New Sportage is the near-perfect SUV solution

Kia Sportage drive by Steve Rogers

Had an interesting conversation with the driver who delivered the Sportage.

He had never driven a Kia before and was so impressed he is buying a Sportage even though he is a self confessed BMW man through and through.

That is quite an endorsement and goes to show how Kia has developed from its bargain basement days to a major player, not just in the UK but around the world.

Am I surprised? Absolutely not. This is one of the most complete cars I have driven and leaves no box without a tick.

Plenty of others agree because in January Sportage was our top selling car while the company is currently the second best selling car brand in the UK. Sportage has done for Kia what Qashqai did for Nissan before it. Our obsession with SUV crossovers is still going on.

Kia’s change of direction came in 2010. The company wanted to get out of budget and into the mainstream and was not afraid to spend the money to do it. They brought in top talent including a brilliant German designer with an eye for dynamic design and his first project was the third generation Sportage. It was an instant hit and has been Kia’s best selling car ever since.

So what is it about this car that makes it so popular? Unlike many of the new Chinese brands you don’t have to spend study time with the touchscreen menus and sub menus to find out how the car works.

The Sportage cabin is a joy. The dashboard layout looks special with a curved widescreen unit split into two 12.3in digital screens, one for infotainment, the other the driver’s binnacle with a choice of displays.

Crucially all the essential functions are controlled by tactile physical switches. The heating and radio controls are separated from the infotainment screen while switches for heated and ventilated seats and the heated steering wheel are grouped neatly in the centre console. This is a car you can drive away without thinking.

Having applauded Sportage for its simplicity we did face a conundrum finding the main volume control for the radio. We looked along the dashboard, centre console, and dived into the touchscreen. Nothing. It took two days before my wife cracked it. She touched a symbol on the heating bar and, as if by magic, it turned into radio controls with the knob for adjusting the passenger heating switching to the radio volume. What a brilliant piece of design.

Sportage has only grown 25mm but modern platforms create more interior space and this is the case here so generous proportions front and back, and the seats are comfortable too with plenty of side and back support. I liked the way charging ports for back seat passengers are integrated into the front seat backs.

The range has been simplified to three grades, petrol or hybrid with a plug-in hybrid to follow along with an all wheel drive model. At just over £30,000 the entry Pure looks a safe bet with a decent equipment list and plenty of driver safety aids but for another ten grand GT Line S is a mouthwatering prospect where you want for nothing.

Catching the eye are wireless phone charging, head-up display, powered front seats, eight-speaker premium sound system and a digital key.

Here you can pair your smart phone with the key and lock, unlock, and start the car from a distance (presumably for someone else to drive) and share the function with three others. Grown up kids will probably be first in the queue!

Kia has dropped the diesel so it's a direct injection petrol turbo through a six-speed manual or a seven speed automatic. Some will bemoan the loss of the diesel economy but you are going to have to get used to it. I averaged just over 36mpg on journeys of no more than 25 miles but clocked 44mpg on a longer run which wasn’t bad given the size of Sportage. The hybrid will eke out a few more miles per gallon.

Pushed hard Sportage will hit sixty in under 10 seconds which is good enough and there is no screaming into submission at the red line on the rev counter.

I am tempted to say Kia has crafted the perfect car but there is one small glitch. The accelerator snatches at start off which can make reversing into a garage tricky when you want to creep towards a wall. It will probably emergency stop before hitting but I wasn’t tempted to try it.

Fast facts

Sportage GT Line S

£40,335 (starts £30,935)

1.6 litre; 147bhp

7-speed automatic

0-62 9.4secs; 119mph

39.8mpg combined

162g/km. 1st VED £1,360

Boot: 591-1780 litres

Insurance group 22

Towing: 1650kg