Hyundai i40

Took delivery of my I40 Style Blue Drive on the 13th October 2011. The car was launched on the 8th of September, and my car was the first one sold by my local dealership. This car is huge! likely similar to Skoda Superb dimensions, but hides its bulk better. Initial impressions favourable though the car has one really annoying rattle from the dashboard, which an attempt has been made to fix, but not successfully. Other than this irritation, it has more toys than an adolescent gadget freak (of 58 years standing!)like me, could ever wish to play with. The 1.7 diesel is very refined indeed and its characteristics are more akin to a petrol drive, than a diesel one, i.e. if you rev it hard it goes, if you don't, it struggles to maintain momentum, particularly up hills! While the gearbox has good ratio's throughout, the actual change is very 'notchy' indeed and doesn't encourage an easy change down to a lower gear in order to pick up engine speed. The ride is very comfortable, the blue tooth phone system is one of the best around, fit and finish seem to be very 'germanic' in execution. It took a while to get used to it, but this car has auto hold and an electronic parking brake. If auto hold is switched on, when you (say) stop at traffic lights on a hill, the car will hold you stationary in position until you put the car in gear and apply some throttle, where upon auto hold releases as if by magic. This version also has auto stop/start, which works well. Well Worth considering!

Name: P.Talbot
Location: Cardiff