► i30 Tourer estate tested
► Refined, but is it exciting?
► ‘Premium’ diesel driven here
Hyundai’s i30 is almost getting as many variants as the VW Golf these days. Along with the regular hatch, there’s the estate you see here, a four-door Fastback and a properly brilliant N hot hatch one.
The i30 Tourer is one of just two estates in Hyundai’s range, with it and the larger i40 Tourer estate being outnumbered by Hyundai’s growing SUV range.
The spicy i30 N might be very good (we’re even running one as a long-termer), but the rest of the range has left us feeling a bit ‘meh’. Is the Tourer estate any different?
We’re driving the 109bhp 1.6-litre CRDi diesel, in high-end Premium trim, priced at £23,065.
How does it drive?
It’s forgettable. Steering is light and despite the estate shape, it’s still easy to manoeuvre. The driving position is easy to set up to your shape and it’s comfortable at speed – even on Premium-spec 17-inch alloys.
Our car had a 1.6-litre CRDi diesel engine that’s good for 109bhp and a lazy 11.3-second 0-62mph sprint time. The engine is gruff when accelerating and, for a diesel, there’s not a lot of torque either, so you have to swap gears around the lifeless gearbox. It’s designed for maximum economy – hence the 74.3mpg claim – and it managed around 55mpg while with us. The turbocharged petrol engines are better, though; while less economical they just offer a bit of extra zing.
In a way, it’s very interesting to see the differences between this and the i30 N hot hatch; they’re the absolute antithesis of each other. The N is fast, comes with some of the greatest control feel in the hot hatch market and has engaging look, while this diesel is a far more practical machine designed for ease-of-use and high fuel economy. While we’re sure it’ll never happen, an i30 N Tourer would be a lot of fun.
It’s a Hyundai, so standard equipment is good right?
It’s a pretty solid list, with everything you really need and not a lot of room to add more options other than your paint colour. This one’s a Premium, so infotainment with navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated front seats and dual-zone climate control are all standard. There’s even a wireless charging pad – pretty handy if you’ve got a compatible smartphone.
The interior layout itself is well-built if drab, with a pleasingly organised dashboard layout. The touchscreen, for example, is high up and within easy reach, but the graphics are a little low-rent. Elsewhere in the interior, we found the seats to be supportive, too.
How practical is the i30 estate?
Not best in class, but still good. Rear space is tight for tall people, but that’s common small-ish estates. Unfortunately, material quality also dips a bit if you have the pleasure of sitting rearwards.
The boot can hold up to 602 litres of your stuff with all five seats up. That’s a solid effort, as it’s larger than a Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer and Ford Focus Estate but smaller than a VW Golf Estate and smaller than a Peugeot 308 SW.
Verdict
You can probably tell where we’re going with this; the i30 Tourer is a good-but-not-great car. Capable but dull with it; it’s fine to drive, inoffensive to both look at and sit in, and while the diesel engine offered here is economical, it feels slow – the petrol engines have more pep, with the 1.4-litre T-GDi petrol engine in particular feeling much punchier.
Estate cars can be very good, or at least interesting. But the i30 isn’t class leading in any area, nor is it particularly remarkable.
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