There has been discussion on various Hyundai boards about whether Hyundai/Kia are now at the point where they are going to do a Toyota/Nissan on us and indeed the pricing of the new i30 does suggest that it is getting close to the point where they are truly "competing" with the recognised mainstream competition.
I wondered if this was an across the range thing or if it simply applies to the i30 at the moment, so did a wee bit of research on it.
The smaller cars are definitely getting closer in price to their respective competition, but this is something which all the manufacturers seem to be doing. I had a Chevrolet Spark as a loaner when the ix20 had to go in the second time. This was a truly abysmal car compared to the i10 I got the first time she was in, but what was really gobsmacking was the fact that I had been loaned the top of the range one, which Chevrolet want over £10,500 for! Blimey.
On then to the i20/ix20/i30 and we see that the price of that one is not far short of the Ford / Vauxhall counterparts, this is certainly an upward trend from when we bought our original i30's, at that point the price differential was enough to really mean something, now in this sector Hyundai appears to be banking on the warranty being the big selling point. What comes to my mind when looking at the mini / mid sector is that since that is what the European market "wants" we are willing to spend on it, Hyundai need to keep in mind though that there is a huge loyalty to the established players which has been built up for a very long time and whilst they were a considerable level cheaper and an option, there are still people out there that won't touch a Korean car and particularly not if they can get a Ford for the same money.
Interestingly though the i40 seems to be still a bit of an unknown for Hyundai, it is acknowledged that this is their first step into that segment in Europe since the Sonata and that they have a bit of work to do to catch up.
Firstly I went to the Ford website and configured a Mondeo estate to (almost) the same spec as my mid-level i40. I couldn't get it with keyless entry, dual zone climate control or an electric drivers seat, but managed to find everything else. Total Cost £26,645.
A visit to Vauxhall and a configuration of the Insignia Tourer which had one or two extra items, took it to somewhere between the Style and Premium i40 (but closer to the Style). Cost for that one is £28,290.
This means that at the moment you need at least £5000 more in your back pocket to get one of these compared to the i40, if the i40 is a success (and there is no reason it shouldn't be) then it will be interesting to see how much closer in pricing to its rivals it is when the second generation one comes around.
