Kia Sportage Review & Prices

Anybody who thinks Kia is a cheap ‘n’ nasty brand building undesirable cars would do well to study the latest Sportage carefully. It’s one of the most popular family SUVs around and it’s easy to see why, from its striking looks to its wide range of engines and well-equipped trim levels.

It’s a bit like a Russell Hobbs kettle - it might have been just another utensil back in the day, but nowadays it’s sharp-looking and desirable too without losing sight of its good-value roots.

The Sportage does need to have plenty going for it, because as a mid-sized family SUV it’s in perhaps the most competitive class of vehicles out there. Truly excellent alternatives come from every corner, and from pretty much every mainstream manufacturer - cars such as the Hyundai Tucson, Skoda Karoq, Volkswagen Tiguan, Nissan Qashqai and Citroen C5 Aircross to name but a few.

Group Test: Honda HR-V v Hyundai Tucson v Kia Sportage v Nissan Qashqai

There are even a swathe of new Chinese brands trying to muscle in on the Kia’s territory, leaving it fighting for market share with vehicles like the MG HS, BYD Seal U and Jaecoo 7.

The Sportage might be made for mundane duties such as the weekly shop and the school run, but Kia obviously doesn’t believe it has to reflect that in the styling. The Sportage looks great, with wild V-shaped LED daytime running lights, a wide grille and plenty of contrasting trim pieces. Subtle it ain’t, especially if you opt for a good colour - there are a few to choose from.

The interior is less wacky, but that’s not a criticism either. It looks very smart, with a wide twin-screen setup for instrumentation and infotainment. It feels good too, with quality materials used throughout and a minimum of shakes and rattles.

There have been some clever design choices made in the Sportage’s interior - from the space-saving gear selector dial on automatic models, to the panel of switchgear that can change from shortcut keys to climate controls at the touch of a button.

Neat design meets practicality, too. The Sportage has plenty of room for rear-seat passengers and one of the larger boots in the class, with 591 litres of space - more than a Nissan Qashqai, Cupra Terramar or Skoda Karoq.

There are three engines to choose from, all different flavours of hybrid - mild, self-charging and plug-in. The latter are the pick for company car drivers, while the mild-hybrid is the cheapest option if you’re looking to save a buck.

Regardless of which engine you choose, the Sportage is nice and easy to drive - the controls are light, the driver assistance features effective and the steering nice and accurate. It’s not much fun in the bends, though, and it’s firmer over bumps than most alternatives - without the sporty edge to make up for it.

Still, if you don’t need your family car to be a hoot in the bends then this is a fantastic all-rounder that should slot into everyday life no problem at all. If this appeals, see how much you could save with Carwow’s Kia Sportage deals, or get a great price on a used Sportage from our network of trusted dealers. You can also check out other used Kia models, and even sell your current car with Carwow when the time comes.

Prices for the Kia Sportage start at just over £30,000, which is excellent for a family car of this calibre - but that buys you a model in ‘2’ trim, which misses out on the fully digital instrument cluster. It’s worth spending a few extra thousand for the ‘3’ or ‘Shadow’ models, which have a distinctly nicer cabin ambiance thanks to the bigger screens. This price range puts the Sportage pretty neatly in between the cheaper Chinese alternatives and the more premium German ones.

The Shadow also gets black alloy wheels and exterior trim, plus some extra equipment befitting a special edition car - it’s great value. If you want your Sportage to be even, er, sportier, then going for the GT-Line models gives you an accented bodykit as well as extra equipment.

The majority of Sportage models nip under the £40,000 threshold for the expensive car supplement on your yearly road tax - but the plug-in hybrids don’t, so consider how much you may actually be saving when you buy.

The Kia Sportage is a sensible all-rounder across all road conditions, but the suspension is a bit firm around town

In town

The Sportage is easy to drive around town. Most versions come with an automatic gearbox, and those are the ones we’d aim for - the manual is very light but it’s very difficult to modulate the clutch when you’re pulling away, leading to a fair bit of revving or occasional embarrassing stalling.

The hybrids shuffle power between petrol and electric pretty seamlessly, though the engines aren’t quite as quiet when they cut in as on a Toyota RAV4. Meanwhile, the steering is nice - light and accurate - and the brakes feel progressive, which isn’t always the case with hybrid cars.

You do feel the bumps in the Sportage more than you do in some alternatives, though. It has firmer suspension than a Volkswagen Tiguan, and feels like a positive sports car compared with the super-soft Citroen C5 Aircross.

Parking is easy though - all models get a rear-view camera with an optional 360-degree setup, and there are handy little blindspot cameras that display in the instrument cluster when you signal too.

On the motorway

All versions of the Sportage get enough power to make motorway journeys pretty easy - even the basic mild hybrid with its manual gearbox. Put your foot down in one of the hybrids and while you do pick up speed quite neatly, you do get a big lump of engine noise at the same time.

However, all the engines quiet down nicely at cruising speed, and wind and road noise are kept well at bay. The firm suspension isn’t so much of an issue here either - you’ll only really notice motorway expansion joints.

Motorway fuel economy does leave a little to be desired, though. Even the most efficient model will struggle to crest 40mpg on a prolonged run.

On a twisty road

It may have sport in its name, but the Sportage isn’t very sporty. That said, it still has good grip and that firm suspension means that it doesn’t roll too much in corners. There’s no sense of feedback through the steering wheel though, which doesn’t encourage spirited driving.

There's a Sport mode which means the car reacts quicker to prods of the accelerator pedal and adds more weightiness to the steering, but there’s no more actual feedback about what the front wheels are doing and the whole setup seems a bit unnatural. To be honest, you’re as well leaving it in normal mode. It’s about as good, in dynamic terms, as a car like this needs to be.

You do get a decent amount of space throughout the Sportage, but choosing the plug-in does drop the boot space slightly

Practicality up front in the Sportage is pretty good. The door pockets are a little slim for big bottles, but there are plenty of spots in the centre console to keep your phone as well as the contents of your pockets such as keys and wallets. The cupholders on automatic models are Kia’s clever folding versions which revolve out of the way, giving you the choice between drinks or a larger space to fling stuff.

The front seats have plenty of adjustment for drivers of all sizes and the steering column has loads of reach and rake movement, so you ought to be able to get comfortable.

Space in the back seats

There’s good space in the back of the Sportage, and in the six-footer-behind-a-six-footer test, those in the back will have plenty of air between their knees and the back of the front seat. Headroom is good too, even with the optional glass roof but space for your feet is tight, as the runners for the front seats intrude onto the rear floor. The back seat is plenty wide enough to get three people in, but again foot space is compromised by the chunky transmission hump. You do get ISOFIX points for child seats in the back, but the anchor points are buried deep, so it’s slightly harder to slot the seats in than with some similar models.

There are some very nice touches though — you get reclining rear seatbacks, and as well as storage pockets and little bag hooks on the back of the front seats, there are also USB-C sockets built in to the front seats which are nice and high up and easier to access than ones that are mounted down low on the centre console. The rear door bins are fine too, and the rear windows go all the way down. There’s an integrated coat hanger in the back of the front seat headrest which is also a nice touch. Oh, and the roof-mounted middle rear seatbelt is annoying as it cuts across both the driver’s rear view and the head of the person sat in the outer rear seat.

Boot space

At up to 591 litres, the Sportage’s boot is basically huge. But bear in mind it drops from that high, which is only for regular petrol models, with mild hybrid, hybrid and plug-in hybrid models all being affected to some degree by the need to package batteries. The plug-in has the smallest boot of all at 540 litres, so still decent, just a bit less than other Sportages.

Folding the seats down does allow for up to 1,780 litres in the petrol models, while hybrid models aren't penalised too much for their extra electrical drive components - being no more than 65 litres down.

Other models, like the SEAT Ateca (510 litres), Peugeot 3008 (520 litres) and Nissan Qashqai (504 litres) do fall quite a way short of the Sportage at their best. But the Volkswagen Tiguan offers 645 litres in its boot, which has the Sportage licked.

On the petrol model, you can adjust the height of the boot floor to take away a slight load lip, and very sensibly there’s space under the boot to store the rear luggage blind when you’re not using it. All models also get a 12-volt socket, hooks, tie-down points and handles that release and fold the backs of the rear seats. Those fold down in 40:20:40 formation, so you can still have two people in the back and carry a long, narrow load. There’s no spare wheel though — not even as an option.

High-quality screens, but top-spec models don’t live up to the price tag in material quality

The design of the Sportage’s cabin is really nice, with some interesting touches such as the arrow-head air vent just in front of the front seat passenger. All models get a big, bright, 12.3-inch infotainment display, while most trims also get a 12.3-inch digital instrument screen to go with it.

Kia is actually matching, even besting, some premium-brand models with this infotainment setup, as it looks expensive and it’s easy to use. Helpfully, there’s a second touch-sensitive panel below the big screen which, at the touch of a button, changes from heating and air conditioning controls to shortcuts for the navigation and media selection. If that sounds over-complicated, but it’s not — it’s actually really easy to use and the whole setup is so much better than what you’d find in an equivalent Volkswagen.

Quality levels are excellent, and while you will find a few cheaper plastics down low, up top everything’s made of lovely soft-touch materials. The overall build is rock-solid too, and we couldn’t even make the centre console wobble around in spite of really, really trying to. The circular gear selector is a nice touch for automatic and hybrid models, while the steering wheel buttons are actual proper buttons, and not the fiddly touch-sensitive ones you'll find on some Volkswagen models.

The Sportage has a fairly broad engine lineup that opens with a mild hybrid petrol and a manual transmission. This makes 157hp and is offered with an automatic gearbox on higher trims, achieving up to 44mpg on official tests. Expect around 40mpg in daily driving, less if you regularly do short hops around town.

If you’re going to be mostly town driving then one of the proper hybrids makes more sense. You’ll see around 50mpg from the 212hp self-charging hybrid in mixed mileage, or closer to 40mpg on a long run. This figure drops a little further if you opt for the four-wheel drive model.

The 248hp plug-in hybrid has the potential to be the fuel economy champion - provided you keep it well topped-up with electricity. Do so, and you’ll see around 30 miles of all-electric range - useful, but nowhere near as much as the Volkswagen Tiguan or BYD Seal U. Official fuel economy is a fairly useless 200+mpg figure, while the reality depends on the type of journeys you do. With a discharged battery, expect to see slightly poorer economy than the regular self-charging hybrid.

The plug-in is the one to choose if you’re looking for a company car, though, as its lower CO2 results in competitive benefit-in-kind tax rates. Still not as low as the Tiguan or the MG HS, though.

Kia has loaded the Sportage up with electronic driver aids. As standard, you get forward collision avoidance assistance with pedestrian and cyclist detection, an intelligent speed limiter, lane-following steering, trailer stability assistance if you’re towing, and a tyre pressure monitor. You can optionally add to that, including the clever little blind spot cameras, and the parking collision avoidance system (which automatically brakes if you’re about to back into something), as well as the remote parking assistant. There’s also a switchable driving mode for four-wheel drive models, which changes the settings for mud, snow, or sand but few Sportage owners are ever likely to really need or use that.

The Sportage has been tested by Euro NCAP for safety, and it scored a full five stars, including an 87% rating for adult occupant protection, and an 86% score for child occupant protection.

Kia has an enviable reputation for both reliability and customer service, and with the brand’s lengthy seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty coming as standard, we don’t expect that many owners will encounter problems.

Furthermore, it ranked a hugely impressive 11th place in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, indicating those who buy a Sportage are very happy with their purchase.