Kia Sportage SUV 1.6T GDi PHEV 4 5dr Auto AWD Owner Review

Looks pretty, but as we all know, looks can be deceiving. Not a good motorway car, it becomes unstable and buffets when passing anything high-sided and also ‘wanders’ on its own across the carriageway. Not very economical, only getting around 30-31mpg on a 1600cc car and I class myself as a slow driver. The driver safety systems, that you have to disable every time you switch the engine on, make the car very, very dangerous if left activated. The forward anticollision system is by far too sensitive and seems to brake on its own for no apparent reason. So much so, it gave my wife whiplash as the car braked as hard as it could once when doing around 15mph whilst queuing in heavy traffic. I would say its the most dangerous car I’ve ever driven and I anticipate it will cause a serious accident in time. There has obviously been little to no ‘Human Factors’ studies involved in the design of this car, the dashboard ‘pings’ at you so much, you can’t drive more that 10 seconds before it starts to sound all the time, at leat every 10 seconds. Eventually, it pings at you so much, you become “nose-blind” to the system and don’t even bother to look at the dashboard anymore. Its so irritating. I believe these systems are common across the whole Kia range, they’re so tedious to drive/own. I wouldn’t recommend a new or secondhand Kia/Sportage to anybody. Awful!