Hyundai i30 stuck in gear.

Ever since new (215 i30) the clutch has grabbed very early meaning you always had to push the clutch hard to the floor to change gears. Rather annoying and hard work when in traffic. Sadly it seems there was no way to easily adjust it so we have lived with it. Then over a couple of days it became hard to change gears and it was making a tinkling sound when the clutch was in and in gear. It was disengaged as no drag. The sound stopped when you changed to neutral. Then 2 days later the clutch simply stopped working and stayed permanently engaged. Hydraulics had no sigh of leaks and the arm at the gear box seemed to have full travel when clutch was pumped. May be the damper after reading some threads but did not see one on this model and the mechanic believes it is in the gear box ($1500 job to pull apart and replace all the clutch parts). Any thoughts / ideas before I throw money at the problem?