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Review John Kaponi
Kia Sportage My 10 1.6 Petrol GDi 1 Eco 2WD The new Kia Sportage certainly looks better than its predecessor, the "compact SUV" with its sleeker looks and greener engine gives the new Sportage an "east coast" feel and would look great in Santa Monica or driving along on the French Riviera.
But I live in London and the weather is normally pretty cold, wet and there is lots of traffic, most times of the day. How did the new Sportage do on the roads of London? Pretty well actually, the only thing I found irritating was the "stop-start" system which apparently saves fuel by switching off the engine each time you are stuck in traffic. Apart from that, the Sportage was well received by all of its passengers.
For a family of four, the "compact SUV" is very versatile with a decent boot to put all your belongings with 564 litres with the seats up and 1,353 with the seats down. In terms of performance I had to go to the BBC for a live broadcast and drove to Television Centre in White City, the Sportage can do 0-60mph is 10.7 seconds, we put this to the test to get on time for the broadcast. It’s nippy, and you can drive it around town with, ease. I would prefer the rear parking camera and would recommend this for those thinking of buying a new Sportage.
The new Sportage is ideal for a long distance drive, with half-term coming up taking the family to Wales, or the continent by car would be ideal in the Sportage given the fuel consumption of 44.1 mpg if you are driving on highways.
Even the entry level 1 Sportage comes with 16-inch alloy wheels, air con, all electric windows, bluetooth connectivity, but for that little extra go for the Sportage 3 KX-3 with the sat-nav, rear camera and powerful music system.
Overall Kia is going in the right direction with impressive looking cars like the new Sportage, with tough economic conditions the new Sportage £17,015 looks attractive and better than the old Sportage.
4/5 Very Good
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