– By Rod Fuller –
With an enormous range of vehicles to choose from in the “small” car category from many different manufacturers and endless choices of models and variants. What is it about the i30 Active that makes it stand out in the crowd?
The i30 Active I drove, honestly, must have been an accountant’s or Fleet Manager’s dream. Absolute base model, white, and not an optional extra in sight. It even had steel wheels and hubcaps!! The i30 though is a very stylish looking car, with quite distinctive lines and that un-mistakenly attractive Hyundai front end, giving it the look of a lot more expensive car than it is.
Further dashing the ‘Poverty pack’ aspirations of Fleet Managers, this i30 Active is incredibly well equipped for a fleet driver and is a vehicle that offers surprising levels of occupant space, standard equipment and features that makes this “small” car an easy and enjoyable drive.
A seven inch touchscreen display is provided (which doubles as the reverse camera display) to control the stereo and A/C as well Bluetooth and all the usual connectivity options. Although the clock is small and hard to see. Three power outlets are supplied in this model (two in the front and one in the boot), as well as USB and AUX connections for front seat occupants, which is very handy as this model also features Apple Car Play.
I hadn’t used Apple Car Play before, but, what a simply an easy to use feature it is. I was connected in seconds via the USB (I like that as the phone is being charged as well as being connected) and all of the device’s main features were transferred to the touchscreen. You can easily play your music, call someone, use maps or have ‘Siri’ read you your text message and anything else ‘Siri’ does quickly, simply and easily. Car Play is a great addition this model and will suit all users well.
One feature in this car is literally out if the box, the glove box that is. It’s cooled, an outlet from the A/C pumps cool air into the glove box, making it like a mini cooler drawer, just the place to keep a bottled drink cool while you are out on the road. The car’s interior is very well illuminated, although being the base model it did miss out on ambient lighting for the front seat passengers.
Around town it’s a nimble car to drive and park, perfect for a city based fleet driver with even the steering wheel response being adjustable with three “wheel weights”, Comfort, Normal and Sport to choose from.
On longer trips though, I found the car a little tiring to drive. It’s a little lacking in the oomph department with the 107kw/175nm 1.8 litre engine struggling under hard acceleration, but don’t worry, it will get you there and still return an average fuel economy of 7.3lt/100km.
The car rides well on 205/55R16 tyres and has a full sized spare. But I have to say that Nexen tyres on this car, whilst comfortable and quiet, gave no confidence in the wet and actually felt quite “skatey”.
So what makes it “stand out” from the crowd? It is such a well featured (including Apple Car Play), reliable small car, with very competitive pricing, five year unlimited kilometre warranty and Hyundai’s current offers of 12 month rego and CTP, how could you go wrong?
If you have either an iPod, iPhone or iPad, now you’ll need an ….i30 !!
