Kia’s Sportage was a worthy Scottish Car of the Year 2010 winner. Last autumn, I drove the first version to arrive in the UK, which was the 2.0 litre diesel four-wheel drive model.
Having been hugely let down by the previous Sportage which dated from 2004 and was good looking but in virtually every other respect a crushing let-down I was tremendously impressed by the turnaround Kia had managed to perform.
Gone was the soggy, bouncy ride, poor build quality and woolly handling. Instead there was a firm but comfortable suspension set-up, taut handling and interior trim and switchgear that wouldn’t look out of place on an Audi.
It also looked great in the sparkling orange paint job Kia had kitted their press demonstrators out in.
This time round Kia sent me the smaller, 1.7 litre diesel in two-wheel drive guise. This one came in white, which not only isn’t as attractive a colour (the Sportage really suits a vivid metallic paintjob) but also seemed to provide an irresistible target for the seagulls that surround our lovely red brick offices on Dundee’s Kingsway like vengeful survivors of Hitchcock’s The Birds.
So sharply cut is the Sportage, however, that even in the wrong colour and spattered with avian excrement, it still looked pretty good.
The Sportage range starts at £17,000 for the most basic 1.6 litre petrol, rising to £25,760 for the KX-3 2.0 CRDi with four-wheel drive and automatic transmission.
The 1.7 litre 2WD version I drove drops right into the middle of the range at a smidgen over £22,000. Those prices stack up very well indeed against rivals such as the Ford Kuga and Vauxhall Antara.
Cars with four-wheel drive styling with two-wheel drive power are becoming ever more common and they make a lot of sense. Virtually no-one takes these ‘soft roaders’ far from the tarmac; and front-wheel drive versions allow you to enjoy the spaciousness and elevated driving position without the additional cost and fuel economy penalty.
This latter area is one where the 1.7 litre Sportage excels. Its official combined fuel economy figure is 52.3mpg, which is excellent for a car of this size. With CO2 emissions of 143g/km it’ll cost a relatively thrifty £130 a year to tax.
The engine’s 114bhp and 192lb ft of torque mean it’s not blessed with an overabundance of power, but it’s enough to move the Sportage along at an acceptable lick, with 0-60mph coming up in just under 12 seconds.
Apart from uphill starts in the rain, when there’s a touch of tyre scrabble, I remained virtually unaware that the car wasn’t powered by all four wheels.
There’s plenty of room for five adults and the boot is a capacious 564 litres, rising to 1353 when the rear seats are folded.
Overall, there’s very little to criticise the Sportage for. Badge snobs may wrinkle their noses at buying a Kia, but this sort of prejudice is passing, and the engines don’t blend efficiency with power in the same way that BMW achieve but then neither do any other manufacturers’.
If I were buying an SUV, this is one I’d look very closely at. And if I was buying a Sportage, this is the version I’d go for.
Price: £22,075.0-62mph: 11.9sec.Top speed: 107mph.Economy: 52.3mpg.CO2 emissions: 143g/km.