Hyundai i30 Sedan N

The i30 Sedan N is, in my opinion, the best car Hyundai have ever manufactured. It covers all the bases of “Performance” and “Stoopidness” that a 21-year-old could ever want, whilst being an “affordable” price. The car we are looking at today is the 2022 Hyundai i30 Sedan N Premium with Sunroof. Yes, I know that is a mouthful… So, we will call her Nat from this 👆.

Whilst driving this car, I was asked, “Can you sum up this car in three words?”. Quick as a flash I said its” Fun, Childish and Serious”, although now I’d use Hyundai’s words “A Corner Rascal”.

Frankly Nat is the best new daily driver for a “car enthusiast” in the 50-60k range. It meets or exceeds all the requirements; comfortable, fast, corners well and can carry shit. The car is let down in one major area - wet weather performance. If it’s raining, forget it. You basically won’t be going anywhere unless you have super glue on the tyres. As this is a FWD car, axle hop in the wet can be major issue with this car (just don’t send it).

Hyundai has given Nat an e-LSD, which allows her to corner awesomely. From factory, Nat came with Pilot Sport 4 S HNs tyres, which are da bomb for the price. They grip up in the dry and send water out from under you in the wet (ask me how I know that one…).

Fuel consumption is pretty good too (when you’re not being a dickhead). This allows you to road trip the car without spending a fortune on 98, however being a dickhead, you can easily average around 12-18L/100km. I recently took Nat on a trip from Brisbane to Melbourne and back and only spent $500 on fuel over 4000~kms and she averaged 6.1L/100kms 🤑. Speaking of fuel economy, the exhaust, IS FUCKING AWESOME. Nat can be extremely vocal or can blend into regular traffic, the option is up to the driver.

Yung Nat as I like to call her is freaking stunning looking. I mean… look at her.

The striking look of the front grille, through to the red accents all around, finally crescendo-ing on her caboose with a stunning pointy boot and spanning light bar. No matter where you look, she always looks stunning. As mentioned previously her shoes are sticky but also amazing with a diamond cut style, that looks so cool and helps keep her brakes cool.

When you enter Nat, you will forget that you’re in a “cheap” i30 and move into the luxurious cabin with; a user selectable light bar, cooled and heated front seats as well as a driver focused technology setup. Most of the controls are physical and intuitive to use (especially the ones on the wheel), even the stock infotainment goes alright.

For you rear occupants they get a comfy seat with no adjustments or heating, although there are aircon vents in the rear. The rear seat does fold down as a single piece to reveal a bracing bar and the spacious boot. The boot isn’t anything to phone home about but its decently sized for a sedan and much larger than your Mazda 3 Sedan’s boot.

Nat all about the driver, her interior is moulded to face the driver to make everything easy to access. This includes the infotainment screen, the aircon controls and the centre area. The first thing passengers see when they get in is a massive “oh shit handle”, that limits their access to the centre area.

The typical classic gauge cluster is gone and has been replaced by a 10” screen, this screen goes hard and really helps bring the car into the modern day. The display changes based on which drive mode you’re in, from factory there are 5 drive modes; Normal, Sport, Eco, N and N Custom 1, all have custom graphics to go with them (if desirable you can configure a second N Custom mode).

The centre “infotainment” screen is a good size (10”) and supports Car Play and Android Auto (phone projection uses the full screen). Plug your phone in and jam out to your own music, on the cars built in “Bose” stereo. The car is a bit bass heavy for my taste, however this can easily be changed using the built in EQ.

Overall Nat SLAPS and if I can be bothered there will be a full review coming out in the next business year. This was just to prove to Alan that I can walk 😏.