Hi,
well I have been debating on what small turbo diesel i want, drove a Focus monday, Drove another i30 today, drove an i30 last sunday.
the one i drove today felt a lot faster than the one on sunday, it also pulled from lower rev's better. sunday was a SLX today was a SX . i'm almost ready to buy one will just show my girlfriend on the weekend. see what she thinks. just wish they came with cruise control like the focus. the thing i like about the i30 over the focus is it has a lower ratio 1st gear, the Focus 1st gear feels too tall to me, i think in traffic the i30 would be nicer to drive, also the Focus has a left hand indicator switch makes me mad when i turn on the windscreen wipers.
just the Focus steers better i could feel that, and might be faster but the i30 i drove today felt very responcive for a small motor.
i think i like white or light silver. or that nice light blue.
John

John,

I'm very happy with the i30 we have. Never drove the Focus. That indicator thing would p#ss me off. I am getting used to the steering, especially once you realise you get loads of assistance from the power steering when travelling slow through to very little when you are at highway speed. That grows on you after a while. Previous 4wds we've had annoyed me when they became very wishy-washy at high speed.

We have the SLX with the stability / traction control. We wanted that mainly due to some of our driving being on dirt roads. We went for the white, have had a silver car previously and wanted a change plus our second car is a light blue Getz.

The seats are comfy, especially on a long trip (this comment is also in answer to a query from Haggis). Even our teenage girls were glowing in there praise of the rear seats on our recent 600k weekend round trip. This was in reference to both the comfort and the leg room. My wife often suffers from back and neck problems and she never had any issues.

I've commented on the excellent fuel economy elsewhere.

John, best of luck with your decision. We're happy with ours. The 3 month wait was a pain but it was worth it.

Aussie Bob
tjaliwalpa

Aussie Bob, thank's, and look's like you are getting great economy from the start.
The steering feel between the i30 and the focus could be partly that i have only driven the one SLX and was late sunday the salesperson i think was ready to go home so was a very short sweet drive. i did not get a chance to really get the feel. and the SX i drove today had the stock steel 15", maybe Ian could say what the difference is in steering feel between the steel and the alloy 17".
thats good to know the seats are comfortable as i do a lot of driving.
Just wondering what tyre pressure you are running?
it's interesting to me to see what economy you can get, i think if i get one that would be a challenge to see just how good or low lt per 100k could get. it is exciting that pro drivers have achieved 3.2 lt per 100k i think they would have tried to stay in 5th gear and below 80kph, and planned there moves so they could drive smoothly and in high gear.
John

John,

Our i30 has Kumo SOLUS KH15 205/55 16 91H tyres. As I said elsewhere, we also got a matching mag and tyre as a spare. I believe earlier versions got a 15' steel spare, but I'm not certain.

Haven't checked tyres, but I believe it should be 32psi.

I'm being careful with driving but still varying speeds. Travelled a little slow last nigh when coming home in the dark (some roos out our way at night). With aircon on low and traveling between 70 and 100k, the trip meter gave an average of 4.4l/100k. Very impressed. :grin:

Aussie Bob
tjaliwalpa

Hi Bob,

That's interesting Only got our SLX Diesel last Thursday (Feb Build/ March Compliance) and although we also got an alloy spare our tyres are Hankook Optimo (same size as yours).

Have been quite impressed with previous Kumos so was a bit disappointed to get Hankook but they seem ok so far (maybe a little noisier on course bitumen than the demo we test drove although can't compare now as that is sold!)

Cheers,

Dazz