Hyundai i30 — 2012 onwards

What: Hyundai i30

Where: Seville, Spain
Date: February 2012
Price: £14,495-20,295 (Rs 10.8-15.2 lakh)
Key rivals: Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Volkswagen Golf, Kia Cee'd

We like: New Hyundai design language, efficient diesel engine, standard equipment
We don't like: Final attention to detail lets it down

The 2012 Hyundai i30 builds on the success of its predecessor, further improving refinement, offering more kit as standard and delivering a pleasingly engaging drive for those who are interested.

That's not to say it's the last word in dynamic ability - but it is a stylish hatchback designed in Europe and featuring Hyundai's new corporate 'face'. That's a hexagonal front grille, distinctive 'blade' front lights and muscular crease down the flanks.

The new i30 retains what has always been one of the firm's key selling points, too: value. Add into the mix competitive levels of refinement, impressive efficiency and a decent driving experience, and the i30 becomes an appealing proposition.

We sampled Hyundai's 128hp 1.6-litre CRDi Blue Drive combined with the standard fit six-speed manual gearbox, and on the whole we were impressed. For a vehicle that returns claimed emissions of 100g/km CO2, performance is on a par with the equivalent 1.6-litre Focus and 1.7-litre Astra diesels.

Despite its eco-focused nature the i30 Blue Drive will crack 62mph from rest in 10.9 seconds, compared to 10.9 and 10.7 seconds for the 115hp Focus and 125hp Astra respectively.

Source=http://autos.in.msn.com/

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Battle For Supremacy Continues: X3 vs Q5

It's BMW versus Audi yet again. The 2.0-litre diesel avatars of X3 and Q5 are all set for a battle. Let's see whose day it is today

As you can see in the pictures around, what we have for a comparison are the BMW X3 and the Audi Q5. Both are mid-size SUVs or rather soft-roaders we would say, both are German, both are powered by 2.0-litre diesel engines and both are pretty new in the Indian market. The Audi Q5 has been around for over two years, but its 2.0-litre diesel variant came earlier this year. The BMW is comparatively a more recent entrant, having come to these shores about three months ago. Since BMW and Audi have been arch-rivals for years, the battle for supremacy still continues even in this case.

If you think that this one is another fierce battle of two of the best-in-class warriors, you might be surprised by the outcome. How? Let us see.

Source=http://autos.in.msn.com

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