Hyundai i30 Fastback Review 2024

If conventional midsize hatchbacks aren’t stylish enough for your taste, the Hyundai i30 Fastback could be just what you’re looking for. It’s identical to a regular Hyundai i30 hatchback up to the front doors, but from there the roof swoops down like a coupe, not unlike a posh Mercedes-Benz CLA. The result is perhaps the most elegant five-door hatchback on sale.

The Hyundai i30 Fastback was launched in 2018, a year after the third-generation Hyundai i30 hatchback it is based on. It remained on sale in the UK until early 2023, having received a facelift the previous year (in line with the Hyundai i30 hatchback and Hyundai i30 Tourer estate, which you can read about elsewhere). Here, we are primarily looking at the Hyundai i30 Fastback as it was in 2022-2023.

There are two models to choose from. The Hyundai i30 Fastback N Line looks quite sporty, while Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance is really very fast indeed.

Both cars are generously equipped, with standard features including a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, dual-zone climate control, cruise control, front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.

The N Performance also has a few other useful items, including electrically-adjustable and heated front seats, a heated steering wheel and a wireless phone charging pad. It also has bigger alloy wheels and a much more assertive bodykit.

The Hyundai i30 Fastback N Line has a 1.5T GDi petrol engine that produces 159PS. It feels pretty punchy, sprinting from 0-62mph in just over eight seconds. It’s smooth, quiet and usefully efficient.

The 2.0T GDi engine in the N Performance serves up 280PS and provides rampant performance. Sprinting from 0-62mph takes around five seconds, but the engine pulls really hard from any speed. It sounds really good when accelerating, but quiets down when you need it to. It’s even relatively efficient for a powerful engine, at least on paper.

Both engines are available with either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

In any form, the Hyundai i30 Fastback is rewarding and enjoyable to drive. You feel engaged with it on a winding country road, particularly so in the N Performance. It’s also easy to potter around town in, and offers a smooth and comfortable ride on motorways. The ride isn’t so good at low speeds – again, particularly so in the N Performance – but that’s the compromise you make for such agile handling. Both models have fantastic seats, though.

The Hyundai i30 Fastback is usefully practical. There’s sufficient space for four average-sized adults to fit comfortably, so it will work well as a family car. The boot is huge, although the car’s steeply sloping roof ultimately limits the size of load that will fit.

The interior looks good and it’s really easy to figure everything out on the dashboard. The infotainment system is also impressive and you’ll quickly learn your way around it. The whole interior feels very solid, too. The design could be more interesting and a lighter colour scheme would be nice, but otherwise the Hyundai i30 Fastback’s interior is a perfectly pleasant place to be.

When it was available to buy new, the Hyundai i30 Fastback cost between £26,000 and £35,000 or so, which is fantastic value for money. We’ve seen some pre-registered examples still available with a discount of £1000 or so, while used examples cost less again. So it’s even better value now.

Buying a really stylish car is often a matter of heart over head, but the Hyundai i30 Fastback shows a car can appeal to both.

The two Hyundai i30 Fastback models offer very different driving experiences, so we’ll look at each one separately.

First, the N Line. It looks pretty sporty and feels it on the road. The steering has a nice weighting, is responsive and accurate, and provides some information about what the surface of the road is like. You quickly build confidence and trust in the car, so it’s actually quite rewarding and fun to drive on a country road (if not quite as much as a Ford Focus, which gives the driver a greater feeling of connection).

The ride is on the firm side, yet far from uncomfortably so. The steering is light enough for effortless town driving. The view of the front of the car is very good, but you’ll be glad of the sensors and cameras when parking. It feels solid and stable on motorways.   

The fast N Performance model turns all those characteristics up by four or five notches. It dives into corners and pulls really hard out of the other side, partly thanks to its limited-slip differential. The steering wheel and seat provide plenty of information about what the road is like and what the car is doing, so it’s easy to maintain rapid speeds on a country road. Again, it’s not quite as much fun as a Ford Focus ST, but it will still make you smile.

How comfortable the N Performance is depends on which setting the adaptive dampers are in. In the softest setting (Normal), the ride is quite firm, particularly in town, but it smoothes out at speed and is perfectly comfortable on motorways. Sport mode firms the ride up and is best for country road blasts. N makes the suspension so stiff that it’s best left for racing circuits. Other aspects of the car change with each mode. You can configure your preferred settings for each with the Individual mode.

Two petrol engines were available in the Hyundai i30 Fastback in 2022: the 1.5T GDi and 2.0T GDi.

As its name suggests, the 1.5T GDi is 1.5 litres in capacity, with four cylinders and a turbocharger. It generates 159PS and 253Nm of torque. It’s available with a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.

It’s a smooth, quiet engine that offers peppy performance. Accelerating from 0-62mph takes 8.3 seconds with the manual gearbox, or 8.5 seconds with the automatic. The manual feels light and slick, while the automatic is responsive. Both can reach a top speed of 130mph.

The 2.0T GDi offers a significantly higher level of performance. It’s a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged unit that generates 280PS and 392Nm of torque. You can choose between six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch gearboxes. Both are very good, but the manual makes you feel more connected to the driving experience.

Floor the throttle from pretty much any speed and the engine pulls relentlessly. Sprinting from 0-62mph takes just 5.4 seconds with the automatic or 5.9 seconds with the manual. Both top out at 155mph. The engine snarls angrily under hard acceleration and the exhaust pops when you lift off. Drive at a more relaxed pace and the engine hums away quietly in the background.

The whole Hyundai i30 range – including the Hyundai i30 Fastback – was awarded a five-star safety rating by the experts at Euro NCAP. It scored more than 80 percent for protecting adult and child occupants in a crash. The assessors were impressed with other aspects of the car’s safety as well.

Plenty of driver assistance features are fitted to the i30 Fastback. They include cruise control with a speed limiter, automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, a driver attention monitor and nine airbags.

How much you can tow with a Hyundai i30 Fastback depends on which engine it has. The 1.5T GDi engine is rated to tow 1000kg – enough for a two-berth caravan. The 2.0T GDi engine is rated for 1600kg, so it can pull a decent-sized four-berth caravan. However, we’ve never seen an i30 Fastback with a towbar so, if you need one, you’ll have to speak to a specialist about having one fitted.

There’s enough space inside the Hyundai i30 Fastback to accommodate a family of four in reasonable comfort. In the front, there’s plenty of room for someone over six feet tall, with generous headroom, legroom and shoulder width.

In the back, there’s really only enough space for people under six feet tall to get comfortable. Legroom is OK, but the Hyundai i30 Fastback’s sloping roofline reduces headroom – sit in the back of a Hyundai i30 hatchback or estate and you’ll notice quite a big difference. Still, kids should have space to stretch out. Just watch your head on the roof when lifting little ones into the car.

The Hyundai i30 Fastback’s boot is huge. Its capacity of 450 litres is 55 litres larger than the Hyundai i30 hatchback – indeed, it betters every midsize hatchback except the Skoda Octavia. The space is flat and square, and the opening is enormous. The boot floor is height-adjustable as well. Move it to the lower position and there’s a few inches of extra depth, but a correspondingly higher loading lip.

The rear seats fold down for those occasions you need to carry long loads. The N Performance model has a bracing bar at the base of the seats that gets in the way when they are folded. It can be removed by undoing a couple of allen bolts, but it’s an annoying hassle when you need to load up quickly.

Also, bear in mind that the Hyundai i30 Fastback’s steeply sloping roof can restrict the size of load that will fit inside the car, even with the load cover removed.    

The Hyundai i30 Fastback has exactly the same dashboard as the i30 hatchback and estate. The design is clean and simple, so you’ll learn what the relatively small number of buttons and knobs do in short order. It’s not as interesting to look at as a Peugeot 308’s dashboard, for example, but it’s far more user-friendly.

The materials used throughout the Hyundai i30 Fastback’s interior aren’t as plush and tactile as the Peugeot’s, either. But everything you see and touch most often is made from high quality plastics. The only cheap and scratchy stuff is buried low down.

The Hyundai’s interior feels very solid, so you’ll have no concerns about it standing up to the rigours of family life. The only real demerit is the rather dark colour scheme.

A large 10.25-inch touchscreen display on top of the Hyundai i30 Fastback’s dashboard houses the infotainment system. And it’s a really good one – up there with Ford’s latest SYNC system. The screen responds promptly when pressed, it looks bright and the graphics are crisp. There’s a relatively small number of menus, so it’s easy to learn where the features and information you want are.

Speaking of which, among the features included in the system are sat-nav, DAB radio and Bluetooth. You can also connect your phone via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto if you’d rather have access to your preferred navigation and entertainment apps.

There’s also a seven-inch display screen for the driver that can show everything from basic driving info to music selections and large-format sat-nav instructions.

When it was available to order new, the Hyundai i30 Fastback carried a price tag of around £26,000 for the N Line, and around £35,000 in N Performance guise. Both of them were extremely good value.

We’ve seen some pre-registered 2022 cars for sale with a discount of around £1500. Find one with a few thousand miles on the clock and the price drops commensurately.

The Hyundai i30 Fastback is relatively economical with the 1.5T GDi engine, given the power it produces. Average fuel economy is rated at 45.6mpg with the manual gearbox. The automatic is a bit more efficient, achieving 47.1mpg.

CO2 emissions are sensible as well: 142g/km for the manual and 137g/km for the automatic.

The high-performance 2.0T GDi obviously uses more fuel, although its economy and CO2 emissions aren’t bad for what it is. With a manual gearbox, average fuel economy of 35.3mpg is possible, along with CO2 emissions of 182g/km. The automatic posts numbers of 33.6mpg and 191g/km respectively.

Servicing costs for both engines should be pretty low and vehicle excise duty (VED, or road tax) costs £180 per year. The 1.5T GDi is the better bet for company car drivers, while the 2.0-litre engine’s relatively high CO2 emissions translate into quite high benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax rates. Hyundai provides a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty as standard.

In 2023, there were two models of Hyundai i30 Fastback available: the sporty-looking N Line and fast N Performance.

The N Line is marked out by 18-inch alloy wheels and a bodykit consisting of deep bumpers and side skirts. On the inside, you’ll find sports front seats.

The infotainment system has a 10.25-inch touchscreen display and features sat-nav, DAB radio, Bluetooth and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto phone connectivity, allowing you to use your favourite smartphone navigation and entertainment apps via the screen. The driver has their own 7.0-inch display that shows driving and vehicle info.

Other features include dual-zone climate control, cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera and keyless entry and start. Safety features include automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist and a driver attention monitor.

Being the rapid version of the Hyundai i30 Fastback, the N Performance has bigger 19-inch wheels, a more sculpted bodykit and lowered suspension. It also comes with some extra goodies, including electrically adjustable and heated front seats, driving position memory, a heated steering wheel and a wireless phone charging pad.