• Average amount of passenger space
• But plenty of room in the boot
• Easy to park and manoeuvre

How much space is there?

Enough for most people’s needs. The Hyundai i30 is roomy up front, offering plenty of legroom, head room and elbow room for both passengers. The windows are large, too, which helps make the cabin feel more spacious than it is – especially on the models without tinted rear windows.

However, the Ford Focus and Skoda Octavia have more space in the back. Rear legroom is tight in the i30 and, if you’re unfortunate enough to be sitting behind a tall driver, you’ll struggle to get comfortable. Despite this, there’s plenty of storage bins dotted around the cabin, so it shouldn’t be hard to keep the i30’s interior free of clutter.

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Boot space and storage

The i30’s boot makes up for its lack of rear space. You get 395 litres with the rear seats up and 1,301 litres with the bench folded flat, which makes it one of the roomiest cars in its class. If you need even more space, you’ll need to step up to a fastback hatch such as the Skoda Octavia or Honda Civic. Or, if you want to stay loyal to Hyundai, its own i30 Fastback offers 450 litres of space.

The standard i30’s boot has an impressive capacity, but the rear bench isn’t the best. It doesn’t fold completely flat, which makes loading larger items a chore. You lift them into the boot, then heave them over the lip between the boot floor and folded seat back, which is twice as much work. There isn’t an adjustable height boot floor, either.

Still, the seat back splits 60:40, which means you carry passengers and cargo if you need to. Hyundai also had the common sense to fit the rear bench with a ski flap. So, when you head down to the DIY shop for some timber, you don’t need to fold the rear bench to get your cargo home.

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Is it easy to park?

Very. Every version of the Hyundai i30 comes with rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera as standard – so you haven’t got an excuse if you reverse it into a bollard. The door mirrors are a good size too, which means you can keep an eye on where the alloys are while you’re parking.

There’s also a lot of glass in the i30’s cabin. This helps when parking, but it’s also very useful on the motorway. The size of the rear windows makes it easy to check your blind-spots. There’s a clear line of sight between the two front seats and through the rear left window, which is great for keeping an eye on dangerous undertaking motorists.

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Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP rating
• Loads of standard safety kit
• Two Isofix points in the rear

The i30 scored an impressive five-star Euro NCAP safety rating back in 2017. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that the regulations have changed since then, with the testers placing greater importance on safety technology. So, if the i30 were to be retested today, it might not score as highly as it did after its launch.

Despite this, the i30 should still be a very safe car. Overall, Euro NCAP was pleased with how well the car protected its adult and child occupants, identifying only a few of risk points under the dashboard that could cause injury in the event of an accident. The passenger compartment remained stable in the front offset impact test, though, and the front seats offer good protection against whiplash.

When the i30 was updated in 2020, Hyundai added its SmartSense safety equipment. The package includes lane following assist (which automatically adjusts the steering to keep the car in its lane); rear collision avoidance assist (which brakes if you’re about to reverse into an obstacle) and leading vehicle departure alert – a system that beeps at you if the car ahead in traffic moves but you don’t.

Watch: Hyundai i30 Euro NCAP crash test video