Sitrep: the Hyundai i30 N still offers the best bang for buck

Hyundai has clearly won over the hoi polloi with the i30 hatch – now the go-to car for the linen-shirt wearing, Justin-Timberlake-loving Millennial (with a sprinkling of sand in the carpets from the frequent trips to and from Broulee).

It’s been among Canberra’s top 10 best selling cars over the past three-plus years, up there with Toyotas, Mazdas and Teslas.

But to earn serious street cred, the i30 had to go further.

Which makes what happened in 2017 incredible, because Volkswagen had been finessing its Golf GTI into the bee’s knees of hot hatches since the 1970s, but in the space of one generation – one model, in fact – Hyundai basically did it with the i30 N.

The bros with their flat-fronted caps immediately loved it. It was sic.

And for 2024, they’ve finessed it further.

Where the Golf GTI was set apart with tartan-patterned seat fabric and a golf-ball styled gear knob, Hyundai has given all products under its N performance division their own special treatment in the form of baby-blue (okay, ‘Performance Blue’) highlights and red stripes.

And a lot of theatre.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve driven a Land Rover Defender, a Lotus Emira and an Audi RS6 Avant. But in ‘N’ mode with the exhaust flaps fully open, the i30 N is somehow louder than all of them. Especially in the tunnel along Parkes Way (apologies, ANU students – that was me).

It was also during my time with the updated i30 N Sedan that I was turned away from an automatic car wash for the first time.

“No spoilers,” the lady said. I felt compelled to tell her how mine was a crucial performance feature and not just one of those boy-racer mods from Aliexpress, but I’m not sure this would have been true. It looks good – that is all.

And that’s right – what was once called the ‘Elantra’ is now the i30 Sedan. In 2020, Hyundai was keen for a measure of the hatch’s success to rub off on its sedan sibling, and the Elantra name was dropped. Hopefully this works better than when Nissan renamed the Pulsar ‘Tiida’.

Looking at the pair, it’s hard to tell they’re related. The sedan looks like a shrink-wrapped cheese slicer compared to the more rounded hatch. Beautiful, maybe not. Striking, like a supercar grew two extra doors and a boot, definitely.

I would like to see less hard plastic and more soft fabrics – suede perhaps – inside, for $52,000 before on-road costs.

And despite the update for 2024, the infotainment tech was left untouched, which means you still have to plug your phone in to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

Hyundai has also promised to make its safety tech easier to shut up but, unfortunately, not in time for this. The speed-limit alert and lane-keeping assistance chimes are still here, crashing your head in.

But you don’t mind, because the i30 N still nails what’s really important.

Under the bonnet is a two-litre turbocharged four-cylinder that puts 206 kW of power through the front wheels, through either a six-speed manual or – in my case – an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. Hyundai claims a 0-100 km/h time of 5.3 seconds for the latter.

Inside the boot, you’ll find a red metal bar spanning the wheel arches, and that’s just the tip of an engineering iceberg. Driveshafts, wheel bearings and suspension bushes – they’ve all been made stiffer and lighter and just generally better at going faster and harder.

It’s also impossible not to notice the red ‘NGS’ button on the steering wheel, for ‘N Grin Shift’. Pressing this ramps up the engine power and gear shift speed to max for 20 seconds, or long enough to not blow up anything.

For last week’s car review, we took Hyundai’s all-electric IONIQ 5 N to Goulburn’s thoroughly renovated One Raceway and left the circuit’s owner “blown away” by the sheer speed and grip.

But even without any time on a track – or hanging onto the controls like Joseph Cooper in Interstellar – the i30 N proved itself a ball. And perfectly easy to live with, largely thanks to suspension tuned here in Australia for our rubbish roads.

Maybe it’s not quite as refined as a Golf GTI, but it’s still sharp and eager. And noisy. Like pork-crackling-on-a-barbecue noisy. Delicious.

2024 Hyundai i30 N Sedan

• $52,000 (plus on-road costs)
• 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol, 206 kW / 392 Nm
• 8-speed dual-clutch automatic, front-wheel drive (FWD)
• 8.3 litres per 100 km estimated fuel usage, 95 RON
• 0-100 km/h in 5.3 seconds
• 1539 kg
• 5-star ANCAP safety rating

Thanks to Hyundai Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial relationship with Hyundai Australia.