Hyundai i20N Review 2025
Written by Ivan Aistrop
Quick overview
Pros
- Terrific fun when you’re in the mood
- Decent value for money
- Fairly well equipped
Cons
- Punishing ride
- Interior feels a bit drab
- Glitchy touchscreen
Overall verdict on the Hyundai i20N
"The Hyundai i20N is far from perfect, and some of its shortcomings are rather serious, but that doesn’t stop it from being something of a rough diamond. On the right sort of road, it has the capacity to thrill you like few other cars can, and it also has impressive space and practicality, generous kit, an amazing warranty and a tempting pricetag. Just make sure you know about those shortcomings in advance, and that you can live with them."
Not many car companies have managed to transform their public image in quite the way Hyundai has in recent years. Once a budget brand seen as little more than a figure of fun by British car buyers, the Korean carmaker is now comfortably ensconced within the mainstream, alongside well-established companies from Japan and Germany. And, not only does this huge manufacturing powerhouse make several models that sell by the absolute bucketload in the UK, but at the same time, it’s also producing some of the most interesting and desirable models on the market.
The company’s N division has been instrumental in this turnaround. Even a few short years ago, the idea of a high-performance Hyundai was a laughable one, but gradually over time, with a number of genuinely impressive N models under its belt, Hyundai’s N cars have become no laughing matter. Sure, the N division’s inexplicable obsession with the Nurburgring borders on the irritating, as does its fondness for hopelessly cheesy marketing monikers for fairly mainstream dynamic technology (‘N Grin Shift’, anyone?), but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Hyundai’s N cars are highly talented and highly engaging pieces of kit.
The Hyundai i20N might be the smallest and least powerful of them, but it has nothing less in the way of attitude. This 204PS pocket-rocket, powered by a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, looks brash and mean on the road, and with a 0-62mph sprint time of 6.2 seconds, it has the performance chops to back up the bluster.
It’s packing some fairly serious high-performance technology, too, such as a limited-slip differential, launch control, and selectable and configurable driving modes (that’s the bit that’s known as N Grin Shift, apparently - sigh!) that let you tailor the experience to your mood. In truth, whichever mode you pick, the Hyundai i20N is a no-nonsense, uncompromising, hard-edged hot hatchback that likes to be taken by the scruff of the neck, treated mean and driven hard. And when you oblige, it’ll reward you with thrill after thrill after thrill. If you don’t oblige, however, and you just want to get home after a long day at the office, it’s fair to say that the Hyundai i20N becomes somewhat less rewarding - more on that in a while.
In other ways, though, the Hyundai i20N follows the classic hot-hatch formula. Not only is it fast and fun, it also has enough space and practicality to cope with the daily grind, and it’s affordable enough, and well-equipped enough, to feel like good value for money.
Those looking for a super-small hot hatchback don’t have many choices these days, because many manufacturers have stopped offering them in favour of concentrating on building more humble, higher-selling variants. But if you are one of those people still interested in cars like this, then - provided you go in with your eyes open to its shortcomings - the Hyundai i20N is one of the best.
Looking for a used car for sale? We've got 100s of Hyundai Approved Used Cars for Sale for you to choose from, including a wide range of Hyundai i20N cars for sale.
Is the Hyundai i20N right for you?
What’s the best Hyundai i20N model/engine to choose?
What other cars are similar to the Hyundai i20N?
Comfort and design: Hyundai i20N interior
"For a small car, the Hyundai i20N is impressively roomy for both passengers and luggage, so it delivers the practicality you need in a hot hatch. However, the interior could feel posher and the infotainment software can be prone to glitches."
The dashboard layout in the Hyundai i20N is pretty traditional, meaning that most of the various controls sit where you expect to find them, and thankfully, most take the form of traditional buttons, dials and switches. That means you don’t have to mess around with complicated touchscreens or fussy touch-sensitive sliders every time you want to change the cabin temperature or crank up the stereo volume.
There’s a good range of adjustment on the steering wheel and driver’s seat, meaning most drivers should be able to make themselves comfy at the wheel. There’s no lumbar adjustment, but the seats are supportive enough that it shouldn’t bother most people.
Forward visibility is good thanks to slim windscreen pillars, but the equivalent pillars flanking the rear screen are pretty chunky, which can hamper your rear view, so it’s a good job that rear parking sensors and a reversing camera are standard-issue.
Quality and finish
Infotainment: Touchscreen, USB, nav and stereo in the Hyundai i20N
Space and practicality: Hyundai i20N boot space
Handling and ride quality: What is the Hyundai i20N like to drive?
"If you’re on the right road and in the right mood, the i20N is a tremendously enjoyable car to drive, and one that encourages you to unleash your inner delinquent. When you’re not in the mood, or the road conditions require a more relaxed driving style, though, you’ll quickly notice some fairly hefty compromises in everyday useability."
Quite simply, the Hyundai i20N is an utter hooligan of a thing. Put it on the right road, in the right conditions, with your mood in an appropriately devil-may-care place, and it’s an absolute riot.
That’s perhaps no surprise when so much technology has been thrown at the car to make it sing in a set of bends. There’s a limited-slip differential to maximise traction and grip at the front end - both of which are nothing short of mighty, by the way - and you also have launch control, automatic rev-matching, and last but not least, multiple drive modes that vary the behaviour of various things like the diff, the steering, the throttle and the exhaust to dial the excitement levels up or down according to your mood. You’ll probably also like the fact that it has a manual handbrake rather than one of those boring electronic ones, allowing you to relive your teenage days by pulling totally pointless skids in deserted car parks, should you so wish.
But get out of the deserted car park and out onto the open road, and you’ll discover a car that combines those huge grip levels and strong performance (more on that in a minute) with extremely strong body control, weighty and responsive steering and a generally neutral-feeling balance, making the N a monumentally entertaining car, and one that’s very easy to drive very quickly. Okay, so it doesn’t quite have the polished dynamic slickness of the Ford Fiesta ST, and feels a bit more like a blunt instrument as a result, but there's certainly no shortage of fun to be had.
Now, that all sounds great, but there is a slight problem with the N, and that’s that it’s something of a one-trick pony. You see, the N only feels completely happy when you’re driving it like your hair's on fire, and in truth, you’ll only ever be able to do that for a fraction of the time. Back off even a little bit, and you’ll notice some fairly hefty compromises. The ride, for example, is punishingly hard, and being bounced around quite so violently when you’re popping to the shops or trying to negotiate an early-morning school run will likely get very old very quickly. During such use, you might also find that the steering starts to feel unnecessarily heavy, while the way that the diff hops and creaks during full-lock parking manoeuvres will also set your teeth on edge. What’s more, the presence of the diff and the large wheels mean that the turning circle is hopeless, so be prepared for plenty of five-point (maybe even some seven-point ) turns.
What engines and gearboxes are available in the Hyundai i20N?
Refinement and noise levels
Safety equipment: How safe is the Hyundai i20N?
MPG and fuel costs: What does a Hyundai i20N cost to run?
"The Hyundai i20N is reasonably priced as a new car compared with rivals, but its relative rarity means that used car prices aren’t that much lower. It should be fairly affordable to run, though, with decent fuel economy given its level of power, and very reasonable servicing costs. Great warranty, too."
According to the official WLTP figures, you should be able to get a fuel economy return of 40.4mpg from the Hyundai i20N. Like with any car, what you’ll get in the real world will depend entirely on how you drive it, and given its character, the i20N will probably goad you into ruining your economy with over-enthusiastic use of your right foot on a fairly regular basis. And in fairness, if it doesn’t, then you’re probably driving the wrong sort of car. Importantly, our time with the car suggested that you should be able to get fairly close to the official figure, provided you don’t give into temptation. Well, not too often, anyway.
How reliable is the Hyundai i20N?
Insurance groups and costs
VED car tax: What is the annual road tax on a Hyundai i20N?
How much should you be paying for a used Hyundai i20N?
"Due to its rarity on the used car market, and the abnormal strength of used car prices in general, the value of used examples of the i20N hasn’t fallen very far yet, so you’re likely to pay almost as much - if not more - for a used one than a brand new one right now."
Currently, prices for brand new examples of the Hyundai i20N start at around £26,500, which has gone up a wee bit since the car was first launched in 2021. That’s a bit more than you’ll pay for a Suzuki Swift Sport, which has considerably less power, but a bit less than you’ll pay for a VW Polo GTI. A Toyota GR Yaris will set you back a few grand more still, but although similar in size, it’s a very different type of car.
And because used car prices have been elevated so abnormally throughout its time on sale, and used examples of the Hyundai i20N aren’t exactly commonplace, the car’s value has stayed largely solid since. Browse our listings, and you might find to odd example with a couple of years and a few thousand miles under its wheels for a fairly useful four-figure saving, but prices haven’t dipped much further than that, and most examples you’ll find are less than a year old and have negligible mileage, and these are going for almost as much as brand new examples, sometimes even more because you’re not having to wait for the thing to be built and shipped. We expect prices to come down a bit more as time goes on, and as the car market returns to more normal economic conditions.
Trim levels and standard equipment
Ask the heycar experts: common questions
What does the N stand for in i20N?
What's the difference between Hyundai N and N-Line?
Is the Hyundai i20N a good hot hatch?
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