Kia SPORTAGE RANGE
The First Sportage May Have Been A Little Underwhelming But Prepare To Be Comprehensively Whelmed By The Latest Version. Andy Enright Reports
Try for a moment to remember the last
Kia Sportage. Tough isnt it? I write about cars for a living and my recall is patchy. Its like trying to remember how an old song goes with a different track playing in the background. Try as I might, I keep coming up with either a
Daihatsu Fourtrak or a
Suzuki Vitara.
The Sportage itself slips from the memory as if it were coated with so much Teflon. In a bid to make a more memorable Sportage, Kia went back to the drawing board.
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Perhaps drawing board may be a slight exaggeration. The underpinnings of the Sportage are the same as those of Hyundais Tucson 4x4, itself a development of the Elantra chassis. Nevertheless, having driven the Tucson, the omens look good for the Sportage, sister company Hyundais product offering a decent tarmac biased chassis with either two or part time four wheel drive and some modest off road ability. In other words perfect for the target market.
Kias credibility when it comes to building 4x4s has been boosted enormously of late with the addition of the excellent Sorento and the Sportage should augment this reputation. Its a vehicle with a very different focus to its predecessor. That car was rather undervalued in this country but sold well in many other markets on account of its rugged off-road capability. The Fulham Farmer focus of 4x4s in this country ensured that the old Sportage was seen as a bit of a rough and ready Far Eastern curio that didnt have the sophistication and ride quality to cut it in a rapidly expanding market.
The latest model isnt going to be embarrassed in this respect. The styling is a good deal more contemporary and certainly isnt going to look out of place amongst a gaggle of
Toyota RAV4s and
Honda CRVs. Three engines are offered, 2.0-litre and 2.
7-litre V6 petrol powered units and a 2.0-litre diesel, all units familiar to
Hyundai Tucson drivers. Two equipment levels are also available as is an automatic transmission option. Buyers choose between XE and XS specs at prices starting from £14,495.
The Sportage also adopts a few MPV-style practicality features. The rear
seat cushion and the backrest are a case in point, adopting Kias Fold and Dive system. Whilst it may sound like a tactic taught by Argentinean football coaches, it is in fact a method of creating a spacious, square-sided and completely flat cargo area. The front passenger seat backrest can also be folded flat to house extra long loads and at the back theres even a flip-up rear window which means that items can be dropped into the luggage area without having to open the tailgate.
Not that opening the tailgate is overly difficult. Unlike many compact 4x4s, the Sportage is big enough to keep the spare wheel in its proper place under the luggage bay floor instead of mounting it on the rear tailgate. This means that the tailgate is pleasantly light to open and doesnt whistle at motorway speeds a problem that afflicts cars with hatch mounted spares.
"The omens look good for the Sportage"
Kia are bullish about the latest Sportages prospects, expecting it to shift 20,000 units per year across Europe by 2005. "The new Kia Sportage is a next generation vehicle sporty and elegant, adaptable and spacious", commented Jean-Charles Lievens, Vice President of Kia Motors Europe. "It will offer Kia customers three modern vehicles in one with passenger car refinement, ride and handling, sports utility vehicle exterior, ease of access and four-wheel grip, plus estate-like versatility, people space and cargo space." Whilst its doubtless true that the Sportage will perform the crossover role with aplomb, such claims usually fall flat on their face as the jack of all trades scenario arises. Pricewise, the Sportage undercuts the Hyundai Tucson significantly and brings a new level of sophistication to a market that was previously populated by some rather uninspiring products. Features like traction control, ESP stability control and front, side and curtain airbags were once the province of 4x4s nudging £20,000, not one that weighs in significantly under £15,000. The cabin is styled in a broadly inoffensive manner with far more attention paid to ergonomics than its rather haphazardly styled predecessor.
If only Kia could prevent themselves adding icky plastic wood to the dashboards. The Sportage interior waves goodbye to the acres of featureless elephant-grey plastics and instead offers a neat cluster of instruments on the centre console, mounted high so that you dont need to go fishing about at shin level to adjust the air conditioning. On the other side of the steering wheel assembly are the switches for the four-wheel drive system and the ESP stability control while the fascia itself features a metallic bezel around the main instruments. The exterior styling is neat without offering too much in the way of signature detail.
The chunky wheelarches give the car a rather overinflated look but the overall effect is not unpleasant. It just blends into the background a little. Perhaps this is Kias strategy. Offering a car that looks not unlike many rivals costing thousands of pounds more may indeed be a wise move.
The only change Id consider would be the fitment of wider wheels to fill out those chunky arches a little more convincingly. The Sportage deserves to do good business for Kia. Naturally we reserve full judgement ahead of a proper road test opportunity but the styling, the engineering and the eventual price tag will combine to offer a very strong compact 4x4 package. Whether it can overcome the inherent badge snobbery in this market remains to be seen but try one before you sign on the dotted line for a less capable car that costs significantly more.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Kia Sportage range
PRICES: £14,495-£18,495 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 10-12
CO2 EMISSIONS: 194-237g/km
PERFORMANCE: [V6] 0-60mph 10.5s / Max Speed 112mph [est]
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [V6] (Combined) 28.2mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front side and curtain airbags, ABS
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Heightmm 4325/1830/1730mm [est]
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