• Generous passenger accommodation
• Plus plenty of interior storage
• Boot space trails some of its rivals

While some rivals offer the option of seven seats (albeit at a stretch), the Sportage is exclusively sold as a five-seater. Space is good, though, with enough room in the back for three adults to sit side-by-side with just enough shoulder space. Legroom won’t be an issue either, thanks to a low transmission tunnel for the middle-seat passenger. All the doors open wide to help access, too, while the Sportage doesn’t ride as high as a traditional 4x4, so getting to the seats should be easy.

Storage is decent inside. There are twin cup holders and a storage slot on the centre console behind the gear lever, while ahead of it is a deep storage area that is big enough to take a mobile phone, and has 12-volt and USB sockets there to let you charge devices. There’s a central cubby under an armrest between the front seats, while the door bins are a little short thanks to the location of the door speakers ahead of them. Passengers in the rear get their own air vents and a 12-volt power socket, while the centre seat has a folding armrest with twin cupholders.

Boot storage and space

The boot measures a useful 491 litres with the rear seats up which expands to 1,480 litres if you fold them down. This is only for the petrol versions, however. If you go for the 1.6 CRDi, boot space is 467 litres thanks to the AdBlue tank taking up space.

The rear seats don’t fold entirely flat, however, and while the boot floor itself is flat from the loading lip to the backs of the rear seats, the lip itself is relatively high, which might make loading heavier items problematic. The good news is there’s space beneath the boot floor to store the load cover.

We’d like to have seen levers in the boot area to fold down the rear seats (instead of having to open the rear doors), and if the driver is particularly tall or sits a long way from the steering wheel, you’ll have to remove the rear headrests too before folding.

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Is it easy to park?

The Sportage is chunkier than rivals like the Renault Kadjar and Nissan Qashqai, but doesn’t really feel it when manoeuvring into parking spaces. A reversing camera is standard, which really boosts visibility, while most versions also come with all-round parking sensors. The camera isn’t the highest quality, however. If you’re not interested in making use of these systems, the chunky pillars and small rear window make visibility out of the rear of the car a little limited.

View dimensions in the Kia Sportage specs pages

Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP safety rating
• Driver assistance tech available higher up the range
• Should prove to be a safe family car

The level of safety kit on-board depends largely upon trim level, but it’s fair to say the Kia Sportage is a strong offering in this respect. It scored a maximum five stars in Euro NCAP crash testing.

Even base-spec cars come with cornering headlights, heated door mirrors, Trailer Stability Assist (which uses the stability control system to keep trailers pointing the right way), hill-start assist (which holds the parking brake on momentarily to prevent rolling backwards when setting off on a hill), downhill brake control (to keep the car stable when descending steep hills) and cruise control with a speed limiter. All Sportages come with at least six airbags and two Isofix child seat anchors.

Moving further up the range nets you extra driver assistance tech including traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, blindspot warning, lane-keep assist and adaptive front lighting systems.

Unlike most blindspot warning systems, the one on the Sportage goes one step further and emits an audible sound when it detects a vehicle in place. It is quite sensitive however, and its eagerness to warn the driver every time they indicate for a lane change on the motorway can make for a less relaxing journey.

The standard-fit LED headlights generate a good spread of light immediately ahead of you and yet they’re not as strong as some would hope – the distance range is quite disappointing. It’s also a shame that those driving in the opposite direction at night can sometimes think you’re on the high beam setting as well, something we suspect relates to the positioning of the lights on the bodywork being to blame.