Hyundai i30 Review, For Sale, Colours, Models, Interior & News

Hyundai i30 Q&As

Check out real-world situations relating to the Hyundai i30 here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• The engine in my 2013 Hyundai i30 Tourer needs replacing, what should I do?

  I agree that 136,000km is not a realistic lifespan for a modern car. Especially one that has been as meticulously maintained as yours. Hyundai engines of this vintage are not without their known problems, but in my experience, Hyundai has been pretty good about replacing them when the failures have been the endemic kind.

  Your first step should be to by-pass the dealership you've been dealing with and talk directly to Hyundai's customer service department. The dealership, as you've correctly identified, will be more interested in selling you another car, while Hyundai head office is more likely to be interested in keeping you as a long term customer. Ultimately, the car will need to be inspected independently to figure out what went wrong and what caused it.

  By the way, if the dealership is right and the 'damage has already been done' by the time the warning light illuminates, what's the point of having a warning light in the first place? The dealership in question has just revealed itself to be ignorant at best with comments like that.

  By the way, even though your car has a 2013 build date, the warranty would have started the day it was first registered. Even so, it's well and truly out of warranty, but if the problem is one of the known faults of that engine, Hyundai may offer you a pro rata deal to assist in repairs.

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• Can I tow a small camper-trailer with my Hyundai i30?

  Your numbers are correct, including the maximum tow-ball weight of 75kg. With that in mind, provided you don’t load the camper-trailer beyond the 1300kg mark, and you distribute that load properly to keep the two-ball weight under 75kg, you should be safe and legal to proceed.

  Beyond keeping the mass within legal limits, the other hurdle you might face is the way the i30’s two-litre petrol engine produces its performance. There’s nothing wrong with the 120kW of peak power, but the engine’s peak torque is an unexceptional 203Nm and is produced at a high 4700rpm. That means you might find yourself working the engine pretty hard to maintain highway speeds.

  The sister car to yours, the i30 with the 1.6-litre turbo-diesel might be a better choice for towing with less peak power but much more torque (300Nm, from as low as 1750rpm) making it a more relaxed performer and tower.

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• I had been hearing 'cracking' noises from the front driver's corner on my 2013 Hyundai i30 for a few months

  If I had to guess, I'd say the weight of the roof-rack and bicycles has stressed the metal of the roof to the point where it's been flexing enough to crack the sunroof frame. By the way, from what I can gather, all sunroofs fitted to Australian i30s were done at dealership level using an aftermarket sunroof. These are not Hyundai sunroofs, even though they were fitted when the car was brand-new.

  Disregard the quote for $18,000, because that's nonsense. You could replace the whole sunroof (in fact, the whole car) for a fraction of that, and that would be the worst-case scenario. As for welding the cracked frame, it's potentially possible, but may not be practical. The frame forms the surface the roof slides on, so any distortion from welding could make the whole unit unworkable. Take it to a sunroof specialist and get an expert opinion, as well as a real-world repair quote.

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• What would be your recommendation when buying a small new car for teenage children learning to drive?

  The popular MG3 is the model you’re referring to and you’re right; it hasn’t been locally crash-tested. But it does lack some important safety gear. Enough, we reckon, to knock it off your short-list. The MG lacks, for instance, important driver aids such as autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keeping assistance, nor can these features be had by spending more on a fancier version.

  Which leaves us with your other two choices, the Hyundai i30 and Kia Rio. Even then, you’ll need to option up beyond the base-model to get (some of) those safety features, but these are not expensive cars to begin with, so the jump might not be as bad as you think.

  The other car to consider would be the SP Pure version of the Mazda 2. At $23,690, it’s not over-priced but it does have low-speed (up to 30km/h) autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring and lane-departure warning as well as rear cross-traffic alert.

  And a manual transmission? The MG 3 no longer offers one, both the Hyundai i30 and the Kia Rio are available with a six-speed manual option. The Mazda 2 Pure SP is automatic only, but you can get a six-speed manual on the base-model Mazda 2.

  I agree that youngsters taught to drive a manual car tend to be better drivers, but that’s not a universally held view these days. And the fact is that most young drivers will never be presented with a clutch pedal in the future, raising the question of why learn in the first place? The reality is that learning to drive a manual car gives you extra mechanical awareness and extra ability to multi-task behind the wheel.

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