I have now spent several hours at the Silverstone Race Centre attending a customer user experience with Hyundai to test drive the new 2012 i30 and give Hyundai feedback of my opinions about the new car. The previous few days had been taken up with dealerships being afforded the opportunity to be shown the car and it was only at the last minute that Hyundai had decided to extend the show by a further day to invite selected prospective customers to be given the same experience.
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The considerable amount of information posted on this forum had been most useful and allowed me to concentrate on those areas of particular interest to me – not least the level of refinement and cabin noise in the car, and the chance to compare the 1.4 petrol version with the 1.6 diesel models. Regular members of the forum will know that I have significant hearing loss and wear hearing aids. My present i30 is by no means a noisy car - but still a problem for me to hold a conversation in. I was therefore keen to try the new car and check whether the claimed improvement in refinement was enough to get me to buy one.
I do not apologise for the fact that I only took a detailed interest in the top of the range Style and Style Nav models because I had already decided that that was where my interest lay – if indeed I could be tempted into part exchanging my current 2010 i30 CRDi Premium for the latest model. However, I must admit that the Classic base model has a commendable range of standard features and a high quality interior. Externally, only the naff wheel covers on steel wheels and lack of twin chrome bars in the front radiator grill betray its basement bargain status. My first impressions of the Style model were totally favourable – it has great road presence, is well appointed, roomy, comfortable, a high standard of fit and finish and is a significant step up from the existing model in nearly all respects. However - there are a few disappointments which I will mention later.
There were 33 people attending the event ranging from young petrol heads to geriatric teenagers. There are no prizes for guessing where my wife and I fitted into that spectrum. Hyundai had provided about 30 cars from the range for us to try out both on the public roads and on the Silverstone test facilities and Stowe track. We were split into two groups – one group to do the road course whilst the second group used the track and test facilities – after which the groups changed over.
My wife and I were in the group which used the test facilities first, followed by the public road experience. It gave me an unprecedented experience in being able to push a family car to its limits and sample the outstanding safety features built into the car – not least being the ESP (Electronic stability program), brake assist, and the 3 position flex steering system.
The first experience was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ESP in three ways :-
The first test was emergency braking on a variable road surface. With the ESP switched off - the car was accelerated to about 60 mph (96 km/h) onto a straight section of track where the left half was smooth wet concrete and the other half rough tarmac. An emergency stop was then attempted whilst the left wheels of the car were on the smooth wet surface and the right wheels on the rough tarmac. It was impossible to stop the car from yawing and veering way over to the right. Enough to switch lanes on a normal road and have a head-on collision.
The same test was repeated with the ESP switched on – this time as soon as the car started to move to the right, all hell broke loose – the cadence braking on selected wheels kicked in causing a lot of noise and vibration and the steering automatically moved to the left keeping the car very much on the correct line. It was very impressive.
The second test was a swerve test. As before the car was accelerated to about 60 mph (96 km/h) to approach a line of cones across a flooded road simulating a stationary vehicle you had failed to notice until the last second. A few metres before hitting the cones the car was swerved to the left to miss them and immediately to the right to prevent running off the road. It was impossible – the car swerved away from the cones OK but then lost control when you tried to straighten up and spun violently – I don’t know how many times - finishing up facing the wrong way 50 meters down the road.
The same test was repeated with the ESP switched on – this time the car swerved to the left – and as soon as it was steered to the right and tried to spin, the ESP was activated, all hell broke loose – the cadence braking on selected wheels kicked in causing a lot of noise and vibration and the car recovered in a straight line. It was even more impressive.
The third test was a demonstration of the ESP was on the wet circular skid pan where we tried to maintain a circle at an increasing speed with the ESP off – under-steer quickly kicked in and you either had to back off or let the car drift out. With the ESP on – it was possible to maintain a much smaller circle at a far higher speed before the inevitable understeer took over – at which point the ESP kept you out of trouble.
We then took to the track where some tight chicanes had been set up and there was a variety of corners and bends to sample at various speeds. After a couple of circuits – the first one rather tentative – and the second one more adventurous - I gained sufficient confidence in the car to give it a good thrash – trying out the three different flex steer settings in the process. I was very happy with the stability of the car and the merits of the flex steer system. I am at a loss to understand why some magazine reviews have been critical of the steering – saying it lacks feel - especially at the straight ahead position. I found it much better than my current i30 but will concede that less adventurous motorists will probably leave it in the “normal” setting, rather than "sport" or "comfort" regardless of circumstances.
After the track experience we were then let loose on the public roads in a 1.6 CRDi 128 PS Style-Nav to follow a route prescribed by the pre-set sat-nav. The route took in several miles of fast double carriageway highways and a mixture of main and side roads with varying surfaces from very smooth to just awful. The car rides well on its 16” rims, has excellent controls and is quite refined, soaking up potholes much better than my present car. It feels like a much larger car in this respect. I took a decibel meter with me and was able to take cabin sound readings and compare these with my present car (which I took around the same route later) to prove what my ears were telling me. On rough surfaces it is about 6 dB quieter – but on the new ultra quiet tarmac I was not able to detect any difference with my present car. The car was fitted with quite attractive alloy wheels and Hankook Kinergy Eco 205 55 R16 tyres which had a rather strange floral pattern moulded in the sidewall. The tyres gripped well – even on the wet skid pan – and I was not able to fault them. The car seems to be very comfortable with more apparent room and a similar amount of cubby space to the existing car. All the controls and switchgear were well placed and easy to use with a comprehensive set of buttons on the steering wheel.
The luggage compartment has roughly the same length and width as the present car but is 11 cm deeper – mainly because the car has a temporary spare wheel. The luggage compartment floor is 7cm lower than the rear seat backs which fold flat. Hence the floor is stepped when the seats are folded down. The claimed extra luggage volume compared with the present model seems to be entirely because of the extra depth – which may or may not be of practical value. That said – no other 5 door hatchback in its sector beats it for internal space or luggage capacity.
Most illustrations of the car on our forum have shown an electronic parking brake – but none of the cars I saw today had this – they all had a conventional handbrake. One of the demo drivers I spoke to (not a Hyundai – but a Silverstone employee) told me that the electronic brake had not found much favour – most people preferred a handbrake. He explained that the electronic parking brake was applied by pressing the normal brake pedal when the car was stationary – then locking them with the electronic switch. To unlock the brakes you either pushed down on the brake pedal and then released the electronic switch - or depressed the clutch to move off - which released the parking brake automatically. However - the system had less “feel” when moving away on an incline.
The manual gear change on the cars I tried was silky smooth and very light in all gears – a reminder of how notchy my current car is when changing to first and second gears.
There is no need for me to cover all the car features – the brochure and the wealth of information in other posts on the forum do that adequately - but there are some items I would like to comment on.
The direction indicators audible clicker is too quiet. The same problem as with my present i30. I do wish that car manufacturers would wake up to the fact that a goodly proportion of the population suffer from hearing loss. It is a problem not confined to us old fogies - many youngsters today are also suffering from significant hearing loss due to the high noise levels they are exposed to in clubs and other so-called places of entertainment. If a specific control for the driver to adjust volume is impractical, I would happily settle for dealer adjustable volume editing of audible alarms and signals.
The Sat-Nav has a large clear screen and uses Navtech mapping covering the whole of Europe in most European languages. Map updates are planned annually and will probably cost £100 per time. The display is larger - but no clearer than my Garmin Nuvi - and displays the current speed limit on most main roads. Traffic information on early cars is subject to a subscription but will be available as standard in the i30 from mid-2012. Any customers who buy the car before this time will be able to receive a free software update to activate this functionality when it becomes available. Speed cameras are not included. The sat-nav uses 4 digit post codes which is not as big a problem as I thought it would be. You enter the first 4 digits and the screen changes to a list of all the final (missing) 2 digits to choose from – then a screen with the initial letter of roads within that postcode for you to select, then a list of all roads with that initial letter. I found my road quite quickly on the very responsive touch screen. However - If you only know the full postcode and not the name of the road - you are not going to find it easy. Hyundai are expecting to issue a dealer fit software upgrade at the year end to upgrade the system to full post codes.
The touch screen was a problem. In bright sunlight – it got washed out and the finger smears marred clarity – a problem I don’t get on my Garmin Nuvi.
I asked if it was possible to import waypoints or POI’s to the sat-nav using USB or any other source – they were not able to answer the question but are getting back with a reply next week.
The Sat-nav doubles as a reversing camera screen. I have had experience with this feature on a Toyota Prius but the Hyundai one is superior with a very bright and sharp picture over which is superimposed a grid showing distances. I found reversing in tight spaces a doddle.
The Bluetooth mobile phone connection is most impressive. I thought that the voice recognition on my Garmin Nuvi was pretty good – but the Hyundai one is a revelation (to me). After entering your address book its ability to recognise spoken names – even from different people without any prior “training” of the car system is first class. My wife tried to fool it by badly mangling the name Heikki Kovalainen (which was in the dummy address book) but it was having none of it and pulled his name out straight away. When I asked it to ring "My Aunt Martha" it found the name immediately and repeated my request in what sounded suspiciously like my brummy accent - which was jolly amusing.
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The trip computer is a disappointment. It has two trips for distance – trip A and Trip B but only one trip for fuel economy, one for average speed and one for elapsed time. It also has instant fuel economy and distance to empty.
The main disappointment – bordering on stupidity – is that it cannot display fuel economy data in excess of 50 mpg (5.6 L/100km). In European markets where the data is in L/100Km this restriction does not apply. The Hyundai officials were embarrassed when I pointed out that it was crazy to launch the car (for which they claim great fuel economy figures) with a trip recorder with this fault - the driver cannot see the frugal performance in the display. They are hoping that a software patch in the future will correct this. The fuel economy trip can be reset to zero either manually or automatically each time you refuel – it is a setting in an options menu.
Another – but more minor disappointment – is that an auto dipping rear view mirror is neither fitted, nor on the options list.
My wife was disappointed to learn that the passenger seat lacks height adjustment – like my present car – and such an option is not going to be available.
Other options are a Convenience Pack – this includes auto fold door mirrors when ignition is off, puddle lamps in the mirrors, keyless entry, chrome door handles and illuminated door handles for the grand total of £750.
The panoramic roof costs £950
Servicing costs are improved. Service intervals are now 24 months or 20,000 miles with an intermediate inspection and oil change at 12 month intervals. In the UK a 3 year service plan costs £299 up front for those who do less than 12,500 miles per year. I imagine that this includes the first 12 month inspection/oil change, the 24 month service and the 36 month inspection/oil change - so only one full service is included in the plan.
The usual Hyundai 5 year unlimited mileage warranty applies and includes full RAC roadside assistance for the full period.
I also tried the 1.4 petrol car which was a little quieter than the diesel and seemed to have lots of pep. It was as Bumpkin described for his ix20 in a recent post. However – I managed to stall it a couple of times when moving off – I am too used to the low down torque of a diesel – but I am sure you would soon get used to the petrol and it wouldn’t be a problem. (They had an ix20 for us to look at (but not drive) – nice car, surprisingly roomy but not as feature rich as the i30).
Other questions I am awaiting answers to from Hyundai are whether the recent diesel engine mods have included the addition of a dual mass flywheel (I hope not) and how and when the DPF is regenerated. My car has never shown any sign that the DPF has regenerated and I am curious what to look for and when.
So to conclude – I am very impressed with the car and will be buying one – but am still not decided on whether to go for the 1.4 petrol or the diesel. I will need more time in the cars when they are at the dealers in the next week or so. I also need to collect the data required to carry out a full and proper ownership cost comparison of both cars.
Oh – before I forget – the CW (estate) version is expected in the UK in July and will possibly cost £1000 to £1500 more than the hatch. Hyundai head office have yet to release official prices.
Edits
Traffic warnings on the Sat-nav will be free at mid -year via a free software update.