We often wonder what happened to our i30 Estate. Because she's gone now.
Things reached the point that the primitive ride and excessive road noise became too much for us, despite the affection we had for the car. We decided to follow many others into contract purchase and so, in July,acquired a new Nissan Qashqai. We've given up on diesel -- this was before Dieselgate broke and VW's fraud was discovered -- because it's doing a damn sight more damage to city life than petrol ever did, and so we have the 1.2 petrol auto. If that seems like a recipe for snail like travel, think again. Overall consumption is 36. Not great, but fine with us.
We were always disappointed that our particular i30 (August 2010) not only didn't have cruise control but that Hyundai always said it would cost a small fortune to fit same. So. . . an i30 with a manual box and no cruise control has been replaced by a Qashqai with a 7-speed auto box and cruise control. We did a 340 mile trip two weeks ago and stepped out of the Qashqai at journey's end feeling like we'd covered a mere 34. The Stop/Start fuel saver works fine, the built in large-screen satnav is superb, the DAB radio superior to our own at home, the front and rear parking sensors excellent and that same large-screen display for the reversing camera, brilliant. It's especially on NVH that the British-built Qashqai shows what a poor job Hyundai made of product refinement. Road and tire noise is down by at least a couple of decibels (which is a LOT) and ride quality, superlative. Driving position's better, too. Finally, there's that gorgeous full length panoramic roof. . . After eight months of ownership we have not a single complaint (and especially not about the sales package, including 3 years free servicing: our Hyundai i30 cost us £620 in 3 years' main dealer servicing and warranty check. Not cheap.)
Ah well. The i30 was OK for us and we were sad when she left us but, well, lack of ride refinement, level of road / tire noise, manual box and absence of cruise control in our model (and I'm talking of a specific model here: ours, not generalising) eventually took their toll on us and a farewell was inevitable. Hopefully Hyundai will increase the quality of its product in line with the way that, in the UK at least, it has kept increasing its retail prices. Up against the Nissan Qashqai though, Hyundai's i35 -- which we were given as an overnight test vehicle by the dealer, and which is obviously class-comparable to the Qashqai whereas the i30 definitely isn't -- was a total no-hoper. Awful ride, poor all around visibility, too much external noise yet AGAIN . . . Hyundai seems to have not a clue about the type of roads we have in the UK or the not unreasonable expectations that UK motorists have of the cars they drive.
Adios amigos, and thanks for the ride.
