Everyone wants an SUV, or so it seems; sales of sports utility vehicles last year accounted for 33 per cent of new car purchases in the UK, up 10 per cent on a decade ago.
It’s easy to see why those figures, from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, are growing. Many drivers - and passengers - feel more comfortable sitting slightly higher up, away from the road. SUVs are also easier to get in and out of, as the seats tend to be at hip level - great for those with articulation problems, bad backs, walking sticks and so on.
SUV boots are easier to load and unload too; they are at just the right height. You also get a better view out over hedges and walls, which is useful at junctions. Which brings us to Kia’s great looking Sportage, which became the best-selling SUV in the UK last year, and by some margin. Driving it, it’s easy to see why.
For a start, there are those lines, which really make the car stand out with its chiselled headlights, purposeful nose and equally sculpted rear, making a significant departure from the previous, more rounded, model. It looks very modern, very purposeful indeed. The design team put a lot of thought into it.
There is a slightly bewildering range of trim levels for the Sportage, starting with the £29,890 manual, mild hybrid 1.6 Turbocharged petrol Sportage 2, and culminating in the £45,775 GT-Line S Plug-In Hybrid. We drove the 1.6 Turbocharged petrol GT-Line S Automatic AWD, and there are around nine other trim levels besides, each with their own variations.
Back to black
Ours arrived resplendent in a particularly stunning shade called ‘Experience Green’, which drew admiring comments all round, especially with its back-to-back contrasting gloss black ‘bits’ including door mirrors, body-coloured bumpers, radiator grille and black wheel arches, but also front and rear chrome skid plates, gloss black window surround, gloss black roof rails and privacy glass in the rear windows and tailgate.
No wonder it stood out, no wonder it costs £42,790, way above the entry price. So what do you get for your money? In short, a very civilised, very easy to drive, refined, comfortable all-rounder, that’s equally at home romping along country roads - and up slippery country tracks - as in the city.
Powered by that 1.6 turbocharged petrol engine, working in tandem with the electric motor, powered by a 44.2Kw, 37.5 kg battery hidden under the rear seat, it produces 207bhp and a hefty 350 Nm of torque, enough for a top speed of 115 mph and 0-60mph in 8.7 seconds.
It drives through an automatic six-speed gearbox, complete with ‘flappy paddles’ on the steering wheel, and on-road driving modes include Eco and Sport, the latter sharpening up engine and steering response. Rotate the Drive knob, and there is a selection of all-terrain modes, too, useful for towing, or muddy car parks.
There is a palpable air of quality to the Sportage, from the way the doors clunk shut, to the feel of the steering wheel, the rotary gear selector, the window buttons, the lid on the generously sized central storage ‘bin’ and so on.
There’s also a swoopy, space-age looking curved dashboard that incorporates two screens; the 12.3-inch main touchscreen, and the 12.3-inch driver display screen; it is impressive. At first glance, the number of buttons and switches looks intimidating, but within a mile or two it all feels fairly intuitive; no need to dive for the owner’s manual here. I particularly liked the way that the row of climate switches below the screens doubled up as media controls, at the press of a button. It’s a great way to simplify the cabin and minimise visual intrusion.
Materials in the cabin were generally high quality and nice to the touch. Seeing out was easy, with good sight-lines at junctions and for parking, assisted by a useful reversing camera (360 degrees on posher trim levels) and ‘bongs’.
Smooth operator
On the road, the Sportage felt refined and very smooth - if a little uninvolving; it’s more ‘connected’ than the previous model but feels more ‘family car’ than ‘driver’s car’. Selecting the Sport mode reveals a slightly more fun side - unless your idea of fun is operating the car so that it saves pennies and tyre wear.
The Sportage feels particularly settled and steady on the motorway, where it irons out lumps and bumps nicely. It pulls well, with notable input from the near-silent electric motor, although the engine sounds a little tinny when revved hard. Answer? Don’t rev it hard; you don’t need to as it makes good progress anyway.
The seating is very comfortable, with plenty of lumbar adjustment, and the sound system is very good, with plenty of EQ adjustment and the ambient lighting can be changed.
The adaptive cruise control works well (although it’s a bit slow to pick up pace if you move, for instance, from a congested centre lane to a clear outside lane), while the lane keep assist was - as with most new cars - plain irritating. I know it’s all part of the ‘journey’ towards self-driving cars and extra ‘safety’ but I’m beginning to question whether this feature really is a bonus at all; I prefer to disable it (always requiring at least two different actions), as I find it unnerving and distracting when it alters the path of the car mid-bend. I sometimes feel I’m fighting the car. Not Kia’s fault, as the systems are mandatory, but this all needs a re-think. I’d like to see some figures on how many collisions it’s actually avoided.
Likes? A fairly decent-sized boot of 587 litres, aided by 40.20.40 split folding rear seats, and very useful stowage underneath the boot floor. The boot load area cover works well, too. And the headlights were great, along pitch-black Cornish lanes.
Treats include a wireless phone-charging tray in front of the gear selector, and two types of USB port up front, while each front seat has a USB-C port for rear passengers. The panoramic sunroof on the test car was a welcome touch of luxury, although it seems to impinge, slightly, on rear headroom. In the rear, the door pockets are tiny and restricted, the ‘sleeves’ on the back of the front two seats similarly so.
While combined fuel consumption is claimed to be 44.1, our car claimed to be delivering around 40mpg on a mix of city and rural roads.
With so much goodness packed into one smooth, tidy, compact package it’s easy to see why this car flies out of the showrooms; less easy to see why - with it all feeling so fresh, still - an updated model will be revealed for Europe in the next couple of months, going on sale later this year. Which, I guess, means there will be some bargains around, with the current model, sooner or later.
The Facts
Kia Sportage ‘GT-Line S’ HEV 1.6 T-GDi AWD
On the road: £42,790
Top speed: 115 mph
0-60 mph: 8.7 seconds
Combined fuel consumption (claimed): 44.1 MPG
Regulated emission (mg/km)
Carbon Monoxide: 122.70
Total Hydrocarbons: 14.10
Nitrogen Oxide: 13.30
Particulate matter: 0.23
