Kia Sportage Review

The Sportage used to trade heavily on value. It was the sensible family SUV you bought because it gave you plenty of space and a long warranty without making too big a dent in your bank balance. That basic appeal remains, but the latest Sportage has moved well beyond that role. It now feels like a more aspirational product, with much bolder styling, a higher-quality interior and a broader range of powertrains.

That matters in a class where there are very few weak cars. The Sportage is up against everything from mainstream staples such as the Nissan Qashqai and Volkswagen Tiguan to close relative the Hyundai Tucson and more style-led alternatives like the Peugeot 3008. To stand out, it needs more than just a generous warranty and a long equipment list.

Fortunately, the latest Kia Sportage has exactly that. Its cabin feels much more modern than before, passenger space is strong and the boot is one of the biggest in the class. The engine range is also a major selling point. Alongside regular petrol models, there are full hybrids and plug-in hybrids, which gives buyers much more flexibility than some rivals offer. Early diesels did exist, but the current new-car story is now centred on petrol, hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions.

That means the Sportage can cover a lot of different use cases. There's a regular petrol for buyers who want to keep things simple, a full hybrid for those after stronger efficiency without plugging in, and a plug-in hybrid for anyone who can charge regularly and wants to cover more local miles on electric power alone. Not every rival gives you that breadth of choice without pushing you into a much longer price list or a much more confusing walk-up.

The Sportage is not flawless. It rides more firmly than a Skoda Karoq, and while the hybrid is efficient, it can sound quite vocal when you ask for strong acceleration. Some buyers will also find the styling a bit too much, especially compared with more restrained alternatives. Even so, it remains one of the most convincing all-rounders in this class.

For most buyers, the Kia Sportage Hybrid in GT-Line trim is the version to focus on. It gets the styling and equipment most buyers will want, while the 238PS hybrid powertrain gives the Sportage strong everyday pace without the added cost and complexity of the plug-in hybrid.

The hybrid also suits the Sportage’s character particularly well. This is a family SUV that will spend much of its life dealing with school runs, mixed commuting, supermarket trips and weekend motorway slogs, and the hybrid feels like the most natural fit for that sort of duty. It's punchier than the regular petrol, more efficient in stop-start use and easier to recommend to buyers who want something modern without changing their routine around home charging.

The entry-level petrol Pure still has a place if budget matters most, but the hybrid feels more in tune with the Sportage’s family-SUV brief and will be the better long-term fit for many buyers.

The current Kia Sportage range starts at £31,395 for the Pure 1.6 T-GDi petrol manual. Hybrid versions start at £34,895, while plug-in hybrids begin at £38,595 and rise to £47,895 for the GT-Line S AWD. That places the Sportage in the thick of the mainstream family-SUV market rather than at the bargain end of it.

This is one of the biggest shifts in the Sportage story over the years. It used to be the value alternative. Now it's priced much more like a mainstream class contender with genuine aspirations of being a class favourite on merit rather than on discounting. The upside is that the standard equipment is strong, the interior quality is much improved and the warranty still gives it a clear ownership advantage.

The Volkswagen Tiguan is one of the clearest alternatives if you want a similarly polished family SUV with a slightly more restrained design and a softer-edged feel. The Skoda Karoq is also a strong rival if value and straightforward usability matter most, while the SEAT Ateca remains worth a look if you want something a little sharper to drive.

The Hyundai Tucson is still the closest rival in spirit, with a roomy cabin, electrified engine options and similarly bold design. The Nissan Qashqai is also worth a look if slightly smaller dimensions appeal, while the Peugeot 3008 offers a more style-led interior and a different flavour. Buyers who want a family SUV with a hybrid-first brief should also consider the Toyota RAV4.

The Sportage’s advantage is that it rarely feels narrowly focused. Some rivals do one thing especially well, be that comfort, handling, design or value. The Kia’s strength is that it scores well across the board. 

The Sportage is a genuinely practical family SUV. There's plenty of room in the front, and rear-seat space is good enough for adults to sit comfortably behind adults. The rear seats also recline, which adds a little extra flexibility on longer trips.

It feels roomier in the back than a Nissan Qashqai and is broadly on a par with a Hyundai Tucson, while the cabin is more family-friendly than some style-led alternatives that sacrifice rear headroom or visibility. The middle rear seat is not perfect because of the floor hump, but it's usable enough for a third passenger when needed.

Rear access is good, and the Sportage feels well judged for family duties in the small details too. The door openings are wide enough for child-seat manoeuvres, there's useful storage around the cabin and the back-seat area does not feel like a token effort. Some family SUVs still manage to feel roomy on paper but awkward in day-to-day use. The Sportage is not one of them.

Boot space is one of the Kia Sportage’s strongest assets. The standard boot offers up to 591 litres, while the plug-in hybrid manages 540 litres. That means even the least spacious version is still comfortably usable as a family car, and the regular Sportage is right among the strongest in the class. For context, the Sportage’s 591-litre boot is bigger than a Nissan Qashqai’s and right in the mix with a Volkswagen Tiguan, while the 540-litre plug-in hybrid still comfortably beats many rivals. Fold the rear seats and there's up to 1,780 litres to play with in regular models, or 1,776 litres in the PHEV.

The shape of the boot helps as much as the headline number. There's a dual-level floor to reduce the loading lip, handy levers for dropping the rear seats and a useful 40:20:40 split. All of that makes the Sportage feel well thought through for everyday family duties, whether that means prams, sports kit, flat-pack furniture or the usual weekly supermarket haul.

The Kia Sportage measures 4,540mm long, 1,865mm wide and 1,645mm high. That puts it right in the middle of the family-SUV class and explains why it manages to feel roomy without becoming especially intimidating to park.

It's still a bigger car than some buyers may expect when they first see it, but the boxier shape and good visibility mean it's easier to manoeuvre than the numbers suggest. In town, it feels substantial rather than cumbersome, which is exactly what most buyers will want.

One of the Sportage’s biggest upgrades over older generations is its technology. Current cars get Kia’s large curved dashboard display, with a 12.3-inch central touchscreen across the range and a 12.3-inch digital cluster on higher trims. The system looks modern, responds quickly and includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Earlier lower-spec cars made do with a smaller 8.0-inch screen, but the newer line-up is much more consistent.

Kia’s touch-sensitive climate and media panel still divides opinion, but it does at least make the dashboard look more contemporary than the usual mass of buttons. Wireless charging and higher-end audio are available further up the range.

The overall effect is more premium than many buyers will expect from a Kia if their reference point is an older Sportage. It's not as minimalist as some rivals and not as design-led as a Peugeot 3008, but it strikes a strong balance between looking modern and remaining usable.

Material quality is strong for a mainstream SUV. There are still some harder plastics lower down, but the Sportage feels far more polished than it used to, with enough soft-touch trim and neat detailing to make it feel competitive with the class best.

GT-Line and GT-Line S trims add some visual drama inside, while the higher trims also bring more premium-feeling upholstery and trim finishes. The cabin is not just smart to look at, it also feels like it has been designed to cope with the wear and tear of family use, which is at least as important in a car like this.

The current Kia Sportage range offers petrol, hybrid and plug-in hybrid power.

The entry petrol is adequate rather than exciting, but it has enough punch for everyday use and will suit buyers who do not want the added cost of electrification. With 149PS, it no longer feels like the sort of underpowered base engine you merely tolerate to get into the range. It's perfectly serviceable in a family SUV of this size, especially if your driving is mostly mixed suburban and motorway work rather than constant stop-start use.

The six-speed manual version is the cheapest way into the Sportage and will appeal to buyers who still prefer a manual, but the seven-speed DCT automatic suits the car’s character better. It makes the Sportage feel more relaxed and a little more upmarket, even if it's not the slickest dual-clutch gearbox in the class.

The hybrid is the more convincing all-rounder. Its 238PS output gives the Sportage stronger initial shove than the standard petrol, and it feels livelier in day-to-day driving than the numbers alone suggest. That's especially true in town and at lower speeds, where the electric motor fills in the gap before the petrol engine has really had to get involved. In a family SUV, that kind of easy, low-speed response often matters more than outright top-end pace.

The plug-in hybrid is the most powerful version in the regular range, and it feels it. There's a little more urgency to the way it gathers speed, and if the battery is charged it can move off with a calmness and immediacy that the regular hybrid cannot quite match. The official electric range of up to 43 miles is also enough to give it genuine day-to-day EV usefulness rather than just token plug-in credentials.

Even so, the plug-in hybrid isn't an automatic default. It makes most sense if you can charge regularly, and especially if your mileage pattern includes lots of local driving during the week. If not, the full hybrid is easier to justify.

On the move, the Sportage feels easy and reassuring rather than especially characterful. You get a good view out, the controls are light enough for town driving and there's plenty of grip available. It's not especially entertaining on a twisty road, but it feels secure and predictable, which is what most buyers will want.

The steering is accurate enough, if not full of feel, and the front end responds cleanly when you turn in. It never feels cumbersome, which is an important quality in a family SUV that will spend much of its life in tight urban traffic, supermarket car parks and school-run drop-off zones. For a relatively large car, the Sportage disguises its size well.

The downside is ride quality. The Sportage is firmer than some key rivals, especially on larger wheels, and it can feel a little sharp over broken surfaces. This does not ruin the car, but it does stop it from feeling as settled and absorbent as the class comfort benchmarks. A Skoda Karoq or Citroen C5 Aircross does a better job of smoothing things out, particularly on poor urban roads and patched-up country surfaces.

That firmer set-up does at least stop the Sportage from feeling sloppy. Body control is tidy for a family SUV, and it does not lurch or wobble about when the road gets more demanding. The balance is still very much on the side of safety and predictability rather than fun, but that suits the brief.

Refinement is more mixed. The standard petrol is quieter under load than the hybrid, even if it does not feel as strong. The hybrid is the weak spot here, because once the petrol engine is working hard it becomes noisier than you might expect. It's not coarse enough to make the car feel cheap, but it's noticeable and can undermine the otherwise calm character of the Sportage when you accelerate hard or tackle a hill.

The plug-in hybrid is generally the smoothest version of the lot when it's running on electric power or blending its power sources gently. It feels more polished in urban use and more effortless pulling away from junctions. Once the petrol engine joins in more assertively, it still cannot entirely hide its combustion underpinnings, but it remains the most refined version in mixed everyday use.

At motorway speeds, the Sportage settles down well. Wind noise is reasonably well suppressed, tyre noise is acceptable and the seats are supportive enough for longer stints. It's not quite as hushed as the best premium-badged rivals, but it's easily refined enough to work as a family car that does regular long-distance duty.

The Kia Sportage was awarded a maximum five-star rating from independent safety organisation Euro NCAP in 2022. It also comes with a broad spread of active safety systems, including autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance and intelligent speed limit functions. Higher trims add more kit such as blind-spot monitoring and a 360-degree camera.

This is another area where the Sportage makes a strong case for itself as a family SUV. The standard safety offering is generous, and the higher trims add genuinely useful convenience features rather than pointless box-ticking fluff.

The petrol Sportage returns around 40mpg officially depending on version, which is respectable rather than exceptional. That's acceptable for a car of this size, but it's not the version to choose if running costs are your main concern.

The hybrid is the most appealing all-round option for many buyers, with up to 50.4mpg on the official cycle in front-wheel-drive form. In real-world use, it should still be the most sensible option for many households because it does not ask you to plug in, yet still gives you a meaningful step up in efficiency.

The plug-in hybrid adds an official electric range of up to 43 miles, which is enough to cover plenty of daily commuting if you can charge regularly. As ever with a PHEV, the real-world benefit depends heavily on charging frequency. Used properly, it can make a lot of sense. Used like a regular petrol SUV, it will not.

Kia continues to cover the Sportage with its seven-year / 100,000-mile warranty, which remains one of the strongest mainstream manufacturer offers in the market. That still gives the Sportage an advantage over many rivals when it comes to ownership reassurance, especially for buyers who keep their cars for several years.

Service intervals for the current Sportage are every 10,000 miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. That's not especially stretched, but it's straightforward enough and easy to budget for.

Insurance groups now run from 19E for the basic petrol to 29E for the most expensive plug-in hybrid versions. That keeps the Sportage broadly competitive for the class, though the hybrids and PHEVs are naturally pricier to insure than the entry petrol.

This isn't the cheapest family SUV to insure, but nor does it feel out of step with what buyers should expect in this class.

From the second year onwards, a Kia Sportage costs £200 a year to tax in standard form.

The bigger cost issue is the Expensive Car Supplement. If your Sportage had a list price of more than £40,000 when new, including options and before discounts, you pay an extra £440 a year on top of the standard rate for five years, from years two to six. That means affected cars cost £640 a year over that period, before dropping back to the standard rate afterwards.

In practice, a lower-spec Sportage will usually cost £200 a year, while pricier hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions can cost £640 a year for five years. It's worth checking the original list price carefully, because a higher trim or a few options can be enough to tip a car over the threshold.