| Test drive | Kia Sportage |
Key Facts
Model tested: Kia Sportage 2.0 CRDi KX-4 auto
Pricing: £29,505 as tested; Sportage range starts from £17,500
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel
Transmission: six-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Body style: five-door crossover/SUV
Rivals: Honda CR-V, Nissan Qashqai, Skoda Yeti
CO2 emissions: 189g/km
Combined economy: 39.2mpg
Top speed: 121mph
0-62mph: 9.5 seconds
Power: 184hp at 4,000rpm
Torque: 392Nm from 1,800- to 2,500rpm
Our view:
With SUVs and crossovers leaving showrooms at an impressive rate of knots, mainstream car companies are as nothing if they don't offer at least several iterations of what was once simply known as a 4x4. Whether these machines are just front-wheel drive, high-riding hatchbacks or full-on, huge all-wheel drivers, buyers are snapping them up. One of the most popular is Kia's Sportage, which accounts for one in every four Kias sold in the UK annually - making it the company's most successful model on these shores by some margin. It has recently been facelifted in a bid to keep it fresh, but with new rivals lurching into view almost weekly, can the Korean machine remain competitive?
Muddying the waters from the off is the issue of what precisely this car is. Kia itself calls the Sportage a crossover, but in our eyes it's on the large side for that. It's more like a proper mid-size SUV, particularly when equipped with all-wheel drive, as our test car was. This is the absolute range-topping KX-4 (the KX signifies it is equipped with Dymax AWD, which for the vast majority of the time is front-wheel drive, only apportioning torque rearwards when required) with an automatic gearbox. So compared to a Skoda Yeti, it'll look bloody expensive; compared to a 1.6 i-DTEC Honda CR-V with 120hp, extremely cheap.
All right, cheap might be pushing it, as nearly £30,000 is a whole heap o' cash for a 'crossover'. But it comes with a strong 2.0-litre diesel engine that makes a healthy 392Nm, plus it is loaded with everything. KX-4 includes a full leather interior, seven-inch colour touchscreen satnav, keyless entry and go, heated seats all round, a panoramic roof, dual-zone climate control, a reversing camera, 18-inch alloys, parking sensors front and back, a premium Infinity audio system, USB connectivity and Bluetooth, and even a parallel parking assist feature - all as standard. Spec-for-spec, none of its rivals get close for the money.
The 'SL' Sportage has always been attractive and the revisions have mildly improved it. The arrow-shaped black gloss mesh grille with a chrome surround is one of the changes, as are new alloy wheel designs, LED lighting and a shark-fin antenna. Yes, these are minor alterations, but they'll do enough to tempt some buyers. The interior has been tidied up too, with 'nano' paint on the dashboard and centre console, soft-touch trim on the door tops and a new 4.2-inch LCD 'supervision' screen in the instrument cluster. However, compared to newer Kias, it is starting to feel its age in here. And while the cabin is spacious, for a car this large the boot is relatively poor - it has a very high floor and a low roofline, which means it isn't anything like as capacious as you might expect.
Driving it is pleasurable, as the diesel engine is powerful and quiet, the ride is excellent - although there's a fair amount of body roll - and the tech on the car eases away the miles. It's not a great handler, as when pushed it becomes quite ragged, and the three-mode steering isn't up to much, but that's not the Sportage's USP. On the motorway, its suppression of noise is well executed and it proves a refined cruiser with comfortable seats.
One area where Kia still languishes in the past compared to rivals is its auto gearboxes. This is the second one we've tried in the past few months and they're hard to recommend, aside from the fact the auto 2.0 CRDi has 392Nm compared to the manual's 383Nm; big deal. This transmission is OK but nowhere near as silky as the best out there, and the Sportage's is slow-witted unless you absolutely jam the throttle into its kick down zone. There's another reason to avoid it, though, and that's the impact it has on economy and CO2.
With this brawny motor fitted, having the auto over the manual moves the car from VED Band G to J. Put in starker terms, you'll be paying an eye-watering £485 a year for the auto, compared to just £180 for the manual. And as Kia's clutch-equipped gearboxes have proved to be thoroughly up-to-date in terms of their operation, we can't conceivably see why you'd go for such an antediluvian self-shifting transmission. Not least because it'll cost you an extra £1,305 to buy in the first place.
Also, we've heard people say their Sportages aren't good on fuel - and we're talking about two-wheel drive versions here, not this biggest-engine-auto-AWD combination. Official 46.3mpg extra-urban and 39.2mpg combined figures look optimistic - we saw 34.8mpg and that was driving pretty carefully up and down motorways, too.
The refresh of the Kia Sportage has done exactly what it needed to - given the 'crossover' a bit of extra showroom appeal until a new car arrives in a year or two's time. It remains a pleasant thing to drive, providing you avoid the auto, it has a comfortable cabin and a lofty driving position, and it comes with the superb seven-year warranty that makes it hard to resist. That the interior is starting to creak around the edges in terms of design is neither here nor there - the bigger issues to potential buyers are likely to be the surprisingly ineffective boot, its fuel economy/emissions penalties in auto guise and the impending obsolescence of this third-generation car in a few years' time.
Alternatives:
Honda CR-V: lots of examples of the third-gen car on the road suggest it's a hit, but some of the interior detailing is badly dated and you'll pay a lot more than the Kia for an equivalent spec 2.2 diesel.
Nissan Qashqai: new car matches Kia on size and is improved over the successful first-gen model. Lovely interior eclipses Kia's effort.
Skoda Yeti: cheaper and more car-like to drive, the Yeti is excellent. Some won't like the Postman Pat styling, however.
