Kia Sportage Review

Kia Sportage Review

The all new Kia Sportage was launched in the UK in January 2005. You may remember the previous Sportage model which was released in the UK in 1995 and went on to sell 11,540 units during its 8 year life span. The previous Sportage model was Kia’s best selling 4x4 but it never really made a great impact on the British motoring public - fortunately Kia have only retained the name 'Sportage' for the new model.

Kia is the UK's fastest growing car company and has now sold more than 100,000 cars here since 1991. The New Sportage will be built at the Kwangju factory in Korea and joins a long line of new models in Kia’s portfolio.

According to Kia the new Sportage is a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) which is sporty and elegant, spacious and adaptable; a vehicle designed to give customers the combined benefits of functionality and practicality.

The Sportage model range is available with a choice of 2.0 litre or 2.7 litre V6 petrol engines and a 2.0 CRDi diesel. Two transmissions are available the 5-speed manual (standard on the 2.0 petrol & 2.0 diesel) and a 4-speed automatic (standard on the 2.7 litre V6 and available for a £1100 premium on the 2.0 CRDi model).

With prices starting at £14,495 the Sportage is pitched against established competition such as the Land Rover Freelander, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.

We chose to take a Kia Sportage on our annual trip to Ireland and this year we decided to go to the North, sticking along the coast to Donegal onto Sligo and then back to Dublin. The trip from our Devon base and back was around 2,000 miles which gave us the perfect opportunity to put the Sportage to the test.

Kia Sportage