Impressions and observations: my review. By asd.

[asd]

Alright, I am currently approaching 2500 km on the clock of my MY19 Performance Micron Grey, so I thought I would share my overdue impressions, observations and experiences so far with the N, in a particularly non-poetic, boring and lengthy way, so you’ve been warned

TL;DR version: The car is great! Love it!

As far as various international versions of the car go: No sunroof (not available), Heated seats, Heated wheel, heated side mirrors, seat memory – so things that some call luxury packs, or winter packs or whatever (obligatory with the performance version)... Also metal footrest. And I suppose GPF.

I’m not quite the photographer, and I think there is not much I can contribute, there are already some awesome pictures of the MG i30N in the gallery section (thanks guys, some really awesome pics in there) and scattered around the forum, and my car is generally stock, apart from debadged ass and black N badge in front so I guess I won’t be posting much pictures, especially artistic ones

Generally speaking the car is pretty much spot on with what I expected, in some, maybe many ways - even better. Design, handling/performance and price wise it was really the only choice for me, all other hot hatches had something wrong (or at least unsatisfactory in a deal-braker way) in at least one of those departments.

So to make this less chaotic for anyone that's still reading this, I guess I'll break it down into 3 categories: Exterior, Interior and Driving.

I’ll try to describe both gripes and praises, although it would be easier to say I’m describing all the gripes that come to mind and you can just assume everything else is either great or awesome. Keep in mind 99% of the gripes I have aren’t really things that bother me, more like a notice and forget kind of deal. Rather treat it as a demonstration of how grumpy I can sometimes get and how many complaints I can come up with if I really try hard

So here goes:

Exterior

Can’t say I did excessive examination of panel fitment on my car, it looks fine to me, did not notice any obvious misalignments like some people described/documented

Did get a little worried about the headlamps fogging up after power washing, but both my dealer and other forum members here reassured me that is to be expected on full LED units, only a problem if the fog’s not going away after 5 min drive.

The keyless unlocking feature is a bit laggy. While I don’t really care that the trunk needs a second of key press until it pops open, on many occasions when I approach the car, I press the handle unlock button and manage to pull the handle faster the the car unlocks. Could be a bit more instant imho...

I guess the only solution that bothers me a little is the front wipers. I just don’t get it. If you’re gonna make me go through a procedure from the cockpit just to be able to pull them up from the wind shield, at least make them hidden under the hood in the idle position. In this car they are neither hidden nor can you just lift them up. Not that I need this often, it’s just annoying.

I think the rear spoiler has proven to be a bit easier in cleaning than the standard fully built-up hatch spoilers I had to deal with before.

As mentioned in another thread – the Fuel Flap Door Lid Cap Cover Panel™ can be closed after locking the car, so for some freaks like me it’s a nice thing

The rear diffuser-ish thing between the tailpipes is an excellent collector of dirt&shmoo

Not crazy about the fact that in normal mode only one tailpipe is open, makes the second one look a bit fake when just one of them releases exhaust fumes. Liveable.

Someone has already pointed this out on here, it’s not an unusual issue in cars, but it would be nice if the water being wiped off the wind shield when driving in the rain would not get wrapped over onto the driver’s window. Now documented with a picture in post #4

Front bumper seems to have a plastic curtain of a couple cm under it, which seems to serve no other purpose than to scrape the road on steep garage ramps...

Seem a common issue with the N – the brake pads carving a groove into the brake disc at least for some initial kms. I believe most cases it gets solved by just driving and using them, but I understand that is not always the case :/

 

[asd]

Interior

Generally the build quality is nothing short from my requirements and expectations. Some people complained that not even the door handles are chrome/metal at least, but now that I have the car I am in love with the all dark interior, from the roof padding to the very bottom. Like some other forum members, I bought those rubber pads for all the cup holders, shelves etc with red lining, not using them currently – love the all dark interior so much. The floor mats with red lining suffice. Waiting to see if drive mode buttons can be replaced with the dark ones from i30N fastback, if not will be looking for some button covers or consider wrapping/plastidipping them.

As I wrote above – I have no issues with any material used on the doors/dash etc. Except the piano black plastic on the Info-Navi-Media-tainment Headunit Screen Pad™

Also the Headunit could be tilted towards the driver at least a little bit.

Up till now have not experienced any crackling or squeeking noises while driving, even on some quite bumpy country roads, which is very pleasing.

The creasing (artificial)leather on the seats is an issue, I don’t really care about it (right now?) but I agree that this is the only thing that seems common in all our cars and needs a service recall perhaps.

The seats in my opinion are spot on. Just the right balance of sporty and comfort. I’m 183cm tall and as low as they go is fine for me, don’t need or want lower seating position. In fact the only thing they are missing is ventilation. But thankfully it’s alcantara and not regular leather, so it’s not bad. Unventilated leather seats are no longer acceptable, I think.

At first I thought it would be irrelevant, but as mentioned by others a couple times on the forum – the side mirror control panel could use LED backlighting just like the rest of the buttons. Too many times when backing up I wanted to dip the mirrors down to see the curb and ended up folding the mirrors altogether. I know, it’s a matter of learning the layout, but yeah, LED button backlight.

The tactility of all buttons and dials is great. I especially like the window controls. The way they feel and click is pure pleasure.



The middle section with the cup holders, arm rest and all – fine to me. I have no issues with the armrest being fixed, maybe the compartment inside it could use a floating shelf on top, like some other Hyundai models have, but not a problem.

The controls around the gear shift – good positioning, easy to remember, easy to use without looking.

ISG (Start/Stop) system has proven to be quite fine on this car. Had it when driving an automatic transmission before and it was horrible, turns out on everyday use it is quite hard to experience start-up lag, and the sound is definitely a bonus

Parking sensors, as mentioned elsewhere on the forum seem to be a bit laggy. They change beep interval with a delay to actual obstacle distance. Rearview camera, despite a resolution that could be better, performs quite well in poor lighting conditions imho.

The wireless charging pad & compartment is ok, although could have a bit different shape, the idiotic solution of wired Android Auto makes it a bit clogged if you want to put your connected phone there. Someone on here wrote that the charging is a bit random – I’ve noticed it’s just a bit sensitive to phone placement. If I place my phone with its side against the lip on the shelf – it works perfectly, but seems that misalignments and/or possibly a thick phone case might cause the charging going on and off constantly.

Climate control and the rest of the middle panel is perfect. Not oversimplified and not crowded with buttons. Temperature control by knob – and not by +/- buttons or god forbid some touch controls or a virtual slider. The simple old-school calc LCD display. Again, I like the tactility of the buttons very much. Not too soft or too hard, just right. The A/C seems to be super effective too.

The vents and their regulation is fine for me, which wasn’t always obvious. Some cars made it awkward with the air somehow always blowing in an uncomfortable way/direction for some reason, no matter how you aligned them.

The whole software side of the Info-Navi-Media-tainment Headunit Screen Pad™ I’ll leave for another time as I didn’t really fiddle with it much aside from initial configuration and playing with drive parameters.

I miss the semi-transparent section around the rear view mirror that is now built up due to the SLIF/AEB/etc camera/electronics

The dials and the dashboard – love it. Love the main dials starting from vertical down. Love the layout, speedo/rpm resolution and all. Otherwise it’s just a very proper dashboard.

Useless fact #273: The coolant temperature dial turned out not to be analogue the way I am used to. It actually moves in steps of 2 degrees C instead of fluently move along the scale as the engine heats up/cools down. That’s a first for me.

Lights. The auto lights don’t always turn on/off in the lighting conditions I would expect them to, but nothing to complain about. Since always I would manually turn them on when needed like foggy or rainy days. The auto high beams work just fine when I use them, I agree though it is a bit awkward you need to flash them again to turn them off.

Other than that the lights are not top of the line in terms of coverage, seen better but haven’t yet found them lacking. Seem a bit low, in my car they have a manual setting wheel, which I usually have set to 0 (highest). Don’t get any light flashing from oncoming traffic, and the height is sufficient. I guess could use one extra level beyond 0.

Sound quality is sufficient. A couple times cars would surprise me with sound quality, so maybe I’m a bit spoiled. After some setting up it’s quite decent, far from ideal but sufficient. Haven’t spent much time listening to audio still, so maybe I’ll update later

Can’t say the rear strut bar does anything for me convenience-wise. Nor am I happy to see it in the trunk nor does it bother me. It’s there, that’s ok.

Update: forgot about the thigh support extension in the seats, which is super nice, especially for longer routes, but the crease created by the fabric when it's folded is a dirt supercollector

 

[asd]

Driving

Coming soon...

 

[asd]

Here's a pic of the water issue I wrote about earlier - water tends to wrap around to the side and enter through the window should you be driving with it open in the rain for some reason
it's not that apparent on the picture, but water does indeed get inside the car while driving


Here's my winter wheel:
Tyre is Dunlop Winter Sport 5 235/40 R18
Rim is Alutec Singa Dimond Black 7.5x18 ET 55...

Expecting a mild winter (unfortunately yet again) so I only changed 1 front wheel to winter one (and carrying a winter chain with me in case there's ice/snow, and the other front wheel looses traction too often).

The plan was to go for 18" for the winter and maybe after the pirellis are gone - for summer too (saving myself from handling full wheel sets twice a year and perhaps from buying an additional tpms sensor set), hopefully getting a bit softer ride and potentially less rim endangerment, while keeping the same ride hight and possibly traction. I am not 100% convinced by those wheels, maybe will need to give myself some time. An added bonus is 18" tyres are significantly cheaper, although it's not really often that I plan to buy them, so that's definitely a pleasant side effect rather than a goal. So far I get the feeling the ride is a bit softer indeed, and maybe I've gone mad but seems like the steering weight is significantly lighter. Gone less than 1km on them so will investigate further.


<more to come>

 

[asd]

<Just in case more pictures>

 

[asd]

<I think that's enough>

 

[Bradley]

Good read, as with all cars they have their niggles, but still what a car! Love driving mine every minute.

 

[Crocoman]

Great impressions

Keep meaning to do mine soon but always on the forum through my phone and really need to sit down on a laptop for a big write up.

If I could sum up this car in one sentence it’d be this......

Every time I need to go out in the I30N, I am consciously happy about it. Weird but true

 

[Stash-N]

Glad to see I am not the only one happy to provide a detailed opinion on the car. I would have to agree with @asd on most of his thoughts in this post. Nice work!

 

[eddie_gt4]

what a shame that you haven't posted a single picture yet

(...) Someone has already pointed this out on here, it’s not an unusual issue in cars, but it would be nice if the water being wiped off the wind shield when driving in the rain would not get wrapped over onto the driver’s window (...)

but there's some additional plastic things on the sides of the windscreen that are supposed to prevent this?

 

[asd]

what a shame that you haven't posted a single picture yet



but there's some additional plastic things on the sides of the windscreen that are supposed to prevent this?

Well, there is I suppose, and I know, I know, who drives with windows open in the rain ?
but surprisingly much water goes inside if you do have even a tiny slit open

 

[asd]

Added a couple pictures in post #4 regarding:
the water wiped off the windshield wrapping around onto the window, and
my winter tyres + rims

Anything new I post I will also add to the first posts to on one hand keep things together in one place and for people interested to know there's been an update and not need to go through stuff they already read before on the other hand.