2026 Hyundai i30 N Premium DCT review

The car in these photos should’ve been an all-new Hyundai i30 N, had things gone differently.

Once mooted for a second generation, the flip-flop in regulations promoting the sale of electric cars – and steady decline in the sales of hatchbacks – has seen plans for another i30 N hatchback fall off the table.

It has been axed in Europe, but the success of Hyundai’s first N car in Australia – where it is the most popular of the brand’s performance models – has prompted its life to be extended locally with an update to hide its advancing age.

The changes are mild – black badges and wheels, new side skirts, red inserts in the front bumper, a tweaked seat pattern, gloss black interior accents, and some additional safety and convenience equipment.

Given its pool of similarly priced rivals has all but vanished, does the i30 N hatch’s age really matter?

The i30 N hatch is not the $39,990 bargain it once was, some six or seven years ago, but now starting at $52,000 plus on-road costs, it is still reasonably priced in the context of the current market.

Hyundai has made the manual the same price as the automatic, so that retail price is $5800 dearer than it was 18 months ago in manual form – or a less egregious $2800 more expensive in DCT trim. Of that, $2000 was added on September 1, 2025 – partially to offset the cost of penalties Hyundai is in line for under new emissions rules for vehicles sold in Australia.

On test in this review is the better-equipped i30 N Premium, priced from $55,500 plus on-road costs with either gearbox. This test car lacks the optional sunroof or premium paint, so it is listed at $60,555 drive-away in metro Sydney, according to the Hyundai website.

The i30 N’s closest rival remains the Volkswagen Golf GTI, which starts from $58,990 plus on-road costs, or $62,990 drive-away nationwide at the time of writing, as part of a limited-time offer.

It matches the i30 N’s equipment list in most areas, bar the lack of heated front seats, and any leather upholstery, which are available in option packs.

Those also include plenty of features not available on any i30 N hatch: premium audio, a power-adjustable driver’s seat, 360-degree camera, head-up display, and ventilated front seats.

Few front-wheel-drive rivals remain these days: the Cupra Leon VZx ($64,990 plus on-roads) is a GTI with more power and sharper styling, while the Honda Civic Type R ($79,000 drive-away) is a more powerful and far more focused machine.

Standard features in every i30 N include 19-inch forged alloy wheels, adaptive dampers, performance brakes, an electro-mechanical limited-slip front differential, LED headlights, wireless phone charging, a 10.25-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and satellite navigation, and a 10.25-inch instrument display.

Also included is cloth upholstery, a leather steering wheel, keyless entry and start, manual seat adjustment, dual-zone climate control, rain-sensing wipers, a rear-view camera, and rear parking sensors.

Premium versions add N Light front bucket seats with heating, leather and Alcantara upholstery, a heated steering wheel, boot luggage net, and solar windscreen and front door glass.

The i30 N hatch has been in showrooms for the better part of a decade, and it’s the cabin where that is most felt – for better and worse.

The benefit is a conventional layout not short on physical controls. There are traditional buttons and dials for the air conditioning and volume, and aside from a few fiddly touch-sensitive shortcuts, it’s all much easier to use while driving than digging through a touchscreen.

However, it trails newer rivals in terms of technology and quality.

Leather-like materials are used on the armrests, and tops of the dashboard and door panels, but none are all that soft, and there are obvious hard plastics on the passenger-side dashboard, and on the centre console, where rivals may place a contrasting or soft material.

Most noticeable is the cheap-feeling plastic handbrake lever – rather than a soft covering – and the gloss black trim on the centre console, new for 2025, marks easily.

The steering wheel is much better – a small diameter item with a leather-like wrap, plenty of shortcut buttons for N performance modes, and clicky metallic paddle shifters – and the gear shift lever is also nicely finished.

The hard-backed front seats may only be manually adjustable, but they are supremely supportive, including lots of side bolstering, and good under-thigh support; comfortable on long drives, and heated through the Alcantara and leather upholstery.

There are even illuminated N logos in the seats, which look cool at night, if a little tacky.

Storage space is sufficient, but not excellent. The centre console box is on the small side, and the cupholders are tight, but there is a decently sized glovebox, deep door pockets that can fit multiple bottles, and extra room around the shifter and wireless phone charger for smaller items.

That wireless phone charger is joined by amenities such as one USB-A and one USB-C port, one 12-volt socket, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, and a heated steering wheel.

A panoramic sunroof is available as an option, but it’s not fitted to this test vehicle.

Space in the rear is respectable for a small hatch. At 186cm (6ft 1in) tall, there are a few centimetres of knee room to the front seatback set for my driving position, and there’s ample head room without a sunroof, though toe room is tight.

I didn’t find the rear seatback itself to be the most comfortable, with a spot that mixed awkwardly with my back, but your mileage will vary.

A manual handbrake means no air vents for rear passengers, nor any map pockets on the sports seats, but there are two USB-C ports, modest door pockets with bottle holders, a fold-down centre armrest with cupholders, three top-tether anchors, and two ISOFIX points.

Boot space is comparable with rivals, at 381 litres – enough for large suitcases, as well as smaller cases and soft-shell bags.

A space-saver spare wheel is a handy inclusion, and something you don’t get in an i30 N Line, plus a two-position boot floor, smaller cubby holes on the sides of the cargo area, a 12-volt socket, LED light, and bag hooks.

However, the strut bar – which runs along the back of the boot to give the vehicle additional stiffness – cuts into the load area, especially when the seats are folded. It can be removed, but it’s not the easiest thing to do, and will have some impact on the car’s rigidity.

Standard in the i30 N Premium is a 10.25-inch touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, AM, FM and digital DAB radio, voice control, and Bluetooth.

It runs Hyundai’s older infotainment software, so it is feeling its age in terms of graphic design, response times, and screen resolution, but it is not so dated it is a chore to use, and most drivers are likely to run it in Apple CarPlay or Android Auto regardless.

Those features aren’t wireless, a hangover of the older software, which saw Hyundais with in-built navigation limited to wired smartphone mirroring due to what was understood to be a quarrel between the Korean brand and one of the two smartphone software suppliers over how the ‘MAP’ shortcut button operates. Newer Hyundai models have resolved this.

The infotainment screen houses the menu for controlling the i30 N’s performance modes, from launch control, customisation of its N Custom drive settings, and driving data such as lap timers, G-force, power/torque, and turbo boost.

New for 2025 is the 10.25-inch instrument display. It looks more contemporary than the old analogue gauges, and includes an N mode with a centrally placed tachometer and performance-driving read-outs, but it lacks the character of the old dials, and doesn’t offer a whole lot of customisation.

Included in the vehicle purchase is free access to Hyundai’s Bluelink connected smartphone app for five years, including features such as vehicle tracking, fuel and diagnostics information, an SOS call function, and remote control of the locks, windows, engine stop/start, and air conditioning.

The six-speaker unbranded sound system is acceptable in a $40,000 N Line, but it’s short on talent in a $60,000 N, especially given the excellent Harman Kardon stereo available in a Golf GTI.

The Hyundai i30 N has never been covered by an ANCAP safety rating, but its regular sibling carried a five-star score from 2017, which has now expired because it is so old, and test criteria have become so much more stringent since then.

The list of safety features available in the i30 N hatch has grown longer over its life.

New for the 2025 facelift is a rear occupant alert that reminds drivers to check the back seats when leaving the car, a driver attention warning (based on steering input, not a driver-facing camera), and multi-collision braking, which holds the brakes after a crash to prevent subsequent impacts.

We’re glad to see traffic sign recognition is also now available, but it has come with an overspeed warning that chimes when the vehicle has exceeded the speed limit it has detected – even if it has misread the sign, which happens often.

Unlike other new Hyundais, it cannot be disabled by holding down the mute button on the steering wheel, instead requiring a few taps into touchscreen menus – something that must be done every time the car is restarted.

The infotainment menu to turn the beeps off can be mapped to the star buttons on the steering wheel and under the central display, at least.

For all of its additions, the i30 N still goes without adaptive cruise control, even with an automatic transmission. It’s an annoying omission on a $60,000 car in this day and age.

The lane-keep assist remains on the overzealous side, and not as unintrusive as a Golf GTI’s system. It’s easy to turn off, at least – by holding down the lane-assist button on the steering wheel – though it too will switch back on every time the car is restarted.

Lane-centring assist works well – holding the centre of the lane neatly on motorways – while the blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic systems operate well, with the ability to brake to prevent a crash in the DCT, rather than the manual’s alert only.

We did not experience any false activations of the autonomous emergency braking system.

Front and rear parking sensors are now standard across the range, but there is only a low-quality rear-view camera.

Hyundai backs the i30 N with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which can be extended to seven years if the vehicle is serviced at the brand’s dealers for the entire warranty period.

Both cover “non-competitive track use” – without officially measured lap times, in other words – even if buyers fit different, track-focused tyres.

Service intervals are marked in the logbook every 12 months or 10,000km, whichever comes first, and amount to $1098 over three years/30,000km, or $1945 over five years/50,000km.

The capped-price servicing program runs for the lifetime of the vehicle; the 20-year/200,000km service is still quoted at a not-reasonable $447.

For context, a Golf GTI is dearer to service over three years ($2172) than the i30 N is over five – albeit at longer 12-month/15,000km intervals – and its five-year service cost comes in at an incredible $4170.

A year of comprehensive insurance with a leading provider is quoted at $2242, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

Hyundai claims fuel consumption in mixed driving of 8.5 litres per 100 kilometres for the i30 N DCT hatch, across 6.5L/100km in extra-urban (highway/country) conditions, and 11.9L/100km in urban areas.

Over about 550km of driving across a mix of city, highway and winding country roads, I returned an indicated 11.1L/100km, which is high but not extraordinary for a performance car, given I spent much of our time in N Custom mode.

In predominantly city driving, I saw trip computer-indicated consumption north of 12L/100km, while on the motorway I returned closer to 8.0L/100km.

The i30 N is quoted with a minimum requirement of 95-octane premium unleaded petrol, though it is said to be compatible with E10, which usually carries an octane rating of about 94RON. Regular 91-octane petrol is not supported, unsurprisingly for a performance car.

It may have been in showrooms for close to a decade, but there are few hot hatches that can put a smile on your face like the i30 N.

Upgraded to outputs of 206kW and 392Nm with its facelift in 2021, there is no shortage of grunt from the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, helped by a broad peak torque range that covers the middle of the RPM band.

It is not the most characterful engine I’ve ever driven in a hot hatch, but it isn’t opposed to being revved out, and turbo lag at lower speeds is modest.

The sports exhaust completes the package, letting off ferocious pops and crackles on the overrun in Sport+, as well as ‘farts’ between gear changes under hard acceleration. It’s a lot more raucous than a Golf GTI, which has always been the i30 N’s appeal.

Pressing the red NGS button on the steering wheel activates N Grin Shift, downshifting as required and unlocking maximum power for 20 seconds.

Driven hard, the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission comes to the party with rapid shifts and quick responses to pulls of the paddles. It can be left to its own devices in Sport without spoiling the experience, and past experience in i30 Ns on the racetrack tell us it works well there too.

However, it is not the most refined operator around town. There is noticeable hesitation from a standstill, and it’s a bit clunky when parking, requiring a fair amount of throttle to get the clutches to engage and the car to move, which isn’t ideal in tight spaces.

Still, its ability to cop a figurative beating enables a claimed 5.4-second sprint from zero to 100km/h, using launch control.

Heavy rain inhibited our ability to properly performance-test the i30 N, but I returned repeatable 6.1-second times without launch control – again, in the wet – after finding launch control to do little more than spin the front tyres into oblivion.

Among the i30 N’s USPs has always been the customisability it offers drivers. Eco, Normal and Sport modes are joined by a maximum-attack N mode, as well as two N Custom profiles, allowing for selection of throttle response, gearbox mapping, exhaust sound, suspension firmness, stability-control intervention, and differential tuning to your heart’s content.

Suspension is a key parameter as, even in Normal mode, it’s firm. It is just compliant enough to live with, in my view, and it affords a bit of wheel travel over speed bumps and rough roads, but what Hyundai considers soft would be a Golf GTI’s stiffest setting.

There are two firmer modes for the dampers – Sport and Sport+ – but it doesn’t take long to realise they are too stiff for anything other than a smooth racetrack, with the latter particularly jarring over any road surface.

Keep the dampers in Normal, and the i30 N shines on a winding road. The combination of the electro-mechanical limited-slip differential, sticky Pirelli P Zero tyres, and well-tuned traction control put the power down well on greasy tarmac and claw the car out of corners better than a GTI.

It does not feel quite as light on its feet as it could for a car of this size – given the i30 N is on the heavy side for a small car – but it overcomes that with power and the right balance of grip and playfulness to reward its driver.

The steering has more heft to it than a Golf GTI, but less than a GR Corolla half a category above, and it’s direct and accurate in faster driving, if not the last word in road feel, aside from telegraphing torque steer and wheelspin as required.

The brakes are similarly reassuring, with a firm pedal and sufficient bite when driving the car quickly, without being excessively grabby in city traffic.

As with any performance car, the trade-off for grip is tyre roar at higher speeds, though it can be drowned out with the stereo… or a noisy exhaust.

The i30 N is legally rated to tow 1600kg braked or 700kg unbraked, but Hyundai does not sell an official towbar for the vehicle, so interested customers will need to look elsewhere.

A payload of 469kg is quoted, sufficient for four 100kg adults and luggage, or five lighter humans and a less full boot.

The Hyundai i30 N is far from the newest kid on the block. The interior is not as spacious or well appointed as rivals, the technology suite is falling behind – even with the 2025 update – and the lack of adaptive cruise control will sting for many customers.

But as far as delivering on the essence of a hot hatch – a small but practical car you can enjoy on a country road and live without around town, in equal measures – the i30 N still ticks the boxes.

It delivers a fantastic balance of track-ready performance precision and winding-road fun, with enough day-to-day comfort, cabin space, and mod-cons to be classified as an all-rounder.

The price has gone up quite a bit over its life – especially in the past few years – but it’s still as affordable as the few hot hatches left in this size class get, covered by a warranty that has your back if you want to explore its limits in a safe environment.

If driving fun is at the top of your hot-hatch priority list, the Hyundai i30 N is still hard to beat.

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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