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Take your family AND friends to the racetrack! 2022 Hyundai Staria five-year warranty covers non-competition track use

Drift bus 2.0? The Hyundai Staria’s warranty covers it for non-timed track usage.

Hyundai’s N line-up, including the i30, Kona and i20, might get all the attention at the track, but did you know all new models from the Korean brand, including the just-launched Staria people mover, also come with a warranty covering track usage?

The assurance period offered to all new Hyundai models sold in Australia is five years/unlimited kilometres, which also covers non-timed, non-competitive track operation.

Speaking to media, Hyundai Australia product general manager Andrew Tuitahi confirmed that the warranty is uniform across the brand’s model line-up and not just limited to the N-fettled models.

“Our warranty is consistent across our range, be it a people mover like Staria or something like our i30 N, and while we’re not explicit about saying it is a ‘track warranty’, our warranty does cover non-competitive usage in a closed-road environment,” he said.

Whether you’d want to take an eight-seat Staria – or Venue, Santa Fe or Tucson for that matter – to the racetack is another subject entirely, but at least you’ll have peace of mind if you choose to do so.

Powering the Staria is either a 200kW/331Nm 3.5-litre petrol V6 or a 130kW/430Nm 2.2-litre turbo-diesel, both paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

While a stock Staria might not inspire confidence at a circuit, its predecessor, the van-based iMax people mover, spawned an N ‘Drift Bus’ version as an April Fool’s joke.

However, Hyundai Australia took the joke a step further and actually built a real-life ‘Drift Bus’ for the 2019 World Time Attack Challenge by slotting in a twin-turbocharged V6 engine to punch out 300kW/555Nm (which we drove!).

Wearing the N brand’s signature blue colour, the iMax N was also tweaked with a bi-modal exhaust, 19-inch wheels, beefier brakes and a perfect 50:50 weight distribution.

Whether Hyundai follows on and builds a successor to the ‘Drift Bus’ with the Staria is still unclear, but it’s reassuring to know if it does, non-competitive track use is covered by its warranty.

Tung Nguyen
News Editor
Having studied journalism at Monash University, Tung started his motoring journalism career more than a decade ago at established publications like Carsales and Wheels magazine. Since then, he has risen through...
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