Hyundai i30 N Review & Prices

The Hyundai i30 N is the Korean giant’s first attempt at a proper hot hatch, and it’s a cracker. It’s agile, fun to drive and features properly sporty styling, but it’s far less comfortable than some of its alternatives and loses practicality compared to the regular i30. You can’t buy one new anymore, either.

It’s like the Korean fried chicken of hot hatches, bringing a spicy twist to the classic recipe - and it’s all the better for it. There are some well established cars you may consider it against, that being said from the likes of the Honda Civic Type R and Toyota GR Yaris to the venerable Volkswagen Golf GTI.

As far as fun goes, the Hyundai i30 N is up there with the best hot hatches. It’s overly harsh in its all-out sporting N Mode but play with the settings a little to soften it up, and you’ll quickly find it easy to get some serious thrills out of.

However, that does compromise daily usability a bit. It rides a bit harshly over bumps in the road — not unbearably so but certainly not as well as the Volkswagen Golf GTI does. You’ll also get plenty of road noise coming into the cabin at motorway speeds, again, more than in the i30 N’s German alternatives.

Hyundai i30 N: facts and figures

Engine: 2.0-litre, inline four-cylinder turbo petrol
Drivetrain: Six-speed manual gearbox or eight-speed double-clutch automatic, electronic differential, front-wheel drive
Horsepower: 280hp
0-60mph: 5.9 seconds
Top speed: 155mph
Efficiency: 33mpg, 35mpg

The 2.0-litre, turbocharged engine will get you from 0-60mph in 5.9 seconds and onto a limited top speed of 155mph. It’s paired with an electronic limited slip differential which means you’ve got plenty of grip when you put your foot down on your way out of a corner. The steering is sharp, the engine is responsive and powerful while there’s loads of feedback on how the car’s behaving through the wheel and your bum. It’s a proper riot.

You’ll immediately spot this is no regular Hyundai i30. The N gets an aggressive new body kit, lots of red striping, lightweight 19-inch alloy wheels and a massive twin-exit exhaust system to highlight its boy racer aspirations.

Changes to the inside aren’t quite so obvious at first glance. The N does get some sports seats, a new steering wheel and blue stitching, but the core design of the i30 remains the same. That is until you switch it on to be greeted by shift lights, an N logo in the instrument cluster and a serious growl from the exhaust.

You’ll also find a 10.0-inch infotainment screen taking centre stage on the dashboard, complete with ‘N Mode’ — a dream for stats nerds. Here you’ll find a lap timer, G meter and also settings to configure your own driving mode.

Those sitting in the back benefit from the thinner sports seats too thanks to a little more knee room, plus they’ll still get the decent headroom from the hatchback body shape. There’s also a nice helping of Alcantara across the rear row, too.

Boot space does take a bit of a hit because of a bar across the back designed to stiffen the car, though. This drops the capacity to 381 litres from the regular hatchback’s 395. If sheer space is a concern, take a look at the Skoda Octavia vRS with its 600-litre capacity.

You can find used Hyundai i30 Ns as well as other used Hyundais available through our network of trusted dealers. You can also find the latest new Hyundai deals and Hyundai lease deals. When it’s time to sell your car, Carwow can help with that, too.

Who is the Hyundai i30 N best for?

The Hyundai i30 N is best for driving enthusiasts who need a practical, semi-sensible hot hatchback that’s (almost) as comfortable on the school run as it is on the race track. The Volkswagen Golf GTI or Audi S3 are still better all-rounders, but for driving thrills at a reasonable price, the i30 N has them beat. Have a look at a Honda Civic Type R if you’ve got the budget for one, though.

The Hyundai i30 N is no longer on sale, but when it was new it cost £2,000 less than the slower, entry-level Golf GTI - a cracking bargain. Only the Ford Focus ST offered a similar level of bang-for-your-buck performance and practicality, but its interior is far less pleasant than it is in the Hyundai. The i30 N has held its value really rather well on the used market, too, largely because it's a rare beast compared to its European counterparts.

While the baby-blue paint and the badge on its nose mark the i30 N as a left-field choice, the engine under its bonnet is standard hot hatch fare. A 2.0-litre, four-cylinder with a turbocharger strapped to the side and a standard-fit manual gearbox. Remember those?

There’s also an eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic to consider, but really, the manual suits the Hyundai’s rugged rawness. The 0-60mph sprint takes a claimed 5.9 seconds, but we struggled to match that in the real world, and with a long enough stretch of de-restricted road the i30 N will carry on to 155mph.

No-one buys a family hatchback with a 280hp engine in the expectation of a frugal driving experience, but even then the i30 N’s thirst and emissions might give you a little gasp of horror. As standard, with a manual gearbox, the i30 N achieves 35mpg and has CO2 emissions of 182g/km. That’s a fuel consumption figure you’ll struggle to reach if you’re using much of the engine’s potency, and it’s significantly worse than the 38mpg and 162g/km offered by the standard Golf GTI.

Go for the automatic version and it gets worse — 33mpg and 191g/km of CO2. Any i30 N which cost over £40,000 new and is between two-to-six years old is subject to the luxury car road tax supplement, but you’d have been hard pressed to tally one up to that price. Company car drivers look elsewhere, as the i30 N is an expensive Benefit in Kind option.

Raunchy performance and great fun, but not the most refined

In town

The trick in town is to keep the i30 N in its softest driving mode, with the electronically adjustable suspension in its most relaxed state. This being a hot hatch, you’re still going to feel the bumps way more than you would in a conventional i30, but it’s much-improved on early models, especially since Hyundai fitted updated parts from the rakish-looking i30 N Fastback model in 2021.

It’s not as smooth as a Golf GTI around town, but it’s now acceptably comfortable rather than a bit too crashy, as the original i30 N was. Visibility is excellent, aside from that chunky rear pillar which creates quite a blind spot.

The steering, even in Comfort mode, is quite heavy but not too much so for parking, and that’s helped by front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera. Drive-N models also get a system that warns you not to open a door if there’s a cyclist coming up in your blind spot.

On the motorway

Refinement is the i30 N’s enemy here. The sports exhaust — which crackles with menace when you’re pressing on — can be adjusted into a quieter mode, but even so that four-cylinder turbo engine can drone a bit at motorway speeds, and there’s quite a bit of tyre noise on coarse surfaces.

You do get cruise control and lane-keeping steering, which help to take the sting out of longer journeys but you’ll have to upgrade to the Drive-N model if you want blind-spot warning. The excellent front seats are supportive on long runs though, and that mighty 280hp engine means that long motorway inclines are an utter doddle to deal with, but the i30 N doesn’t quite cruise with the same level of comfort that you’ll find in the Golf GTI or the Honda Civic Type R.

On a twisty road

Well, this is the whole point of the i30 N isn’t it? The car has been in part designed and engineered by people poached from BMW’s M-Sport division and that really shows in the steering, which has lots of feel and allows you to really play with the i30 N in corners.

There’s a clever electronic differential which helps to hunt down grip (especially helpful in tricky weather conditions) and the i30 N sticks to the road with real vim. It’s perhaps a touch less sophisticated in feel than the Golf GTI, but it is enormously good fun and feels more engaging than the German car.

Put it in Sport mode and you can really enjoy yourself. There’s also launch control if you want to make a perfect 0-60 getaway (but maybe keep that for track days).

The front bucket seats are great, but there are some cheap bits dotted around the cabin

There’s nothing wrong with the i30 N’s cabin, it’s just that its close relationship with the standard i30 hatchback means that it can look and feel a bit cheap in some places. Still, the i30 N’s cabin is considerably classed-up by chunky, high-back bucket seats which are wonderfully comfortable and clamp you in place when you’re cornering with some enthusiasm. They feature Alcantara trim and contrast stitching in N-Sport’s distinctive signature pale blue colour.

There are also optional ’N-Light’ seats, which get an illuminated N-badge built into the base of the headrests, just like a BMW M3 Competition. They’re optional on standard N-Line cars and standard on the pricier Drive-N model; slimmer and more aggressive-looking than the standard seats - as well as opening up a fraction more rear legroom.

Also just like a BMW M-car, there’s a rev-counter that features a redline which adjusts according to how well warmed-up the engine might be, while there are even gearshift indicator lights in the instrument binnacle which flash to remind you change up a cog if you’ve got the manual gearbox.

You do get a very decent 10.3-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dash, with built-in navigation as well as some N-specific displays and menu options - including a G-load map which shows you how much fun you’ve been having. Good for trackdays or for really boring your family with.

The physical controls for the heating and air conditioning look a touch clunky, but they do work well and they’re far easier to use than the too-fiddly controls that Volkswagen fits to the Golf GTI. Overall quality levels are very good, as you’d expect from Hyundai, but there are a few too many cheap plastics around.

Unquestionably the coolest feature though are the two big blue drive mode buttons (they’re red in Drive-N models) on the steering wheel. These are like the M1 and M2 buttons that BMW uses for the likes of the M3 — yet another BMW-esque touch in the sporty Hyundai.

You can have a pre-set mode with the car in full-on comfort for cruising, and flick instantly back and forth between that and N-mode depending on the road. It’s a neat feature, and genuinely useful if you want to have a little fun on a longer journey.

Lots of useful storage space and a big boot - the Focus ST is better for back seat passengers though

Space in the front

There’s lots of useful storage space in the front of the i30 N, with big door bins that will easily hold a large bottle of water. That’s good news when you’re working up such a sweat with all that enthusiastic driving…

You’ll find a big storage area under the heating and air conditioning controls, which easily swallows a large-screen phone, and it’s where you’ll also find no fewer than three power sockets (two 12-volt, one USB) and a wireless phone charger.

There are two cup holders but annoyingly, they’re located behind the gear level, so big bottles of fizzy drink get in the way if you’ve gone for the manual ‘box. Under the front seat armrest there’s a useful storage space, and the glovebox isn’t bad either.

Space in the back seats

The i30 N lacks a bit for rear seat space. The standard i30 hatchback is roomy enough, but the i30 N’s bulky front bucket seats rob a crucial few millimetres of knee room and while it’s fine back there in broad terms, the likes of the Ford Focus ST and especially the Skoda Octavia vRS are way better for back seat passengers.

You do at least get nice, sporty-looking suede trim for the rear seats, and there are useful door bins too - but there’s not really enough width to get three people sitting comfortably in the back. There are ISOFIX anchors in the outer two rear seats, and the back door opening is nice and large, so getting the kids set up in there is pretty easy.

Boot space

The i30 N’s boot is actually pretty decent. A standard i30 N has a 395-litre boot which is pretty impressive, but the N loses 14 litres of that to optional extra suspension bracing struts which drop the total capacity to 381 litres.

That’s still pretty good — a match for the Golf GTI for instance — but when you fold the back seats down to expand the available space to 968 litres that suspension brace sticks up from the floor, so you’re never going to get a flat load space.

There’s a slight loading lip, but nothing you’re going to fall out with the i30 N over. If you really need a more practical rapid Hyundai, there’s the slope-backed i30 N Fastback. It has a more useful 436 litre boot (including the optional suspension brace), but the champion in this class is the Skoda Octavia vRS, which can swallow 600 litres.

Euro NCAP hasn’t tested the i30 since 2017, which means that the five-star safety rating it received then might not still be valid as the safety goalposts keep moving. Back then the i30 received an 88% score for adult occupant protection, and 84% for child occupant protection — both decent scores and in real terms the i30 N should be a hugely safe car, even with all of its high-performance potency.

It gets standard adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping steering and automated emergency braking so it’s pretty well up to date in terms of electronic driver aids. Higher-spec Drive-N models get blind spot warning, rear cross traffic collision assistance, and the system that warns you not to open a door if there’s a cyclist or pedestrian in your blind spot.

The automated braking system does rely on a windscreen mounted camera and the Hyundai system does have the habit of becoming bamboozled by very wet weather, often flashing up a warning on the dashboard that it’s not working correctly. At least it’s being honest, we guess. 

Hyundai came 20th out of 31 manufacturers in the 2025 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, a disappointing result given the brand’s historic reputation for reliability.

Even so, when you’ve got a high performance car, it’s always putting extra pressure on items such as suspension, brakes, and cooling so expect some extra maintenance requirements in those areas. The Pirelli P-Zero performance tyres will also be expensive to replace when you need them. Hyundai’s standard — and excellent — five-year, unlimited mileage warranty should cover most eventualities though.