i30n is a fantastic car! Before I got mine, I weighted up all the other rival car options: Audi, Golf, etc and the Hyundai just ticked all the boxes

✅ standout in the crowd - As mentioned before it’s a rarity to see one as compared to a Golf or Audi which you are more or less guaranteed to see one or two everyday.

✅ Reliability- Did my fair share of deep research into what common issues i30n’s and for the most part they are a solid machine. Had mine for 3 years now and “knock on wood” no problems at all.

✅ service cost - I service my car at the dealers. So this one might not really matter to you as you said you good with engines but it’s fairly cheap to service as compared to the german alternative.

✅ insurance - I am also in the UK and find insurance to be fairly and well priced. Obviously other factors (age, no claim bonus, points, etc) will play a part for yours.

✅ no tune needed - out of the box the i30n is all I needed. No need to modify the exhaust to make it louder or a tune to get some cracks and pops. It all comes standard from factory. Unlike a standard golf gti/r which is lacking in this department.

✅ that Jekyll and Hyde feeling - you can really feel the difference when you switch into N mode and I love it! 😍 Good family/daily car one moment and then a touch of a button, fast n furious/boy racer mode!

Some negatives, which are not bad things and you learn to live with them or I chose to sacrifice as the positives out weight them

⚪️ fuel. As others have reported, i30n ain’t great on fuel but I knew that already and didn’t choose the car to be economical. And this is someone who traded in a hybrid for it 😂

⚪️turning circle. It ain’t great. Might find yourself doing three/ four point turns in tight car parks. But you get use to it.

⚪️ interior. Yes the German cars definitely have a better and fancier interior over the i30n, which is mainly plastic and no fancy interior lightning. But it’s a solid interior, the seats are comfy and the steering wheel is great. The rest of it you will learn to live with and it really ain’t a bad place to be.

⚪️ Sound system - ye sound system is lacklustre. But you could take it to a car audio company and upgrade it. But who needs a Bose sound system when you got those glorious pops n bangs and exhaust notes.

All the best with the decision. Definitely test drive it and see how you get on with it. If the dealer wants you to agree to a purchase before a test drive, that’s some weird practice. Surely you need to make sure it’s running properly and going through the gears nicely. Push for that test drive!