Hyundai has given the mid-sized i30 its first major update since the car was launched three years ago. One of the many changes is that the three-door body style has been almost completely removed from the UK market, and is now offered only with the new 183bhp 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine.
Other i30s are all five-door hatchbacks or estates (known as Tourers), with a wide range of engines from the 99bhp 1.4-litre petrol to the 134bhp 1.6 CRDi diesel. Hatchbacks fitted with the 1.6-litre diesel, producing a maximum of 109bhp, are the only versions for which you don't have to pay Vehicle Excise Duty, as they have official CO2 emissions of 94g/km.
As before, there's a choice of manual and automatic transmissions, but the latter is a new DCT seven-speed twin-clutch unit similar in principle to Volkswagen's DSG. It adds £1,300 to the price and makes the car less economical, though not nearly as much as a conventional auto would, and it changes from one ratio to the next with admirable smoothness.
The bodyshells are basically the same as those of i30s you could have bought in 2014, so there has been no improvement in the miserable rear view. More positively, the luggage capacities remain competitive at 378 litres for the hatch and 528 litres for the Tourer with the rear seats in place, and 1,316 and 1,642 litres respectively when they're folded down.
There's also enough room for four six-foot adults, with the slight proviso that really tall rear passengers might wish Hyundai had provided an extra inch of knee room.
Road behaviour naturally varies across the range but, in my experience so far, it's pretty good. A diesel automatic I drove had some difficulty with sequences of small bumps but smoothed out larger undulations wonderfully, while a 1.4-litre petrol manual was simply brilliant in all conditions, and may prove to be the best-behaved i30 of all, if hardly the most exciting.
Hyundai has revised its trim naming policy for 2015, and the range now starts with the S. Some people may be disappointed by the fact that it runs on 15-inch steel wheels, but like all the more expensive versions this one has air-conditioning and Bluetooth connectivity. The SE has alloy wheels as standard, along with cruise control, a rear parking sensor and, in the case of the Tourer, roof rails, while the SE Nav gets a reversing camera and satellite navigation.
The Premium, priced at over £20,000 no matter which engine or gearbox you specify, has dual-zone climate control, leather-effect heated front seats, a windscreen wiper de-icer, automatic headlights and wipers and that most delightful of automotive features - at least in the winter months - a heated steering wheel.
Pricing for the regular hatchback ranges from £15,195 for the 1.4-litre S to £23,595 for the 134bhp Premium diesel with DCT. The Tourer, which doesn't get the 1.4-litre engine, costs between £16,895 and £24,695. The Turbo is priced at £22,495 with three doors and £22,995 with five.
