If you want to be a fully fledged car manufacturer, you can't go without a C-segment station wagon on the Dutch market.
And that's exactly what Hyundai offers with this i30 Wagon.
A half year ago I drove the i30 hatchback in Spain, and now, six months later, the station wagon has arrived in the Netherlands.
The big news is, of course, behind the bootlid.
Literally 'big news' in this case; it's 602 litres big.
With that, this i30 Wagon trumps most of its rivals in the C-segment.
And that's quite an important area to win ground on, because space is one of the reasons people buy C-segment wagons.
Also, the legroom in the back is still very good. I'll admit, it's not like a Skoda Octavia,
but for someone like me, 1,80m tall, the headroom is very decent.
The dashboard is the same as in the i30 hatchback. It looks okay and it's easy to operate,
but it isn't the best looking dashboard I've ever seen.
Actually, you could use that dashboard-description, for the driving experience in this car.
It's not the most refined, it's not the most comfortable, it especially isn't the most dynamic car around...
But it's very decent. It's functional.
It drives very nicely, it's comfortable enough...
On bad roads, everything gets damped very neatly without you noticing a lot of it...
It's quiet, you don't hear the engine, it's all light and easy,
and for a daily driver, those traits are quite nice.
If you're really looking for steering pleasure, you should probably keep looking,
because it just isn't here. It's a little bit too distant,
a little bit numb really. It hangs too much in corners to drive dynamically.
But then again, whenever you go into a corner too fast,
it does offer you the amount of grip needed to not crash into a ditch.
So everything put together, it's a car which drives really mediocre.
The result isn't too bad at all, it's quite nice actually.
Then, the engines, and it's the same story really.
Right now, we're driving the new 1.4-litre turbo.
A 4-cylinder producing 140 horsepower and 242 Nm of torque.
It's quite a nice engine really. Hyundai also offers a 1.0-litre 3-cylinder,
but considering the fact it's got quite some loading volume, you might want to save up some extra money to get this 1.4.
It's an engine which runs very quietly, but also runs very smoothly.
It's got a sufficient power output. In the high revs however,
around 5.500/6.000 RPM, the speed is pretty much gone,
but then again... You won't get there often.
The most important range is between 1.500 and 4.500 RPM. That's where it feels powerful.
The torque is very good as well. So if you fully load your i30,
the engine won't let you down.
It's got a nice drivetrain. The engine is connected to a manual 6-speed,
and to be honest; it's the same story again!
It's not a gearbox which invites you to change gear a lot, but it's light and you can easily select gears.
The clutch could produce a little bit more feedback, because in the beginning, you have to search for the friction point.
But when you get used to that, it really is a decent, 'nothing-wrong-with-it' kind of car.
The only flaw you might see in this i30, is the price.
The times in which you could buy two Hyundai's for the price of one European car, are long gone.
Prices for this i30 with a 1.4-litre engine, start around €26.000.
If you want a well-equipped one as well, prices go up to €30.000.
And if you want a package with all safety features, like road sign-recognition, blind spot-sensor,
lane keeping-assist... Stuff like that. That'll cost you about €1000 as well.
That way, the top model will go over €30.000.
And that's quite a lot of money. On the other hand however,
you get a very well equipped car. For a similarly equipped car from its rivals,
you still pay more. Also, this car offers a 5 year warranty,
and that's one of the few things it excels in, compared its rivals.