The Public Has Voted - Hyundai's i30 Is The Most Satisfying Car In Britain


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HIGH WYCOMBE, UNITED KINGDOM – April 14, 2010

Hyundai isn’tjust turning sales charts on their heads – the company has now caused shockwaves by winning another satisfaction and reliability survey. The i30 shot straight to the number one slot in the Driver Power Top 100 to be named the most satisfying car to own by the people who should really know – the drivers who run them.


Completed by over 23,000 drivers, the Driver Power survey is compiled by Auto Express, the UK’s best-selling weekly motoring magazine, and is considered to be Britain’s definitive poll on car reliability and satisfaction. The i30 beat all other brands, including a raft of prestige marques and last year’s winner, the Jaguar XF. It’s the first time a Koreanmaker has won in the nine year history of the survey.

Hyundai as a brand made the biggest overall leap up the charts, jumping 12 places to finish sixth. Auto Express editor-in-chief David Johns said: “Congratulations to Hyundai. This is a huge breakthrough for the brand. Over the years, owners have told us how reliable their cars are and what good value they are too. But this is the final proof that they can now match that with real
all-round satisfaction.”

Sporting a roomy and flexible cargo area, a slew of safety features, an outstanding warranty and a low starting price, one could make a case for the 2010 Hyundai Elantra Touring as the most family-friendly small car out there. It's also easy on gas and not afraid to have a little fun.

Two weeks ago I got the chance to drive an early version of the Elantra Touring due out later this year. I was impressed with the little wagon as were others on our staff like Bill Jackson, our resident Weekend Athlete. We’ll be posting a video with his thoughts on this car in the near future, but for my initial impressions and a photo gallery keep reading.



I enjoyed driving this economy car a lot more than I thought I would. Besides a lot of buzzy engine noise — it’s amazing how you rarely hear buzzy engines anymore — the little wagon did everything right. The ride was comfortable, and there wasn’t a lot of road noise. The manual transmission was a joy with light clutch feel and smooth shifter.

As a package, the Touring seemed a bit nicer inside than the Elantra sedan. The backseats folded flat with one button, and there was a lot of cargo room. But I was shocked by the starting price of nearly $18,000 for a manual transmission. Although Hyundai hasn’t announced its official pricing yet, there was a sticker inside our test car, so I assume the price is accurate.

While the Elantra Touring is a nifty economy wagon, the Scion xB offers more utility and style, the Pontiac Vibe is more fun to drive, and a base Subaru Impreza gives you all-wheel drive. And all can be had for a similar price. Economy car indeed.

By James R. Healey, USA TODAY

Isn't this a sweet surprise? The 2009 Hyundai Elantra Touring could be the best auto bargain going.The small/midsize wagon seems to fashion contradictions into complementary attributes, rather than settling for compromises. For instance: Elantra Touring takes up the road space of a compact, but provides the passenger room of a midsize and the cargo area of a middling SUV.

It's simple in presentation to keep costs down, but comes across as elegant and refreshingly restrained.

It's not very powerful, but is loads of fun to fling. It looks dumpy in pictures, but appealing in the flesh — resembling an elongated, well-proportioned Honda Fit without the Fit's silly spoilers and other plastic dreck.

It offers an automatic transmission, of course, but almost demands that you take the manual, to enjoy the tingling satisfaction of manipulating the B&M Racing brand sport shifter.

It's an economy car, but comes with sophistication lacking in some pricier cars, including independent suspension front and rear, disc brakes all around, standard stability control and alloy wheels.

It has an enticingly long warranty — five years or 60,000 miles overall, 10/100,000 powertrain — that's better than some luxury brands.

And you probably won't need it. The Touring hasn't been on sale long enough to have a track record, but the Elantra sedan on which it's based has a "recommended" rating from Consumer Reports magazine with top scores in reliability and ownership cost. Two-thirds of all Hyundais on sale long enough for a record are recommended by CR.

If you still think Hyundai's the cheap brand you buy instead of what you really wanted, boy, are you out of date.

In addition, most details got unexpected attention. Some examples:

•The top model has an exceptionally well done and useful storage tray under the cargo floor, sitting atop the spare tire.

•Bottle holders in the door panels are angled for easy grab-and-gulp moves while underway. (If the bottle's much smaller than the holder, though, it merely tilts precariously.)

•All three rear seating slots have safety head restraints. You find only two on some higher-price cars, as if somebody decided that the middle rider needed no whiplash protection.

The Elantra Touring test car was so unexpectedly good that it called for two separate test periods, to see if the good first impression was illusory. It wasn't.

Touring is a daring car because it's a wagon introduced into the U.S. market, which doesn't like those much. ("We don't call it a wagon here; kiss of death," says Hyundai's small-car product manager in the U.S., Mark Dipko. "We call it a versatility vehicle.") In Europe, its main market, it's a "crossover wagon."

And, truly, it's easy enough to think of it as a hatchback with very generous cargo space.

Hyundai has added the Touring to the U.S. lineup, Dipko says, because "We saw the opportunity to enliven the Elantra line with something styled in Europe."

The gripes, and it's a short list:

•All-wheel drive. Not available. It wasn't designed to accommodate it, so don't expect it, period, Dipko says. "We have the Tucson (SUV) if you need all-wheel drive," he says.

•Leather. Not available. Cloth was comfy (and available heated), but leather sheds spills better.

•Visor notch. Too small. Hard to get a finger behind the sun visor to fold it down. Wearing gloves? Forget it.

•Lighting. Too light. The small green lamp that shows the air conditioning is on was unreadable in daylight. The dashboard lighting is a gorgeous, classy blue, but it didn't illuminate the gauges as well as expected.

•Shifting. Mainly terrific, and that B&M linkage delivered a light metallic click as you moved it among the gears, somewhat like the precise sound of a rifle bolt. But the shift between first and second gears, up or down, sometimes took an extra push.

The clutch engagement could be tricky. If you sit close enough that your left leg always can let out the clutch pedal smoothly, you might find your right leg too close to the throttle and brake pedals.

Most people probably could adjust their way around that. The driver's seat had what seemed like more notches, closer together, than most manually adjusted seats. Thus you could slide very slightly fore or aft to fine-tune your relationship with the pedals. The manually adjustable seats in most cars have big gaps between the positions.

Touring is a slick piece of work; a lot of satisfying automobile for the money. It'd be tragic if America's aversion to cars that look like wagons killed it in showrooms.

ABOUT THE ELANTRA TOURING

• What? Compact, front-drive, four-door, five-passenger wagon. (Must you? asks Hyundai. How about crossover-utility hatchback or some such, since "wagon" is the kiss of death in the U.S.) New to the U.S. lineup, based on the Elantra sedan that was new for '07.

• When? On sale since fall.

• Where? Made in South Korea.

• Why? Already being manufactured for the European market, where buyers are wise enough to appreciate the benefits of wagonlike cars; not a big investment to test the waters in the U.S.

• How much? Starts at $18,495 including $695 shipping. Premium model starts at $19,995. Nearly loaded test vehicle: $20,455.

• Who'll buy? Hobbyists, do-it-yourselfers and others who like a trim-size car, but need extra capacity. About 55% female, 65% married, 45 years old (plus or minus), $65,000 median annual household income.

• How punchy? More than the specs suggest: 2-liter, four-cylinder engine is rated 138 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, 137 pounds-feet of torque at 4,600 rpm; five-speed manual with B&M Racing brand sport shifter is standard; four-speed automatic is optional.

• How deluxe? Unexpected standard features: stability control, fog lights, outside mirror defrosters, four-wheel disc brakes, four-wheel independent suspension.

• How big? Compact outside, midsize inside. Elantra Touring is 176.2 inches long, 69.5 inches wide, 59.8 inches tall on a 106.3-inch wheelbase.

Weighs 2,937 to 3,112 pounds.

Passenger space listed as 101.2 cubic feet. Cargo space: 24.3 cubic feet behind rear seat, 65.3 cubic feet when rear seat's folded.

Turning circle: 34.2 feet.

• How thirsty? Rated 23 miles per gallon in town, 31 (manual) or 30 (automatic) mpg on the highway, 26 mpg combined.

Trip computer in manual test car showed 22.7 mpg in spirited suburban driving (4.41 gallons per 100 miles).

Burns regular, holds 14 gallons.

• Overall: Terrific surprise; pocket change for remarkable blend of practicality and satisfaction.

Hyundai has been batting a thousand of late, with new vehicles like the Genesis sedan and Genesis coupe shaking up their respective segments and leaving class leaders looking over their shoulders. The equally new Elantra Touring hasn't created as much buzz as its rear-wheel-drive brethren, but the five-door hatchback competes with a host of vehicles available in the sub-$20,000 range, all of which are screaming for attention from an increasingly picky buyer who demands something practical, affordable and efficient for his dwindling dollars.

In order to be heard above the noise, Hyundai chose to import one of its existing models from abroad rather than developing a new Elantra model from scratch. They chose the i30, designed in Germany and currently on sale in Europe, Australia and South Korea. The Elantra Touring is very much a direct port of the i30 and actually has little in common with the four-door Elantra sedan, save for its 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and transmission choices. Rather, its closest mechanical cousin is the Euro-only Kia cee'd.

It would seem, then, that the i30 was not originally developed with U.S. customers in mind. Will the resulting Elantra Touring be a hit here, or has Hyundai finally foul tipped a ball? Follow the jump to find out.... READ MORE

By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 26, 2009

A decade ago, I wrote several columns urging readers to take seriously Hyundai Motor, Korea's largest automobile manufacturer.

I was impressed by the willingness of the company to adapt, and by the speed with which it shifted gears to meet the changing realities of the marketplace.

It is a story now turned cliche: The Hyundai that entered the United States with motorized junk in 1985 -- the Excel subcompact -- is now a bona fide competitor in the global automobile industry.



Even high-end companies, such as Germany's BMW, are looking in their rear-view mirrors, checking the Korean manufacturer's rapid progress with models such as the high-quality, high-performance Hyundai Genesis sedan and coupe.

But the Genesis models don't pose the biggest threat to Hyundai's rivals. That, instead, comes in the bread-and-butter segment, the market for compact and midsize sedans and wagons. It comes with models such as this week's subject vehicle, the 2009 Hyundai Elantra Touring.

Hyundai's strategy in the family car category is as simple as it is complicated: The Korean company wants to beat all of its top Japanese rivals -- Honda, Nissan and Toyota -- by offering better products at a lower price.

"Better," as illustrated by the Elantra Touring, means giving people much more car than they expect for the money.

The subject vehicle, for example, is a five-door compact hatchback wagon. You expect a certain amount of utility in that kind of vehicle. But you don't expect cargo space -- a maximum 65 cubic feet with the rear seats folded -- that matches the room found in many midsize sport-utility models.

You expect a manual transmission as standard equipment. But you don't expect a short-throw, five-speed manual gearbox that shifts with the precision of something found in a vehicle set up for weekend track racing. You certainly don't expect a car that is loads of fun to drive. But that is what you get in the Elantra Touring, a car that offers so much for the money, it makes you suspicious.

You start trying to figure out where Hyundai has cut corners, what cheapskate magic has been worked to give you so much for so little.


I thought I had found it in the suspension work, which did not seem to fare terribly well over potholed and pock-marked city streets. But now I'm not so sure.

I drove two versions of the Elantra Touring -- one with manual transmission and 16-inch radial tires and the other with automatic transmission and 17-inch radials. The model with the bigger tires felt more stable over roads bad and good. It was absent the sometimes irritating choppiness I felt in the car with the smaller tires.

Check out standard equipment. Hyundai offers four-wheel disc brakes (ventilated front/solid rear), antilock brakes, electronic brake-force distribution (which automatically increases brake force to the wheels that need it most), and electronic stability and traction control. Also included are side and head air bags -- all in a car with a base price well south of $20,000. That's a real bargain!

Interior materials weren't the best in the world -- a bountiful helping of bargain-priced vinyl there. But everything appeared stitched and assembled perfectly, as good if not better than anything found in a Honda, Nissan or Toyota -- in this case, for several hundred to a couple of thousand of dollars less.

With an in-line four-cylinder, 138-horsepower engine, there's more than adequate power for most commuter transportation needs. Fuel economy -- using recommended regular unleaded gasoline -- is good at 23 miles per gallon in the city and 31 miles per gallon on the highway.

On top of it all, Hyundai has managed to give car sales a slight boost in a dreadfully dismal market with its Hyundai Assurance Plus program, designed to relieve consumer anxiety by promising to take over car payments within the first year of a vehicle purchase for buyers who lose jobs through no fault of their own.

That program has been successful enough to be copied in various forms by Ford and General Motors. Could it be that Hyundai, once the laughingstock of the car world, will be the company that leads the automobile industry out of recession?