There is a sophisticated edge to new Kia Sportage
The Kia Sportage arrived on our roads in 1993 as a boxy, unreliable, utilitarian style vacuum. Kia itself was a newcomer, peddling budget South Korean cars by the hundred rather than the thousand, and the brand was probably at the bottom of the desirability pile.
Two decades later and the fourth-generation Sportage shows how far the brand and the model have come. The Sportage is one of the brand’s most important models, and Kia itself has worked hard to put the cheerful into cheap.
Sophisticated looks aren’t this segment’s strong point, but there’s definitely a bit of Porsche Cayenne in the Sportage if it’s dark and you squint. Overall, it’s a good-looking car, though brown and gold colours give it a slightly reptilian edge.
Inside, the Sportage feels more old-fashioned. Hard plastics and conventional design make the model feel unremarkable to occupants. Everything feels rugged but less exotic than the much-improved exterior.
The Sportage is roomy, robust, and flexible — more so than some competitors — and it feels built to withstand the realities of family life. The back seats are comfy enough for a couple of large adults to travel in comfort and the huge flat-bottomed 491-litre boot would accommodate everyone’s clobber with ease.
It offers more than a suggestion of off-road performance. Four-wheel-drive adds real practicality to this SUV, especially with the button that splits torque equally between the front and rear wheels.
This ‘lock mode’, reminiscent of manual diff locks on much older cars, is effective at speeds of up to 25mph. Useful when everyone else at the party is playing muddy dodgems in front-wheel-drive SUVs.
It even drives nicely. The 1.7-litre diesel feels like it has much more power than it really does, and the manual gearbox can be fun when you ask it to be. Body roll is nicely contained and the ride is fine with all but the very largest alloys.
The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox is too fluffy to express any real sense of urgency when pulling out at junctions. This is true of the 2.0-litre diesel, too, even in the pricey top-spec First Edition model. It manages the car’s torque well at low speeds, though, and is at least quite quiet.
In fact, the pricing makes this a curious model. The car starts at around €27,995, which will buy you a very basic, but still perfectly adequate, SUV. At the other end of the scale, the ‘First Edition’ has all the bells and whistles (including the underwhelming auto ‘box) but competes with badges like Land Rover and Audi. The ‘best’ Sportage is probably the manual 1.7-litre diesel in KX-4 trim, but at around many will head in the direction of a premium competitor. In short, the mid-range Sportages are excellent value, while at the top and bottom ends of the pricing structure, buyers are making compromises.
This is a car for someone who isn’t bothered by brands. The Kia Sportage will be a hugely popular car, mainly among people who want to pay in the region of €30k for a big, roomy, family barge.
It’s hard to recommend the most expensive Sportages, as they’re up against some seriously good alternatives, but a mid-range four-wheel-drive model will be all the car most families will ever need.
- Generalist
- pair of trousers it would be cheap, beige chinos. Nothing fancy, but passable for most purposes.
