Kia Sportage Review
Published: 14th August 2005
Kia Sportage
How It Looks - Interior
Kia have listened to customer feedback and realised that Far Eastern styling doesn’t appeal to the UK market. You won’t find dreadful fake wood in the Sportage, instead you are greeted with brushed aluminium effect trim and on the XS model leather faced seats. The Sportage is very well-trimmed bearing in mind the price.
The cabin is simple and ergonomically laid out with the centre fascia housing the instruments and dials in logical, horizontal layers, with the digital clock, CD audio system and heating and ventilation controls, stacked neatly for an elegant appearance. The climate control system is controlled by soft-touch buttons and two rotary dials with an LCD screen showing the direction, power and set temperature.
In Car Entertainment and Satellite Navigation
Our car was fitted with a six speaker - JVC single slot CD player & RDS radio with MP3 play back capability. This means that you can record your own compilations at home on your computer, fitting around ten MP3 albums onto one CD, a cheaper alternative to a CD autochanger. Located below the CD player is a four slot CD storage system. The sound was quality was reasonable and the operation fairly easy but we would prefer to see an integrated system to deter thieves.
Rivals
- Hyundai Tucson,
Land
Rover Freelander, Honda
CR-V,
Nissan X-TRAIL, Suzuki
Grand Vitara and Toyota
RAV4
What We Liked
- Exterior & interior styling
- Automatic transmission
- Car-like driving manners
- High seating position
- Overall package
What We Disliked
- The fuel consumption of the 2.7 V6 you could always opt for the diesel model
What We'd Like To See
- An integrated audio system
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