Kia Sportage (2018-2021) interior
The Kia Sportage’s interior comes with plenty of desirable infotainment features, but its slightly bland design won’t sweep you off your feet.
Style
The Kia Sportage comes with a simply laid out interior that’s packed with more plush materials than you might expect to find in such an affordable family SUV.
The broad dashboard gets a soft, squidgy plastic finish with some neat mouldings designed to look like stitching along the top. There are plenty of glossy plastic trims and metal-effect pieces around the heating controls and air vents dotted about the place, too – it’s smart and inoffensive but probably won’t get your pulse racing.
The controls feel solid, but some features – such as the switches for the heated seats you get in all but entry-level cars – are tucked low down on the centre console making them a little tricky to find on the move. They’re still easier to use than the frustrating touchscreen heating controls you get in a Peugeot 3008, however.
Speaking of touchscreens, every Kia Sportage comes with a high-resolution infotainment display as standard – ranging from a 7-inch unit in ‘1’, ‘2’ and GT-Line models to a larger 8-inch system in higher-spec versions.
Mid-range ‘4’ versions come with leather seats, while top-spec GT-Line S models add some stainless steel trims on the sills and some extra glossy black plastic trim on the centre console.
Sadly, there’s no option to add colourful plastic trims to your Kia Sportage’s cabin, but at least GT-Line cars come with contrasting red stitching on their leather seats and GT-Line S models get a panoramic glass roof to make the cabin feel as airy as possible.
Its cabin isn’t quite as intuitive as those you’ll find in some German SUVs, but the Kia Sportage does a good job of aping its European cousins’ solid build quality.
- Used
- £10,393
Infotainment
Every Kia Sportage comes with a touchscreen infotainment system mounted high-up on the dashboard.
Entry-level ‘1’ cars get a 7-inch unit that’s fairly easy to use and pretty responsive – if not quite as speedy as the system in a Skoda Karoq. Unfortunately, rather than use a range of colourful menu icons, the Kia Sportage’s system uses a range of grey and black images. As a result, it’s not particularly easy to quickly select the right feature when you’re driving. Thankfully, you get a row of physical shortcut buttons underneath the screen to help you skip from one feature to another without glancing down for too long.
You also get DAB digital radio and Bluetooth connectivity as standard, but you have to pay extra on entry-level cars for sat nav. To make up for this, Kia’s fitted Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring across the Sportage range so you can use a variety of your phone’s navigation apps through the built-in screen instead.
Pick a Kia Sportage in ‘2’ guise and you get the same 7-inch screen with built-in sat-nav as standard while ‘3’, GT-Line and GT-Line S versions come with a larger 8-inch screen. These get a TomTom navigation system that’s relatively easy to use and provides clear concise directions that are especially easy to read – if a little drab to look at.
Choose a ‘3’ model upwards and the standard six-speaker stereo gets replaced by a pumped-up JBL stereo with a powerful amplifier, an extra central front speaker and a subwoofer for some additional bass. Top-spec GT-Line S cars also come with a wireless charging pad for compatible smartphones.
- Used
- £10,393