Overview

The Kia Sportage is one of the UK’s most popular family cars, and a regular Top 10 bestselling car. What makes the Sportage such a good choice for family buyers is the promise of a seven-year warranty, reliable engines and a spacious interior that’s packed with equipment no matter the model you go for.

It’s just an added benefit that the Kia Sportage engines and trim level choices are varied and appealing to a wide variety of buyers.

It’s the current version that’s really proved popular with buyers, successfully stealing sales from many family-friendly SUVs such as the mechanically-similar Hyundai Tucson and the ever-popular Nissan Qashqai, as well as good-value Renault Kadjar and SEAT Ateca, the stylish Peugeot 3008, practical Skoda Karoq and spacious Mazda CX-5 and Honda CR-V.

The Sportage line-up is made of familiar Kia trim levels, kicking off with the Sportage 2, moving up to 3 and on to GT-Line and GT-Line S trims.

As ever with Kia, there’s a huge amount of equipment built into most trims. In fact, the entry-level 2 comes with more kit than you might expect with DAB, Bluetooth, auto lights and wipers and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. The GT-Line and GT-Line S trims offer more kerb appeal with sportier looks and some nicer touches to the trim inside.

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The Sportage comes with a modest selection of engines to suit all tastes, with two petrols and one diesel available, as well as a choice of manual and automatic transmissions (badged DCT) and the option of all-wheel drive on some models. Petrols available consist of a 1.6-litre with 132hp, or a turbocharged 1.6-litre with 177hp.

The former is manual only and front-wheel drive, while the T-GDi with 177hp is much more flexible with a choice of manual or DCT automatic gearboxes and front- or all-wheel drive.

If you prefer diesel, there’s a frugal 1.6 CRDi with 136hp – again with a choice of manual and auto transmissions and the availability of all-wheel drive. It comes with a mild-hybrid system to recuperate and conserve energy to boost efficiency and performance..

Of course, every Kia also gets the company’s seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. Not only is this transferable to a second owner if you choose to sell the car, but if you buy a car from an official used Kia dealership that is less than 18 months old, the seven-year warranty period is reset. But that isn’t an indication of unreliability – far from it – because Kia has built a fantastic reputation for build quality over recent years and the Sportage feels better in this respect than any previous car from the company.

One of our only major issues with the new Sportage is the boot, which is shy of the space on offer in the SEAT Ateca and Skoda Karoq, which are slightly smaller in terms of exterior dimensions. Still, higher-spec cars with electric tailgates do make life a little easier.

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• We ran one as a long-termer – read more here
• Read: The best SUVs on sale in the UK
• The best small SUVs on sale in 2021

Click through the next few pages to read everything you need to know about the Kia Sportage including its practicality, how much it costs to run, what it’s like to drive – and whether we recommend buying one.