Having to fill the SR up with fuel more than once a week is getting a bit wearing, says Tony Bosworth, who also returns to the issue of the weak headlights.
Car Hyundai i30SR
Date bought November 18, 2013
Price paid $28,000 driveaway
Extras Phantom Black paint – $495
Delivery kilometres 38
Current kilometres 8650
Fuel consumption (mix of E10 and 91 octane, depending on availability), L/100km: best: 6.5, worst: 6.7, average: 6.7
Service costs Nil
Faults None
Apologies for the gap in reporting – life sometimes has a habit of getting in the way of a weekly report, unfortunately.
Anyway, here we are with over 8000km on the clock now and the Hyundai i30 SR is still performing well.
But…what I’m finding on my weekly commute is that I can’t go a whole week without filling the fuel tank, which is a bit annoying. Before the Hyundai I was covering the same trip for years in a Peugeot 206 XT and that could easily go the whole week without a top up, often travelling into the weekends too.
You may say, what’s the big deal, but my daily journey involves sitting in traffic queues on Sydney’s motorways so taking time out to fill the tank can mean I’m in an even longer queue when I get back on the road. And yes, I could fill it up at night, but you know what, I want to get home after a gruelling day on the congested roads around Sydney.
The SR’s tank capacity is 50 litres (the SE’s is 53 – go figure) and the Peugeot’s is, yes, exactly the same. So, I’m wondering about the fuel consumption figures and intend to do some old-fashioned tests on that by brimming the tank and measuring it properly, rather than relying on the on-board computer.
Okay, the Peugeot has a 1.6-litre engine against the SR’s 2.0-litre but the Pug is 14 years old and has a five-speed gearbox and a quarter of a million kilometres on the clock. The SR is new and has a – supposedly – more economical six-speeder. I still have the Peugeot so I’ll do back-to-back fuel tests on that too, and we’ll see what we come up with, but clearly the SR is using quite a lot more fuel than the aged Peugeot ever was.
I mentioned in a previous report about how poor the lights are. One reader came back and said he’d had the same issue and found that if you put the driving lights on (called foglights everywhere else in the world) then it solved the problem. As he pointed out though, it is illegal to drive with those driving lights on (in most Australian states) except in very adverse conditions, which means fog.
Honestly, Hyundai should look at those lights.
Okay, next week I’ll give you an update on the fuel situation.
Hi, good to see the headlight problem was (sort of) resolved. But not so good to hear of the tank needing a fill before the end of the week. Was it always that bad? Your early reviews reported good mileage. Maybe some dud fuel? My 380 can get exactly one week (630km my best), and I am expecting 1-2 weeks of that for my next smaller car. Hopefully yours will get better as it settles in more?
Hello David, the actual fuel consumption doesn’t seem to have changed – at least according to the SR’s computer readout – but what happens is, it will tell you there is 100km-worth of fuel left and then the warning light comes on. In the Peugeot there is no kms-left readout so I’d tend to drive it even with the light on, knowing by touch, if you like, how much fuel I had left. In the Hyundai when it’s telling me I have 100km range left I have to fill up because my daily round trip is about 140km – sometimes more, depending on what I’m doing. But I do want to carry out the back-to-back real-world fuel test on the two cars to see how they compare. For the record, the SR’s readout says I’ll get around 580km on one full tankful.
On the 380, I get about the same range as you – and that’s similar to the fuel tank range in the Hyundai – but the fuel consumption in my 380 is usually around 11.5L/100km, whereas the SR is supposedly 6.7. Still, the 380 has a bigger tank, at 67-litres.
It now thirds through April. Where are the other reviews?? Nothing since early March 🙁
Hi Graham,
My apologies, but due to unforeseen circumstances we won’t be running the Hyundai i30 SR as a long-term test vehicle on PM. We will, however, have a new vehicle to run in the next few weeks.
Thanks,
Isaac (Editor)