Hyundai i20N Review 2024

If there’s a part of you that never quite grew up, and you like to indulge your inner hooligan every now and then, then the Hyundai i20N could be right up your street. This is a proper old-school miniature hot hatch, with bags of power, a rock-hard suspension and a proper ASBO attitude. It’s brilliant fun, and will never fail to put a smile on your face on the right road. Just be prepared for the fact that, when you’re not on the right road and you’re just trying to go about your daily life, you have to put up with some fairly hefty compromises.

This is a bit of a no-brainer where the Hyundai i20N is concerned, because it’s only available with one engine, one gearbox, and in one trim level. The engine is a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol sending 201bhp to the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox and a limited slip differential. The single trim level includes kit such as 18-inch alloy wheels, heated front seats, automatic lights and wipers, cruise control, power folding door mirrors, keyless entry and go, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera, and only a handful of optional extras are available, those being paint, a contrasting black roof and a stereo upgrade.

In truth, not many these days. Not so very long ago, you had your pick of countless small hot hatches, with fast versions of the Renault Clio, Peugeot 208, Seat Ibiza, Skoda Fabia, Fiat 500 and Vauxhall Corsa all vying for your attention, but these have now been discontinued, with only the sensible versions now remaining. Boo hiss. 

Until recently, the Ford Fiesta ST was probably the Hyundai i20N’s most direct rival, but now, even that car has unfortunately gone the way of the Escort, with production stopping in 2023.

That leaves the N with very few direct rivals. The Suzuki Swift Sport is cheaper and less powerful, while the incredible Toyota GR Yaris is both pokier and pricier. Its most direct rival on both counts is probably the Volkswagen Polo GTI, but there’s an appreciable price difference there, too, and the VW is more brisk cruiser than seat-of-the-pants hot hatch.

Hyundai has made some effort to jazz up the N’s cabin in comparison to that of the regular i20. You get chunky sports front seats, leather coverings for the steering wheel and gear lever, aluminium sports pedals, blue ambient lighting and, of course, a liberal smattering of N badging.

However, while it does manage to feel a bit racier than a regular i20, it doesn’t feel any posher, because you have the same monotonous grey colour scheme and the same drab-feeling plastic panels. This rather dour feel isn’t ideal in a regular i20, but in a range-topping hot hatch, it becomes even more noticeable.

The Hyundai i20N’s infotainment system is centred around a 10.25-inch touchscreen that sits in the middle of the dashboard, and the system has all the functionality you’d expect as standard. That includes Bluetooth, voice control, DAB, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, six speakers and USBs in both the front and the back. It also includes a couple of things you might not expect at this end of the market, including native sat-nav and a wireless phone charging pad. You can also upgrade the stereo to a BOSE premium sound system as an optional extra.

The touchscreen system itself isn’t the best you’ll come across, which is a bit surprising given that Hyundai usually does really well in this area. The graphics and menu layouts are fine, but the software is slow and takes an annoyingly long time to react to inputs, to the point where you’re often left wondering if your input registered at all.

The standard kit list also includes a 10.25-inch digital driver’s display rather than conventional instruments, which is a pleasant high-end touch, and it’s easy to read and can be configured in a wide variety of ways.

Part of the appeal of a hot hatch is that not only can it spice up your life with a raucous driving experience, but it also has enough practicality to deal with all the boring bits of life, too. This is something that’s not been forgotten in the i20N, and it does a cracking job given its small size. The front seats have plenty of room, as you’d expect, but there’s enough enough headroom and legroom in the rear seats to keep a couple of tall six-foot-plus adults happy. The cabin is too narrow to comfortably fit a third chum in across the rear bench for any length of time, but the same is true of pretty much all cars this size.

The boot is also a very decent size at 352 litres, which compares well with those of rivals, and there’s a movable floor that allows you to either maximise load volume or level off the (already pretty small) load lip. It also levels off the step up to the rear seatbacks when you fold them down to maximise load volume, and these fold in a conventional 60/40 arrangement.

This being the high-performance N version of the i20, there’s only one of each, and that’s a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. The engine sends 204PS to the front wheels, with traction aided by a limited-slip differential, while a launch control function is also provided as standard. Engage that, and the Hyundai i20N is capable of sprinting from 0-62mph in 6.2 seconds, which is quick enough to raise a smile on even the grouchiest set of chops.

You will feel the steering wheel squirm slightly as the power gets put down, but it’s not as bad as in some rival hot hatches, and the rate at which you get away from the mark feels appropriately rapid. The speed builds in a linear way as the revs rise, which feels nice and consistent, even though it doesn’t quite have the same boosty, highly flexible nature as the engine in a Ford Fiesta ST. That means you’ll need to make a few more gearshifts than you will in the Ford when you want to get a wriggle-on, but that’s no hardship because the shift action feels swift and precise, if not quite as creamily slick as the Fiesta’s.

The N also comes with a rev-matching feature that automatically blips the throttle on downshifts, and it works really well, but if you prefer to do this for yourself with some of your own heel-and-toe heroics, the system is easy to turn off.

The only slight disappointment in this area is the slightly lazy throttle response, which is admittedly reduced in the raciest of the various driving modes, but is still present. There’s an appreciable delay between pushing the go pedal and that go actually arriving, and this takes the edge off the feeling of urgency and dynamic sharpness ever so slightly.

Like many modern hot hatches, the Hyundai i20N’s engine sound is augmented synthetically. In many such cases, the results of such technology are rather unconvincing, but we’re happy to report that in the Hyundai, the effect is rather more plausible. The pleasant burble varies in intensity depending on the driving mode selected, and when the engine is fully extended, you’re treated to an appealing howl.

The noise from the engine isn’t quite so welcome when you’re sitting on the motorway at the national speed limit, because you can hear it buzzing away, although it’s not noisy enough to test your patience too much. The same goes for wind- and road noise: both are detectable, but not too troublesome.

As we’ve mentioned, the Hyundai i20N has that mechanical limited-slip differential to help keep all its power going in the right direction, and on top of that, you’ve got all the usual electronic traction and stability systems to help further. Other electronic driver aids that come as standard include forward collision alert with automatic emergency braking, speed limit recognition, driver attention alert, lane keep assist and lane departure warning. If all this stuff isn’t enough to prevent you from having a crash in the first place, there are also a range of means to help keep you from harm should the worst happen. These include six airbags, Isofix child seat mounting points in the rear seats and an eCall emergency alert system.

Officially, the i20 has a four-star crash test rating from Euro NCAP, but it’s not altogether clear whether the mechanical differences in the N version would make it perform any better or worse in a smash. The water is also muddied further by the fact that the vehicle that actually took part in the test was a Bayon SUV, and it was deemed that the two cars are sufficiently similar that the rating can also be applied to the i20.

If Hyundai’s reputation in this area is anything to go by, there should be very little to worry about. Out of the 29 manufacturers considered in the most recent HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, Hyundai was rated as the 7th best brand for overall customer satisfaction, and 9th best for reliability specifically. Granted, the high-performance Hyundai i20N may be a little more highly strung than most of the firm’s other models, but it’s still backed by the same five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, which is one of the most generous in the industry.

Nice, easy one, this, considering there’s only one version. The Hyundai i20N sits in insurance group 27 out of 50 (group 1 cars being the cheapest to insure, group 50 cars being the most expensive) so expect middling premiums. This is roughly similar to the classification of the Volkswagen Polo GTI, but quite a bit lower than that of the Suzuki Swift Sport, which has far less power, but is comparatively expensive to repair, according to insurers.

Another easy one. As a post-2017 petrol-powered model, you pay the same flat rate of road tax on the i20N as you do on all purely combustion-engined models of the day. That means an annual bill of £180, and because no version of the Hyundai i20N costs over the £40,000 ‘luxury car’ threshold, even if you fit every possible optional extra, then no example will be subject to the £380 per-year surcharge,

Those interested in the i20N will want it to look the part, and to that end, it comes festooned with sporty styling touches including 18-inch alloy wheels, all-round LED lights, rear privacy glass, various black-finish styling elements, and skirts, spoilers and aprons aplenty. Most of the few optional extras available on the car are also aesthetic, including metallic or pearlescent paint, and a contrasting black roof.

The roster of standard luxury kit is pretty good, too. You get part-leather upholstery, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, automatic lights and wipers, automatic high-beam assist, cruise control, power folding door mirrors, keyless entry and go, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera. Other than the aesthetic ones, the only optional extra available is the BOSE stereo system we mentioned earlier.