see if it's any good!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2022-hyundai-i30-n-review
More Hyundai content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/hyundai
More Hyundai i30 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/hyundai/i30
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:03
Interior 03:24
Infotainment 04:59
Safety Tech 07:31
Practicality 08:15
On the road 11:40
Verdict 23:37
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#hyundai #i30n #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 When I first drove the i30N,
00:03 one of the first questions a lot of people asked me was,
00:06 "How much is the auto?"
00:07 And I would say, "Well, there is no automatic,
00:09 "it's just manual only."
00:10 Well, they've changed that now
00:11 because Hyundai's finally released the DCT,
00:14 the dual-clutch version of the i30N.
00:17 And I'll explain why it took so long
00:19 a little later on in the video.
00:20 This one right here is the top specification i30N Premium.
00:25 This is priced at $52,000.
00:28 If that's a little bit too expensive,
00:29 the entire i30N range starts
00:31 at around the $45,000 mark with the manual,
00:33 and that's a hike of about three and a half grand
00:36 over the previous generation.
00:38 This competes with things like the Volkswagen Golf GTI,
00:40 the Renault Megane RS, and the Ford Focus ST.
00:44 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car.
00:47 So if you do want to skip ahead
00:48 to other parts of the video,
00:49 you can use the time codes up on the screen there,
00:51 or if you're on YouTube,
00:52 scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:54 And if you haven't done so already,
00:55 make sure you subscribe to our channel
00:57 and press the bell icon.
00:58 That's going to tell you every single time
01:00 we review a car and it starts raining.
01:02 Now, before we get cracking,
01:04 I've got to apologize for the wind.
01:05 It is bloody cold, bloody windy,
01:07 and getting to be bloody wet very soon.
01:10 So you've got six exterior colors to pick from.
01:12 All of the non-solid colors are $495,
01:16 but the rest are free of charge, which is good news.
01:19 In terms of the design changes,
01:20 you can see here the headlights look different.
01:21 You've got different scoops down the side,
01:23 and it's just a bit of a nip and tuck.
01:25 It's not a major change,
01:26 but it's enough of a difference to spot this out in traffic.
01:29 Now, let me know in the comments section,
01:31 what do you reckon about the baby blue color?
01:33 It's kind of the hero color of the i30 N range,
01:35 and it looks good when it came out.
01:37 I don't know if it looks good now,
01:38 but I'm keen to get your feedback.
01:40 So N badge just there,
01:42 you have this 3D effect sort of waterfall grill.
01:45 Off to the side here,
01:46 you can see you have little ducts
01:48 that shoot out down the side there.
01:49 Full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.
01:53 Whip around to the side here.
01:54 So you've got a set of 19 inch forged alloy wheels.
01:58 What is a forged alloy wheel?
02:00 Well, it's basically aluminum that's heated up
02:02 and then pressed with a high pressure machine.
02:05 And the advantage of that is that you get a stronger wheel
02:08 that is longer lasting and less resistant
02:10 to damage over time.
02:11 Behind that forged alloy wheel,
02:13 you have a set of single piston calipers
02:16 and a rotor that's increased in size from 345 mil to 360 mil.
02:20 So that's going to give you better braking performance
02:22 and heat resistance as well.
02:24 So I'll be keen to see how that goes.
02:25 And a set of Pirelli P Zero tires.
02:28 Now this is interesting because the manual i30 N
02:30 was always at its traction limits.
02:32 I'll be interested to see here with a bit more power
02:34 and torque with this facelift,
02:36 whether we have the same issue with the dual clutch.
02:39 So we'll see how that goes when we go for a drive.
02:41 Down the side here,
02:42 you have an indicator built into that wing mirror.
02:44 You get a sunroof here on the top spec version,
02:47 privacy glass, and then come around to the back.
02:49 You've got a set of LED tail lights.
02:50 I think these look really sharp
02:52 and it's just an impressive design there.
02:54 Unfortunately, you still have an incandescent globe
02:56 down the bottom.
02:57 I don't know why they go to the effort of putting LED in
03:00 and then not down the bottom there.
03:01 Light built into the spoiler
03:03 and then the spoiler up the top here
03:04 that I think looks really nice and classy.
03:06 So you can see the air sort of cuts through here
03:08 and helps sort of keep the rear down.
03:10 Twin exhaust pipes.
03:11 And I hope, fingers crossed,
03:13 that this sounds as good as the manual
03:15 because I loved the manual.
03:16 It was like fireworks.
03:18 It was fantastic.
03:19 So hopefully they've retained that with the automatic
03:20 and it still makes all the big noises
03:22 that you would expect from a little hot hatch like this.
03:24 So we're inside the i30 N.
03:25 Let's start off with the key.
03:28 So you've got lock, unlock,
03:30 and then boot with a push and hold.
03:32 On the back of that,
03:32 you'll see the Hyundai logo plus the N logo as well.
03:36 Proximity sensing key.
03:37 Once you're inside the car,
03:39 you've got a push button start to get you rolling.
03:41 Visually, not a lot has changed here.
03:43 It kind of looks pretty much the same.
03:45 The i30 N sedan, on the other hand,
03:47 looks entirely different.
03:49 If you want to see our review of the N line sedan,
03:51 click up here,
03:51 but you can see this kind of retains the rest of that look.
03:53 And to be honest, this looked good when it was launched.
03:56 Now it's starting to feel a little bit dated
03:58 and I mean, have a look at all this
03:59 dreary looking material here.
04:00 So it's kind of soft there,
04:02 but it gets nasty the further you go down.
04:05 It's all one solid color.
04:06 It's just not a really nice look.
04:08 You've got piano black around these edges as well
04:10 and around the edges of the gear shifter.
04:12 But offsetting all of that
04:13 is the design of the steering wheel.
04:15 The N comes with these buttons down here,
04:17 plus your metallic paddle shifters
04:19 that are kind of cold to the touch.
04:22 And then the N seats as well, big N logo there.
04:24 And then you have a mix of Alcantara and leather.
04:26 So really nice setup there.
04:28 Now, what about your touch points?
04:30 So this is soft and then over on the door,
04:33 it's a little bit firmer.
04:34 How soft are they?
04:35 Well, we have measured the main surfaces in this cabin
04:37 with our durometer.
04:38 If you want to see how this car compares
04:39 to other cars we've tested before,
04:41 have a look at the link in the description.
04:43 Now, what about build quality?
04:46 It seems okay.
04:47 That sort of moves around a tiny bit.
04:49 For the most part, though, this feels okay.
04:51 And of all the people that I know with i30s,
04:54 they're all still raving about
04:56 how well put together they are.
04:57 So, tick of approval there.
04:59 Okay, infotainment.
05:00 Let's have a chat about that.
05:01 You've got a 10.25 inch infotainment system.
05:05 So this is the latest whiz-bang setup from Hyundai.
05:09 This default screen here
05:10 is where you can select your driver profiles
05:11 and it's kind of the home screen.
05:13 When you swipe across, though,
05:14 this is where you get access to your menus.
05:16 You've also got the ability to use the shortcuts
05:19 that are on touch-sensitive buttons beneath the screen.
05:21 In terms of radio, you have AM/FM, DAB plus digital radio,
05:25 along with a six-speaker sound system.
05:28 You guys have asked us to talk about the sound system
05:30 in these cars and what I think of them.
05:32 We don't have a way to measure them, so to speak,
05:35 so it's just my opinion.
05:36 Sound system in this car is okay, but not amazing.
05:40 So it's not a branded sound system or anything like that.
05:42 It is just a six-speaker sound system,
05:44 but it doesn't really matter 'cause I think the sound
05:45 of the car will overcome the sound system anyway.
05:48 Let's quickly run through this feature here.
05:50 So N mode, we'll talk about this a bit more
05:52 when we go for a drive,
05:53 but I love that you have all of these options
05:56 on your infotainment display.
05:58 So this is where you can select all the custom features
06:00 of the custom driving mode.
06:02 And this is basically a G bubble.
06:04 So you can determine the intensity of everything,
06:07 including exhaust sound,
06:08 whether you want it to be sporty, normal, or sport plus.
06:13 Your ELSD, what that's doing, the transmission.
06:15 So really cool graphical interface to give you an idea
06:18 of exactly what kind of performance you're going to get.
06:20 Then you've also got the ability to customise all the gauges
06:23 down the bottom of the screen there.
06:24 So you can put whatever you'd like to see there.
06:27 Your G bubble gives you a history
06:29 of what your driving has been like.
06:32 Then you also have a performance timer.
06:34 So this will do your acceleration, lap timing,
06:36 and that kind of thing.
06:37 Then finally, performance options.
06:38 So we'll go through these in detail when we go for a drive,
06:41 but this is where you can configure your launch control
06:43 and a number of the other settings
06:45 that come standard with the car.
06:46 In terms of smartphone mirroring,
06:47 you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
06:50 This is what it looks like.
06:51 Not full screen though, which is kind of weird,
06:53 but it is fairly quick.
06:55 So you can see there, it zips through those menus.
06:57 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
06:59 So again, not a full screen integration,
07:02 but it is also nice and snappy and very quick.
07:05 In terms of the other features,
07:07 I thought I'd point out here that you have sounds of nature,
07:10 putting the kids to sleep if the gunfire
07:12 from the exhaust keeps them awake.
07:13 You also have the ability to record a voice memo
07:16 and customize your settings here as well.
07:18 So yeah, really nice infotainment system, works well.
07:21 It is just disappointing that the voice recognition
07:23 doesn't do anything unless you have a phone connected
07:25 on smartphone mirroring, and both of those require a cable,
07:28 neither of which is wireless.
07:29 So a little disappointing on those two fronts.
07:31 Moving on to safety, you've got autonomous emergency braking
07:35 with pedestrian detection.
07:36 You've got an auto dimming rear vision mirror.
07:39 Over on the wing mirror, you have a blind spot monitor.
07:42 Then on the steering wheel,
07:42 you have your lane departure warning,
07:44 your lane keeping assistant,
07:45 and a semi autonomous steering function.
07:49 I've said this before in a few of our Hyundai and Kia reviews,
07:51 it doesn't really work that well.
07:53 So I tend to just switch that stuff off.
07:55 It can get a little bit annoying,
07:56 especially when you're on country roads.
07:57 It just doesn't really know what it's doing.
07:59 In addition to that,
08:00 you also have front and rear parking sensors
08:03 and a rear view camera.
08:04 I'll show you what that looks like.
08:07 Look, the quality's okay.
08:08 It's not amazing.
08:09 You can see it's not overly sharp,
08:10 but it gets the job done.
08:12 And you also get guidelines
08:13 that move with the steering wheel as well.
08:15 Moving on to practicality,
08:16 we'll start with connectivity.
08:17 Down here, you've got two 12 volt outlets
08:20 and a single USB slot.
08:22 You also have Qi wireless phone charging.
08:25 In terms of storage, where are you gonna pop your phone?
08:27 Well, it can live down there on the wireless phone charger,
08:29 or you can slot it into the cup holders pretty easily.
08:32 In terms of the cup holders themselves,
08:35 our little bottle fits in without any drama.
08:36 You've got teeth there to hold it in.
08:39 Also fits into the door.
08:41 I wonder though, if our big bottle's gonna fit.
08:43 Let's give that a shot.
08:44 Oh, yeah, that fits as well.
08:47 Pretty cool.
08:47 Excellent, good news.
08:49 In terms of other storage,
08:50 you have a center console here, nicely sized.
08:53 Got a glove box as well that's reasonably sized too.
08:55 And finally, a sunglasses holder.
08:58 Okay, what about comfort?
08:59 You have dual zone automatic climate control,
09:02 headed seats.
09:03 You also have a heated steering wheel.
09:06 The seats themselves, they're really comfy.
09:08 They hug you in nicely
09:09 and sort of get you ready for maximum attack mode.
09:12 I forgot to mention the other cool thing.
09:13 This lights up at night as well.
09:15 It is disappointing though,
09:16 that they are fully manually adjustable.
09:19 There is no electric adjustment whatsoever.
09:21 And the steering wheel offers both tilt
09:23 and reach adjustment.
09:25 And what about our reach test?
09:27 All works fine.
09:28 All of these buttons and stuff,
09:29 easy to reach from the driver's seat.
09:31 Okay, back seat.
09:32 What's it like back here?
09:33 Well, let's start with our room.
09:35 So I've got my driver's seat pretty far back.
09:37 And generally with these sports seats,
09:38 they eat into your knee room.
09:40 But here I actually have a decent amount of knee room.
09:43 Toe room isn't good.
09:44 I'm sort of well and truly wedged there,
09:46 but for the most part, even head space is okay.
09:49 For the most part,
09:50 this feels like a good place to be seated.
09:52 It is disappointing.
09:53 There is not one USB point
09:55 and no air vents back here whatsoever.
09:58 That would be nice to see those.
10:00 But you can see that that color combination
10:02 continues back here.
10:03 You've got the Alcantara and the leather as well.
10:05 So that's pretty good.
10:06 You have a center armrest here with two cup holders.
10:09 See if that holds our bottle, no dramas.
10:11 And then that fits inside the door easily as well.
10:15 Outside of that, you've also got two
10:17 ISOFIX anchorage points and that's about it.
10:20 You do have that glass panoramic roof,
10:22 which is great if you do have the kids back here.
10:24 It gives them something to do, something to look at.
10:26 But yeah, would have loved to see USB
10:28 and also air vents back here.
10:30 Let's talk cargo space.
10:31 So you have 381 liters to work with.
10:35 And I'll run you through some of the cooler things
10:36 in here in just a second.
10:37 But you've got 12 volt outlet off to the side,
10:40 hooks up the top here, a net to hold your cargo down.
10:43 And then beneath the cargo floor,
10:44 you have a space saver spare tire.
10:46 Have a look at that.
10:47 I love that strut tower brace.
10:49 It is pretty cool.
10:50 So this gives you that extra rigidity over the rear.
10:52 And I think it just really emphasizes
10:54 that this is a pocket rocket.
10:56 It is just ready to do business
10:58 and go carve up some corners.
10:59 So really cool setup.
11:01 And I like the fact that they haven't hidden that
11:02 or tried to sort of pretend that it's not there.
11:05 How does it fit our bags?
11:06 Let's give that a shot.
11:07 So laptop bag in, suitcase won't go in that way,
11:12 but you can turn it and then it drops in nicely.
11:15 Now you can expand this space if you need a little bit more.
11:19 I'll show you what that looks like.
11:20 So we'll get rid of this first cargo blind,
11:23 snaps out pretty easily.
11:25 And once you've got that out of the way,
11:26 you can drop your seats and that expands the space
11:29 to a little over 1,280 litres.
11:32 But keep in mind, this thing's gonna get in the way
11:34 of being able to load things in
11:35 and it kind of makes the space a little bit awkward,
11:38 but it looks cool.
11:39 Okay, we've hit the road in the i30 N.
11:45 Let me start with the noise
11:46 before I tell you about the engine and stuff.
11:48 Immediately when you switch it on,
11:50 you can hear a bit of a burble.
11:51 So that is good news.
11:52 I was kind of a bit worried that with an auto,
11:55 they would kill all of the fun stuff
11:57 that the i30 N was about,
11:58 'cause that's kind of what they do with the Focus ST.
12:00 You went to the auto and all of a sudden,
12:02 it just sounded terrible.
12:03 So big tick on that.
12:05 Now, two litre turbocharged petrol engine.
12:08 That's unchanged in terms of capacity,
12:10 but where it has changed is in terms of power and torque.
12:13 So now produces 206 kilowatts of power
12:16 and 392 newton metres of torque.
12:19 That's up four kilowatts of power
12:20 and about 40 newton metres of torque
12:22 over the old version of this engine.
12:24 So you are going to feel that behind the wheel
12:27 because a front wheel drive car,
12:29 every single extra kilowatt you cram into it,
12:31 you definitely feel from behind this thing right here.
12:34 And that's all mated to an eight speed dual clutch automatic.
12:38 So I mentioned early on that there was a reason
12:41 this didn't launch with the actual car.
12:43 And that reason is because they didn't have
12:46 a good enough gearbox yet.
12:47 So Hyundai did have other dual clutch gearboxes
12:50 in their suite, but as you've seen
12:51 in some of our other video reviews of Hyundai products,
12:54 the dual clutch gearboxes really aren't that good.
12:57 They're susceptible to overheating.
12:58 And in an application like this,
12:59 where they provide a track warranty,
13:02 it's not really something that you want to have
13:04 within the car.
13:05 So Albert Biermann, the bloke that used to head
13:07 BMW's M division for more than a decade,
13:10 basically said, okay, let's start from scratch.
13:11 We need a gearbox that's going to work in this car
13:14 and let's not faff about.
13:16 Let's get a proper dual clutch gearbox.
13:17 And that's what they claim to have come up with.
13:21 So before we get onto how it drives
13:22 and all that sort of stuff,
13:23 what is the fuel economy like?
13:24 So Hyundai claims eight and a half litres per 100 kilometres.
13:29 Let's have a look at what we're doing.
13:31 We are currently on a combined 11.2 litres per 100 K.
13:35 So a couple of caveats here.
13:37 This car, when we picked it up,
13:38 has been tested by some of my other team members.
13:41 It's done a bit of highway driving
13:42 and we've done some performance testing today.
13:43 So it's probably a higher figure
13:45 than what you'd expect to achieve with this.
13:47 But given the type of car that it is,
13:49 I don't think that's too bad.
13:51 Now, most importantly,
13:52 what does all this feel like behind the wheel?
13:54 It's our dual clutch like,
13:55 so I'm gonna give it a little punch here.
13:57 Yeah, that is nice and snappy.
14:01 I like that.
14:02 That feels really good.
14:05 Okay, I'm gonna come to just a stop here
14:08 and I just wanna see what it's like off the standing start.
14:10 'Cause this is one of those things
14:11 that I just hate about dual clutches,
14:13 how lurchy they can be.
14:14 That's actually pretty good.
14:19 I don't mind that.
14:20 And just before I reversed up a hill as well
14:22 and it worked really well.
14:24 I'm actually surprised.
14:25 I genuinely thought this wasn't going to be very good,
14:28 but that is actually pretty impressive.
14:30 Let's talk about the ride.
14:31 So this vehicle has international hardware.
14:34 So the hardware is the same for other i30Ns,
14:37 but our local ride and handling tune
14:40 is bespoke to Australia.
14:41 So in each of the drive modes
14:43 that I'll run through in just a second,
14:44 this has a tune that you'll only find
14:46 on the Australian market.
14:47 At this stage, it may end up in other markets at some point,
14:50 but that gives you an idea of how well
14:52 it has been put together for Australian conditions.
14:55 And right now, the road that we're on
14:56 is typical of a country road.
14:58 It's got bumps.
14:59 It's sort of all over the shop
15:00 and it's handling it really well in its normal mode.
15:03 You do have a stack of different drive modes
15:05 to choose from though.
15:05 So on the steering wheel here,
15:06 you have a big blue drive mode button,
15:08 matches the exterior colour of this car.
15:10 And then a big flag, which is your N performance button.
15:13 So your drive mode allows you to go
15:15 between normal, sport and eco.
15:17 Each of those modes will do something different
15:19 in terms of the way the car feels.
15:21 So in normal, the steering's nice and light,
15:22 the ride's comfortable.
15:23 In sport, it gets a little bit more aggressive.
15:25 I can feel that it is firmer,
15:27 the steering feels heavier as well.
15:29 And then in eco mode, it dulls everything down.
15:31 So you're using as little fuel as possible.
15:33 But then when you hit this button here,
15:35 it puts the gearbox into its aggressive driving mode,
15:37 comes up with a little N flag,
15:39 puts it into ESC sport mode, and it's ready for attack.
15:42 You can also hear it becomes louder from the outside.
15:45 And that's a good thing because the auto has not lost
15:48 its characteristic bark.
15:49 Have a listen to this.
15:50 (car engine roaring)
15:53 There it is.
16:01 You're getting, oh, that is so good.
16:02 You're getting cracks and pops.
16:04 Go back through the gears there, give it another punch.
16:06 That is so good.
16:11 Love also that you've got two things to note here.
16:14 Up the top here, you've got some shift lights.
16:16 So as you get to the top of that gear,
16:20 it will tell you to shift.
16:21 But secondly, the thing that really will help you
16:24 if you do a lot of track driving,
16:26 it allows you to pre-select gears.
16:27 Often with these autos, it won't let you downshift
16:30 if you're going to hit the rev limiter in the previous gear.
16:32 So we're in second, and I'm gonna show you how that works
16:35 as we approach this corner.
16:37 If I go to first now, nothing happens
16:38 'cause we can't get first.
16:39 But as I'm slowing down, if I grab first,
16:41 it waits until first is ready, pre-selects it,
16:45 then gives it to me as soon as we're good to go.
16:47 So in that sense, it's going to serve you much better
16:50 on a racetrack because it means you don't have to sit there
16:52 worrying about what your RPMs are doing.
16:53 All you do is grab the gear and it will deliver that gear
16:55 when the engine is capable of doing it.
16:58 So we are in our N mode now.
16:59 Let's go for a bit of a punt here.
17:02 See how it goes.
17:03 I'm gonna leave that in manual mode.
17:04 The noises that are coming out of this thing
17:09 are absolutely sensational.
17:11 And I've got to tell you, this is absolutely hammering.
17:14 So it is very wet outside at the moment.
17:17 And in that sense,
17:18 it's not going to have a great deal of traction.
17:20 It does understeer a little bit until the tyres get warm,
17:22 but that's all perfectly normal of a front-wheel drive car.
17:26 Has so much go-ahead range.
17:31 It is really impressive.
17:32 The other thing that it does as well
17:33 that caught me off guard earlier,
17:35 it will actually lift off oversteer,
17:38 especially here in the N mode in ESC Sport.
17:41 If you come into a corner hot,
17:43 get off the throttle really quick
17:44 with some yaw on the steering,
17:46 it will then try and oversteer,
17:48 which I think is just a really cool characteristic.
17:50 It makes it incredibly enjoyable to drive.
17:52 And it just puts a smile on your face.
17:54 And that's exactly what this car is about.
17:56 This is the best sounding hot hatch in this segment.
18:00 There really is not a better sounding hot hatch
18:02 that sounds like that every time you let off the throttle.
18:05 Now, I will call out that when it is in the N mode,
18:09 the ride is bloody firm.
18:10 And obviously this road isn't perfect
18:13 for this kind of driving.
18:14 On a smooth racetrack,
18:15 it's going to be obviously more ideal,
18:17 but in and around town,
18:19 you don't want to be in that N mode.
18:22 Thankfully though, you can set up a custom mode
18:24 so that you can have light steering and soft suspension,
18:28 but still have all the theatrics from the exhaust.
18:30 So that is one of the benefits
18:31 of the many sort of drive modes you have to choose from.
18:35 I'll quickly touch on the brakes and the steering feel.
18:37 The brakes are probably one of the most impressive aspects
18:40 of this vehicle.
18:41 So yes, they're confident.
18:42 So if you sort of stand on the brakes,
18:44 you really get a lot of feedback through the pedal.
18:46 It doesn't go long.
18:47 It's not overly touchy.
18:48 It is just a perfect balance.
18:50 And it means that if you are at a racetrack,
18:52 they have enough heat dissipation
18:54 to not enter into that fade mode
18:56 where you don't have any confidence in its ability to stop.
18:59 And same thing with the steering,
19:00 despite in sport mode having a fair bit of weight to it,
19:04 it actually offers a decent amount of communication.
19:06 That means that you always know what the car's doing.
19:08 It's kind of always communicating to you
19:10 and you can place it on the road
19:11 without sort of wondering what's going on under the front end.
19:14 Let's talk about some of the features
19:16 that are unique to the dual clutch gearbox.
19:18 You've got N power shift mode.
19:20 So if you take the throttle down to greater than 90%,
19:23 it won't actually cut torque between gear shifts.
19:25 So you get a more firm punch in the back.
19:27 So I'll give this a kick now.
19:28 And then as we grab that next gear,
19:32 it basically just switches over immediately.
19:34 There is no lag.
19:35 It grabs the next gear and there is no torque cut.
19:37 Often what you'll find is that you feel it hesitating
19:40 as it goes between those gears, but plus 90%,
19:43 and it's going to hit as hard as it possibly can.
19:46 Up the front there,
19:46 you have an electronic limited slip differential.
19:50 Now what that means is if we were in any other
19:51 front wheel drive car here and I punched it,
19:53 it would just spin the inside wheel.
19:55 Now, if I punch it, it pushes as wide
19:58 because it is locking that front differential
20:00 to give you maximum torque out of the corner.
20:03 With front wheel drive cars that don't have
20:05 a limited slip differential at the front,
20:06 you'll find that all they do is spin the inside wheel
20:09 for days and you don't actually get anywhere.
20:11 The other feature you're going to find here
20:12 with the dual clutch is track sense.
20:14 It'll detect that you're on a racetrack
20:16 and then it will put everything
20:17 into its most dynamic setting.
20:18 It'll give you the most aggressive shift patterns
20:20 to make sure that you're having the most fun
20:22 without having to stress too much about all the settings.
20:25 And the good thing is if you go to the end performance menu,
20:27 you can actually activate and deactivate all this stuff.
20:29 So if you find that it is activating
20:30 when you're not actually at the racetrack
20:32 and it's getting a little bit annoying,
20:33 you just switch all that stuff off
20:34 and you don't have to worry about it.
20:35 There is one other thing I want to mention here as well.
20:37 It's called N-Grin Shift.
20:38 It's a pretty silly name,
20:39 but button here on the steering wheel,
20:41 you give it one push and it gives you maximum torque
20:44 for 20 seconds.
20:44 So it means you just get stuck into it and away you go.
20:47 Okay, 0 to 100 Hyundai claims a time of 5.9 seconds.
20:55 And I wanted to see how quick it would do it
20:57 when we gave it a shot.
20:59 The problem is it is wet outside
21:01 and there really is no point us hooking up the V-Box
21:04 and doing this sort of officially.
21:06 So we're just going to do it with a stopwatch,
21:08 but I will run you through how launch control works.
21:10 So here on the home screen,
21:11 if you select N mode,
21:13 you go into performance options, launch control,
21:17 you can actually set what level
21:18 you want the launch control to hit at.
21:20 So you can go all the way from 2,500 RPM,
21:22 all the way through to 3,500 RPM.
21:25 Given it is absolutely sopping wet outside at the moment,
21:29 I'm going to go with a lower RPM.
21:31 Once we're happy with that,
21:32 all you do is you hit activate
21:34 and it will come up with a little activate light there
21:36 and it's ready to go.
21:37 Then you just hold the brake and the throttle
21:38 and it will do the rest.
21:39 What we'll actually do,
21:40 I will disable traction control and stability control
21:43 just so we can get a clean run.
21:45 I'll just modulate the throttle.
21:47 So here we go, let's give it a shot.
21:48 So foot hard on the brake, hard on the throttle.
21:50 You can see there launch ready.
21:52 I can hear it doing its thing.
21:53 Let go of the brake.
21:54 Wheel spin city, but I'm just modulating the throttle
21:58 and I'll stay in it.
21:59 There's 100.
22:02 That was literally the most pointless thing in the world,
22:04 but we've done it and there it is.
22:07 So we need to wait for some dry weather
22:09 before we can actually properly test this out.
22:11 Okay, let me put this back into quiet mode.
22:17 What's the road noise like?
22:18 Well, if you think I'm yelling at you,
22:20 it's because I kind of am.
22:22 There is a lot of tire noise coming into the cabin
22:24 and look, that's the trade-off
22:25 you're going to get with these tires.
22:26 The P-Zero's are geared towards track driving.
22:29 And in this instance,
22:30 they're picking up a lot of the course chip surface here
22:32 and transmitting that into the cabin.
22:33 So if you're doing a lot of highway Ks,
22:35 it probably is going to get frustrating in the long run.
22:38 What about the ride?
22:39 So it is firm in N mode, but in normal mode,
22:43 it's very much on the firmer side of comfortable
22:46 and it feels quite sporty.
22:47 So it's not as jarring as something like a Focus ST,
22:50 but it is pretty firm in that sense.
22:52 And look again, that is going to be one of those trade-offs.
22:55 If you do want a softer ride,
22:56 the N line is probably your better bet.
22:58 But if you do want the full aggressiveness
23:01 and the ability to go to the track
23:02 and all that sort of stuff,
23:03 this is one of the trade-offs you're going to make that,
23:05 yes, it is comfortable,
23:06 but you will notice that it is quite firm,
23:08 even in the normal suspension setting.
23:10 Let's talk visibility.
23:10 So the good news is it's exactly like any other i30.
23:13 That means you can see clearly out the front there.
23:16 Vision down the side is good
23:17 with a blind spot monitor built into the wing mirror
23:20 and visibility at the rear is okay.
23:22 It's just a narrow envelope there.
23:24 So it is a little tricky to see out that back window.
23:26 Finally, there's a turning circle of 11.6 metres.
23:30 A little bit big,
23:31 but it tends to be with vehicles like this
23:33 that have limited slip diffs at the front.
23:35 So the Hyundai i30 N, tell you what,
23:40 this dual clutch gearbox is an absolute winner.
23:42 They have ticked all the right boxes with it
23:44 and it transforms it from being what was already a fun car,
23:47 but sometimes not that practical being manual only,
23:50 to a car that comes with all the theatrics
23:52 that the manual did,
23:53 plus you have a competent dual clutch gearbox
23:55 that isn't annoying like some dual clutch gearboxes.
23:58 So it really is a win-win situation.
24:00 It's also pretty affordable
24:01 when you look at the price of some of the competitors
24:03 in this segment at the moment.
24:04 So even though it is more expensive,
24:06 it is still quite affordable.
24:07 So big tick of approval from me.
24:09 And if you drive one of these, I don't know,
24:11 I would just always have it in the N mode
24:13 because the sounds that it makes are really, really awesome.
24:15 So let me know in the comment section below,
24:17 what do you think about the i30 N
24:19 and does the fact that it's now an auto
24:21 make it more appealing to you
24:22 or were you always just gonna buy the manual anyway?
24:24 I'm really keen for your feedback.
24:26 Now, if you did enjoy this video,
24:27 please make sure you like it
24:28 and you share it with your mates.
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24:32 every single time we drive
24:33 little ripper hot hatches like this.
24:35 But until next time, take it easy.