By now, I think most people would agree that Hyundai produced a winner with the i30 range. I’d never considered buying a Hyundai and it took a whole swag of awards to convince me to take a look. Convincing my wife was another challenge altogether! With our first child on the way, the ‘family wagon’ was required and our list had consisted of the Mazda 6, Ford Mondeo and Mitsubishi Outlander. I’d heard good things about these Hyundais, but plucking up the courage to consider purchasing one was going to take some work. For starters, I had to get over the last time I travelled in a Hyundai – a friend's mid-90s Sonata - which, to be honest, made my dad’s 1994 2.6 Magna seem exciting! Secondly, I’d always owned Japanese cars and the thought of owning a vehicle with a H on the front – in Italics that is – seemed like I could be asking for traffic light sniggers. But the offer of a great value family car with 5 years' warranty, reasonable performance and a fuel sticker that read 4.9L/100km was overwhelmingly alluring. Into my local Hyundai I ventured.
It took one drive of this vehicle to realise that it was too good to go past. I had no idea you could have this much fun in a 1.6L diesel. It’s great fun around town, pulls well at freeway speeds and when combined with incredible efficiency, excellent interior space and appropriate comfort levels makes for a best in class vehicle [in my opinion]. Unfortunately, I believe Hyundai got their model range wrong. The diesel manual is the best drive, but is only available in the base model. After optioning 17” alloys and a few other items we were still happy with our purchase. Highly recommended.