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It's one of the most anticipated hot hatches of 2022. But...is it any good? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the 2022 Hyundai i20 N - plus demonstrates a 5000rpm launch with launch control!

Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE

More Hyundai content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/hyundai
More Hyundai i20 N content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/hyundai/i20

Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:56
Interior 03:28
Infotainment 05:15
Safety Tech 07:44
Practicality 08:19
On Road 11:49
0-100 km/h 18:01
Verdict 19:48

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#hyundai #i20n #review
Transcript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So today you're going to be seeing a whole bunch of the Australian wave because it's summer and there's flies absolutely everywhere.
00:06 Now a little while back I drove the Ford Fiesta ST and I absolutely loved it.
00:10 I love the wheels, I love the Ford. I am in love with the design. I love a fist. That sounds really bad.
00:16 It was so much fun to drive. Now though, there is a contender coming up for the funnest little hatch on the market.
00:24 And it is the Hyundai i20. It was released a little while ago but finally it's here in Australia and we get to have a little crack with it.
00:31 It's priced at a little over $30,000. Now this competes with things like the Ford Fiesta ST and the Volkswagen Polo GTI.
00:39 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car. So if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review, you can use the time codes on the screen there.
00:45 Or if you're on YouTube, scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel.
00:51 Press the bell icon, that way you'll find out every single time I survive a day with flies.
00:57 So let's talk exterior design. You've got four colours to pick from. Red is the only one you're going to have to pay for.
01:04 The rest are free of charge. Red costs around $500. You can also get a phantom black roof like this on our test car.
01:10 And I reckon that looks pretty cool. Now in terms of the design, this is going to look fresh to a lot of people simply because the i20 in non-N trim isn't sold in Australia.
01:18 We only get this one variant. So it is a pretty fresh design in that respect.
01:23 So down the front here you have that piano black trim. You've got the N badge just there signifying that this is indeed a full fat N model.
01:30 This is the, I guess, the hero baby blue colour that you do see on i30 N vehicles as well.
01:35 And then down the bottom here you have a red stripe that runs along the bottom of the car and you've got a lower diffuser down there.
01:41 In here you've got cooling sections for the little engine. The little engine in this is actually quite interesting.
01:46 I'll run through that in a bit more detail later on. Over here you have a full set of LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.
01:53 Down here you've got a fog light and also an air vent that comes out just ahead of the tyre there.
01:58 And around the side we have a set of 18 inch forged alloy wheels. Big set of stoppers to the rotor. It measures in at 320mm.
02:06 You get red brake calipers for the N model. Up the back there they're 262mm.
02:11 215mm wide tyres. These are specifically designed for the car as well. So if you are getting a replacement set of tyres for your i20 N, I'd probably just stick with the factory set.
02:21 Now in terms of ground clearance, this is just over 100mm but it is 10mm lower than a standard i20.
02:27 So you do get that kind of sporty stance in comparison to the regular car. Beneath the skin though, it isn't just a sporty version of an i20.
02:35 So the body shell has been reinforced in 12 different places and around that subframe you've got new front suspension with reinforced top mounts and knuckles.
02:43 The other interesting thing as well is that you have a 5 bolt pattern here instead of the 4 bolt on the standard i20.
02:49 So just a little bit of trivia there for you. Up the top here you have piano black on the top section of that wing mirror with an indicator built in there.
02:56 That red stripe runs all the way down the side of the car. You've got a little N nestled into there.
03:01 Privacy glass and then come around to the back. Back here you have a rally style wing. Have a look at that. It is meaty as.
03:09 You've got a shark fin aerial. Down here you've got i20 and then an N badge next to it and then a whopper of an exhaust down there as well.
03:17 So let me know what you reckon about the design and which colour would you get your i20 N in.
03:21 Do you think this baby blue is getting a little bit dated now or is it the colour that you're going to go for so everyone knows you're driving an i20 N?
03:28 Righto, so let's start off with the key. Here it is. So you have a lock, unlock, boot and then on the back you have the Hyundai logo and an N logo as well.
03:37 It's a proximity sensing key so you can leave that in your pocket. Once you're inside you have a push button start here.
03:43 So let's talk about what we see here in front of us. Look, from a tech perspective it looks good because you've got a big infotainment screen there.
03:50 You've got a screen here ahead of the driver but as you look a little bit closer it does look a little bit dreary and a little bit cheap and nasty.
03:58 Like every single surface inside this cabin is just hard plastics. There really isn't much soft stuff going on here which I reckon is a little bit disappointing.
04:08 If you are framing this as the halo model surely they could have gone to a little bit of effort just to soften up some of these materials instead of keeping them very much low rent.
04:16 So it does fit the theme that this is a sporty version of their entry level car but I don't know, I just think it has a little bit of cheapness to it.
04:24 Thankfully there isn't a great deal of piano black around here though. But you do get some N logos.
04:28 So you've got N logo here, one on the steering wheel, you've got your N buttons that I'll go through when we go for a drive plus on the seats as well.
04:35 So at least they do add some of those aspects to the car to really kind of give it that sort of sporty feel.
04:40 Now in terms of your touch points, so over here the centre console, I'm glad it actually has one that you can rest on.
04:46 That's pretty firm. And then over on the door it's a little bit softer.
04:50 How soft is it? Well we've got our gyrometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:54 And if you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before have a look at the link in the description.
04:59 Now what about build quality? Look this is a little bit squeaky here and it's very much loose as well which I think is a little bit disappointing.
05:08 It feels a little low rent. And on our door test, the door actually sounds nice and sturdy.
05:15 Righto, let's talk about infotainment. So yes, this isn't your regular i20 which means they've actually fitted it with a pretty decent infotainment system and a driver display.
05:25 But I'll run you through the infotainment system first. So it's a 10.25 inch screen.
05:29 It'll look familiar to other Hyundai products because it is the same sort of thing you'll find in things like the new Tucson.
05:34 You get shortcut buttons down the bottom there. So inbuilt satellite navigation and then when you go to the home screen you can see all of your other menus here.
05:42 Including the N mode which I'll run you through in just a second.
05:45 But in terms of your radio you have AM, FM and DAB+ digital radio.
05:50 And that's all plumbed through a 7 speaker Bose branded sound system.
05:54 Pretty good sound system so they have one out on that front.
05:58 You also have quiet mode so if you do have somebody in the back seat it will only play music at the front so you don't keep them awake.
06:03 You also have the voice memo function which is a personal favourite of mine.
06:06 In terms of smartphone mirroring you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
06:10 They're both wired so you have to have a cable there, not a wireless system.
06:13 But love this integration, full screen and it is nice and quick as well so no dramas there.
06:20 I'll show you what Android Auto looks like.
06:22 So it is kind of a full screen integration but this side doesn't really do anything.
06:26 So a little bit disappointing, I would have liked to see the full screen actually being used instead of just the little side portion there.
06:34 So a little bit disappointing there.
06:35 Now let's go back here to the main screen and I'll show you this N menu.
06:39 So this is where you can get a lot of the cool performance gauges.
06:43 So you've got things like your throttle percentage, as I push the throttle there you can see it going up.
06:47 You've got engine oil temperatures, some graphs here with regards to your shifts, lap timer.
06:52 You really do have a lot of cool things to play with here.
06:55 And this is something you don't have in things like the Ford Fiesta ST and the Polo GTI.
06:59 They're pretty basic whereas Hyundai has implemented a whole bunch of cool performance functions here.
07:04 So love this and I love the fact that you can play with all that stuff while you're driving.
07:07 There's also a 10.25 inch display ahead of the driver.
07:11 Now this is similar to other Hyundai products.
07:13 You've got a speedo on the left, you've got warnings plus a tacho on the right.
07:17 But unique to these N vehicles is this little performance menu here that gets you engine oil temperature, turbo, boost pressure, torque and your lap timer along with a little G bubble there as well.
07:29 I also love this when you change through these drive modes it changes the screen in the way that it appears.
07:35 But when you press N you get fire and all this other cool stuff displayed.
07:40 So they really have thought about this and I think this really gives this car a bit of character.
07:44 Moving on to safety you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
07:49 You have a lane departure warning and a lane keeping assistant.
07:52 Standard cruise control.
07:53 Over on the wing mirror you have a blind spot monitor.
07:56 You don't get the cool camera that they've built into the screen here on some Hyundai models.
08:00 I would have liked to see something like that.
08:02 In terms of parking you get both front and rear parking sensors and a reverse view camera.
08:06 I'll show you what that looks like.
08:08 So quality is actually not too bad.
08:10 So decent sort of outlook there.
08:12 You can see the sonars there and then if you click this little menu it'll change the perspective as well.
08:17 So you can see top down view there for the parking sensors.
08:20 Righto, let's talk about practicality and we'll start with your connectivity options.
08:23 So down the bottom here you have two USB A ports.
08:26 You also have a 12 volt outlet.
08:28 Wireless phone charging on the pad down here.
08:31 In terms of storing your phone, well it can live, let's get rid of that.
08:35 You can live here in the cup holders or you can pop it down there in the wireless phone charger without any dramas at all.
08:40 Coffee cup.
08:41 Well, good news folks, you've got two different sized holes here for the coffee cup.
08:45 So it fits in there easily.
08:46 Easy to retrieve as well which is good.
08:49 Bottle.
08:50 Same story, two different sized holes there.
08:52 Keep in mind there's no teeth though so the bottle does move around a little bit.
08:55 Then you have bottle storage inside the door as well.
08:58 Let's try our big bottle because I have a feeling it might actually fit down there.
09:02 Look at that, winner.
09:03 Big bottle fits in there as well.
09:05 Pretty good for a small car.
09:06 Now in terms of additional storage you have this centre console.
09:09 Reasonably sized but it actually has space eaten into by this handbrake.
09:14 Kind of just randomly eats into the storage there.
09:16 But this armrest moves forwards and backwards as well if you need a little bit more comfort.
09:21 You also have a glove box down here.
09:23 Reasonably sized too.
09:24 Even with the manual in there you'll be able to fit your odds and ends in as required.
09:27 And now comfort.
09:28 So you have single zone automatic climate control.
09:32 No heated or cooled seats.
09:33 It's pretty simple in that regard.
09:35 Likewise the seat adjustment.
09:36 Manual for both the driver and front passenger.
09:38 But I mentioned earlier the design.
09:39 You've got that N logo up the top with a little bit of Alcantara built into there.
09:43 You've got this blue strip down the centre.
09:45 Seats themselves have heaps of bolster and they hold you in nicely as you're going through corners.
09:50 So it's a pretty decent setup there.
09:52 Steering wheel offers both tilt and reach adjustment.
09:56 And finally our reach test.
09:58 All of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
10:01 OK, back seat.
10:02 I'll tell you what, there's probably a little bit more room than I thought there was going to be here.
10:05 Have a look at this.
10:06 I've got an OK amount of knee room.
10:08 Toe room isn't great.
10:09 I'm kind of wedged into there.
10:11 And head room is kind of marginal as well.
10:13 But I thought I would be way more cramped than I am.
10:15 In terms of your creature comforts there really isn't a great deal going on here.
10:19 You do have one matte pocket behind the passenger seat.
10:21 You have one single USB port.
10:23 But no air vents.
10:25 There is no centre armrest.
10:26 But you can put a bottle inside the door if you want to.
10:30 So that'll fit into there.
10:31 You do get two ISOFIX points for a baby seat though.
10:34 Finally though, our window test.
10:37 Does it go all the way down?
10:39 Yes, it pretty much does.
10:41 So just that tiny little bit there.
10:42 But the window does pretty much go all the way down.
10:45 So let's talk cargo space.
10:47 Now being a small car you probably don't expect this to be all that good.
10:49 But you have a little over 300 litres of cargo space available here.
10:53 You've got some netting, straps on the side and little storage nooks.
10:57 But the good thing is you have a dual tiered floor.
11:00 So you lift this back, you can then drop that floor level lower to give you a bit more access.
11:05 Or alternatively you can hide valuables under there.
11:08 And then beneath that you also have a space saver spare tyre.
11:11 I'll show you what it looks like with our bag in there.
11:14 Well, actually our suitcase I left at home accidentally.
11:17 So this is Igor's camera case.
11:19 You can see there it's sort of the size of a bag you would carry onto the plane.
11:23 So it doesn't fit too badly.
11:24 Now the interesting thing here as well is to get rid of the cargo blind instead of having to find somewhere at home to store it.
11:29 All you do is just pull that back and then it slides down into this little slot here.
11:34 So it gives you a bit more space.
11:36 But I'm going to pull it out entirely because I want to show you what the boot space is like here when the second row is folded.
11:43 So you fold that by flicking these levers up.
11:46 That gives you a little over 1100 litres of cargo space.
11:53 So we've just hit the road in the i20N.
11:56 Let's talk about the engine here.
11:57 So the i20 comes standard with a range of pretty small, inoffensive engines for a vehicle this size.
12:02 But for the N version they've gone with a 1.6 litre turbocharged four cylinder petrol engine.
12:08 It makes 150 kilowatts of power and 275 newton metres of torque.
12:13 And that's all mated exclusively to a six speed manual transmission.
12:17 So no automatics here.
12:19 Unfortunately you've got to learn your three pedals and you'll be good to go.
12:23 Now it is worth pointing out a lot of people say this is the same engine that's in the i30N line.
12:28 But it's actually slightly tweaked.
12:30 It has a different intercooled turbocharger.
12:33 And that means that it produces slightly more torque at a different part of the rev band.
12:37 So while it is very similar, it is slightly different.
12:40 And you've got to keep in mind as well, this car is quite light in comparison to the i30N line.
12:45 It comes in at just over 1230 kilograms.
12:48 So it is a tiny little package to have a 1.6 litre turbo for in it.
12:52 So what does it feel like behind the wheels?
12:54 We're in third gear here at 60 k's an hour.
12:57 I'll just sink the boot in.
12:59 Look, it's actually not too bad.
13:02 So it doesn't sort of pin you right back in the seat.
13:05 I'll try dropping back to second here.
13:07 We'll see how this feels.
13:09 It has got a little bit of lag, but it's got some legs to it.
13:14 So as you start sort of revving it right through that rev band.
13:17 As long as you're above that 2500 RPM mark, it really just keeps going all the way around
13:21 until you hit the buzzer there, which tells you that you need to grab the next gear.
13:25 One thing I'm not liking though, and I noticed this a little earlier.
13:28 If I go back to second here, just watch out, tacho, as I go up from second into third.
13:36 It kind of clips the throttle a little bit.
13:39 So it promotes it to stay up.
13:41 And that means when you come out of the clutch again, it kind of gives you a little bit of a shunt.
13:45 And I really don't like that.
13:47 It's a bit of an over-rev and it just feels a little bit unnatural.
13:51 Let's talk fuel economy.
13:52 So Hyundai claims a combined 6.9 litres per 100km.
13:55 We're currently sitting on 8.5 litres per 100km.
13:58 We've been doing predominantly highway driving, but it's had a fair old lashing here at the track
14:03 before we started filming.
14:04 So pretty impressive that figure, given that it has been given a slightly harder time.
14:09 So on the steering wheel here, you've got two N buttons.
14:13 So this one here on the left allows you to go through your two custom modes,
14:16 and this one is a shortcut to the full fat N mode.
14:19 You can change those custom modes to do different things in terms of steering feels,
14:22 and also what happens out of the exhaust.
14:25 Then you do have that rev matching button down here.
14:27 I'll run you through that in just a second.
14:28 And in addition to all of that, you have another drive mode button down here
14:31 that takes you between Eco, Normal and Sport.
14:34 So there are a lot of different drive modes here.
14:36 I would have thought they'd just stick with these instead of complicating things
14:39 by adding this one as well.
14:40 Now let's pop this into N mode.
14:42 So all of a sudden the dials all change.
14:44 I get rev matching, so watch as I go back through the gears.
14:47 I can hear the exhaust opening up as well,
14:50 and this is where we'll be able to test the mechanical limited slip differential.
14:55 That feels great.
14:58 So the limited slip diff really does a good job of tucking the front end in.
15:02 You don't get speed washing away as an inside wheel starts to slip,
15:07 so it is quite impressive from that regard.
15:09 It means that you are able to just tuck it into the corner, lean on the throttle,
15:12 and then it just pushes itself out.
15:14 And even on these faster corners, as we dial up a little bit more speed,
15:18 the body is super compliant.
15:21 Like it's actually remarkable how fast this thing is going around here.
15:27 It really has taken me by surprise.
15:29 I wasn't expecting it to be this engaging.
15:32 Let's just dial it through this faster corner.
15:36 Yeah, it'll change direction nice and easily as well.
15:39 It is a really sorted package.
15:41 I don't know that it's quite as sharp as a Ford Fiesta ST.
15:45 It doesn't quite have that raspiness to it.
15:47 But even as the speed picks up, it actually feels really nice and engaging.
15:52 And the good thing is you can kill that rev matching stuff here on the steering wheel,
15:57 so it means that when you do go back through the gears,
16:00 while it is a good feature to have,
16:01 if you do want to do it yourself, you just press that button,
16:04 it kills the rev matching that you do it all on your own.
16:06 So yeah, look, it is really impressive there what it's been able to do around this faster circuit.
16:11 I just think it's probably just slightly a little off the aggression that you do find in a Ford Fiesta ST.
16:16 Okay, let's switch all the fun stuff off for a second.
16:21 So the steering is really nice and sharp,
16:23 and the way they've been able to achieve that is by changing the steering ratio.
16:27 So it's gone from 12.4 to 1 to 12 to 1,
16:30 so that means it's a little bit tighter,
16:31 and as you do put those steering inputs in,
16:33 it really just tucks in nice and you don't have to overwork the wheel to make it happen.
16:37 There is a decent amount of steering feel there as well.
16:40 It can be a little heavy at times, especially at low speeds,
16:43 but given this is a performance car, it does feel nice and sharp behind the wheel.
16:47 And what is the ride like?
16:49 So we'll just add a little bit more speed here.
16:51 We've got our undulations coming up here,
16:53 so this simulates a typical sort of country road here in Australia.
16:56 It's actually really impressive, they've done a great job with that.
17:01 So this doesn't have adaptive damping, it's a passive damping setup,
17:04 and that means that there is no variability there in terms of the ride comfort,
17:08 but what they've done here is struck a good balance between sportiness and firmness,
17:12 and also comfort.
17:13 It really doesn't skew too far towards firm,
17:16 and it isn't too far towards soft either.
17:19 It's sort of just a nice little balance there in the middle.
17:21 Now let's talk road noise.
17:22 I'm going to dial this up to highway speeds here.
17:25 We recently reviewed the Kona N,
17:28 and this kind of suffers the same problem that has,
17:31 and that is when you are doing highway speeds,
17:33 especially on a course-chip country road,
17:35 you do get a lot of noise coming into the cabin.
17:38 It's not quite as bad or as droney as the Kona N,
17:41 but it definitely does feel quite droney as you sort of pick up speed.
17:46 Let's talk visibility.
17:47 So it is a little car, so thankfully you can see clearly out the front there.
17:50 The wing mirrors are big enough so you can see down the sides of the car without any dramas.
17:53 There's a blind spot monitor built into those.
17:55 And then looking out the back, the visibility is pretty good there.
17:59 That envelope is nice and big.
18:01 Let's talk 0-100.
18:02 So Hyundai claims a time of 6.7 seconds,
18:06 and that's achieved with launch control.
18:08 And we'll give that a little crack now.
18:09 So come up to a stop, and I'll run you through how it works.
18:13 So you pop it into N mode.
18:15 We go over here to the N mode menu.
18:19 Once we're in there, we go over to launch control, performance options.
18:23 We can set the amount of RPM we want for the launch control.
18:26 So I've got it set to 5,000 RPM.
18:29 Okay, it is active.
18:31 I'm going to put my foot on the clutch, put it into gear, hold my foot flat on the throttle.
18:35 It'll come up saying launch control ready.
18:37 God, that sounds aggressive.
18:38 All right, off the clutch.
18:40 Oh, that was a big old skid.
18:43 Shift into second, and I'll grab third as well.
18:48 That's not too bad.
18:49 That's actually quite fun,
18:50 and I love the fact that you can change the amount of RPM you launch at.
18:54 5,000 RPM is seriously aggressive.
18:58 It just does a big old burnout off the line there.
19:00 So, yeah, that was a bit of fun.
19:02 Let's have a quick chat about the exhaust sound.
19:10 If I do put it back into the standard mode here, and I just get on the throttle.
19:16 It sounds good, but there's really not a great deal to it.
19:19 When you do hit the N button, though, it opens up that bimodal exhaust,
19:23 and it actually sounds completely different.
19:27 It gives you little cracks and pops on the overrun,
19:29 and then as you grab the next gear,
19:33 it gives you a little bit of rasp there as you move from one gear into the next.
19:36 So, really nice setup, and I'm glad they've focused on the noise,
19:39 because the noise in something like this is important.
19:42 It looks sporty.
19:43 It's got to sound sporty as well.
19:44 [Engine revving]
19:47 [Tires screeching]
19:50 [Music]
19:54 Right-o, so the Hyundai i20 N.
19:57 Look, it put a big smile on my face today.
19:59 The flies definitely haven't.
20:00 But it really is just a fun little car to drive,
20:04 and it's amazing what Hyundai's been able to do
20:06 in terms of differentiating this from a regular i20.
20:09 They've crammed in a pretty fun little engine.
20:11 It's got all of the orchestra and all of the fun stuff
20:15 you'd expect it to have for a car that wears an N badge.
20:18 The only thing I reckon that lets it down is just the interior.
20:21 It feels really cheap in parts,
20:22 and when you're spending over $30,000 on this,
20:24 it's, I don't know, just makes you feel like they could have gone
20:27 to a little bit more effort to make it feel a bit nicer on the inside.
20:31 But, look, outside of that, I think it's a good thing.
20:33 How does it compare to a Polo GTI and a Fiesta ST?
20:36 Look, I reckon the Fiesta ST was more enjoyable to drive,
20:39 whereas the Polo GTI was better as a daily.
20:42 So this kind of slots in in between there.
20:45 So, yeah, I don't know.
20:46 If you don't like the look of the Fiesta ST,
20:47 I think this is the one you want to go for if you want that
20:49 really hard-edged experience behind the wheel.
20:52 Now, if you did enjoy this video,
20:53 please make sure you hit the like button, share it with your mates,
20:56 and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel
20:58 and press the bell icon.
21:00 It's going to tell you every single time we drive one of these fun little things.
21:03 But until next time, take it easy.

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