Kia Sportage Review & Prices

The Kia Sportage is a bit like plating up a shepherd’s pie for a Michelin-starred restaurant. Because as a mid-sized family SUV it has a rather dull recipe – its main selling points are affordability and practicality – but it’s presented in a striking way that’s anything but plain.

Being the kind of car your average family is after means there’s plenty of competition for your cash. The Hyundai Tucson and Nissan Qashqai have long been obvious alternatives, but you could also consider new Chinese cars in the form of the Omoda 9, Jaecoo 7 and BYD Seal U.

There’s also the Citroen C5 Aircross, which we handed the Family Values award for 2026, and the BMW X1, which offers a properly posh badge if your budget can stretch.

At the time of writing the Kia Sportage is the best-selling car in the UK, and when you look at the outside it’s no surprise – the vertical headlights and sharp lines in the bodywork make it look much more expensive than it is.

It’s not quite as dramatic inside. It’s certainly functional, with some physical buttons falling easily to hand and the clever switchable climate control bar sitting beneath an ultra-modern twin-screen setup on the dashboard. But it’s a pretty dark and uninspiring place to be, and the Omoda 9 certainly looks posher.

But this function over form attitude pays dividends in the form of spacious rear seats that are ideal for lanky teenagers and bulky child seats alike, while the boot is above average among alternatives. The Kia’s boot is bigger than the Jaecoo 7 and Nissan Qashqai, though consider the Chery Tiggo 8 or Omoda 9 if pure capacity is required.

The hybrid engine is smoother and more economical than the petrol, though it costs more in like-for-like trim, so you’ll have to work out if the lower running costs will make it cheaper in the long run. At least the petrol is decent in its own right, unlike the cheaper versions of the Chery Tiggo 8 and Jaecoo 7.

The Kia is much better to drive than the Chinese alternatives, too. Sure, it’s not much fun, but it’s quiet and comfortable at higher speeds, whichever engine you go for. That said, the hybrid system isn’t quite as smooth as the Nissan Qashqai e-Power, which is almost like an electric car in the way it smoothly glides around town.

If you’re looking for a good value, practical family car with a really long warranty, it’s tough to argue against the Kia Sportage. Check out the latest Kia Sportage deals and Sportage lease deals available through Carwow to see how much you could save. You can also browse used Sportages as well as other used Kias. When it’s time to sell your current car, Carwow can help, too.

The Kia Sportage starts at just under £31,000, which gets you the entry-level ‘Pure’ trim level and the petrol engine with a manual gearbox. Mid-spec GT-Line models have a choice of manual and automatic, while top-spec GT-Line S cars are auto-only. It’s the same trim levels with the hybrid engine, just a bit more expensive, and with the option of all-wheel drive at the top of the range for about £44,000. That makes it competitively priced, with most alternatives starting in the region of £30,000.

Pure models get all the basics such as the twin-screen setup inside, air conditioning, front and rear parking sensors, and LED headlights. GT-Line adds heated front seats and steering wheel, 18-inch alloy wheels and leather and suede upholstery. GT-Line S brings lots of luxury, such as a Harman Kardon sound system, panoramic glass roof, 360-degree parking cameras and ventilated seats.

The Kia Sportage is a sensible all-rounder across all road conditions, but the suspension is a bit firm around town

In town

The Sportage is easy to drive around town. Most versions come with an automatic gearbox, and those are the ones we’d aim for - the manual is very light but it’s also quite difficult to modulate the clutch when you’re pulling away, leading to a fair bit of revving or occasional embarrassing stalling.

The hybrids shuffle power between petrol and electric pretty seamlessly, though the BYD Seal U is quieter and spends more time on electric power. Meanwhile, the steering is nice - light and accurate - and the brakes feel progressive, which isn’t always the case with hybrid cars.

You do feel bumps at lower speeds in the Sportage more than you do in some alternatives, though. It has firmer suspension than the super-soft Citroen C5 Aircross.

Parking is easy - all models get a rear-view camera with an optional 360-degree setup, and there are handy little blindspot cameras that display in the instrument cluster on higher trims when you signal too.

On the motorway

All versions of the Sportage get enough power to make motorway journeys pretty easy - even the basic petrol with its manual gearbox. Put your foot down in one of the hybrids and while you do pick up speed quite neatly, you do get a big helping of engine noise at the same time.

However, all the engines quiet down nicely at cruising speed, and wind and road noise are kept well at bay. The firm suspension isn’t so much of an issue here either - you’ll only really notice motorway expansion joints.

Motorway fuel economy does leave a little to be desired, though. Even the most efficient model will struggle to crest 40mpg on a prolonged run.

On a twisty road

It may have sport in its name, but the Sportage isn’t very sporty. That said, it still has good grip and that firm suspension means that it doesn’t roll too much in corners. There’s no sense of feedback through the steering wheel though, which doesn’t encourage spirited driving.

There's a Sport mode which means the car reacts quicker to prods of the accelerator pedal and adds more weight to the steering, but there’s no more actual feedback about what the front wheels are doing and the whole setup seems a bit unnatural. To be honest, you’re as well leaving it in normal mode. It’s about as good, in dynamic terms, as a car like this needs to be.

You do get a decent amount of space throughout the Sportage, but choosing the plug-in does drop the boot space slightly

Practicality up front in the Sportage is pretty good. The door pockets are a little slim for big bottles, but there are plenty of spots in the centre console to keep your phone as well as the contents of your pockets such as keys and wallets. The cupholders on automatic models are Kia’s clever folding versions which revolve out of the way, giving you the choice between drinks or a larger space to fling stuff.

The front seats have plenty of adjustment for drivers of all sizes and the steering column has loads of reach and rake movement, so you ought to be able to get comfortable.

Space in the back seats

There’s good space in the back of the Sportage, and in the six-footer-behind-a-six-footer test, those in the back will have plenty of air between their knees and the back of the front seat. Headroom is good too, even with the optional glass roof but space for your feet is tight, as the runners for the front seats intrude onto the rear floor.

The back seat is plenty wide enough to get three people in, but again foot space is compromised by the chunky transmission hump. You do get ISOFIX points for child seats in the back, but the anchor points are buried deep, so it’s slightly harder to slot the seats in than with some similar models, even if the actual space once the seat is in is excellent.

There are some very nice touches though — you get reclining rear seatbacks, and as well as storage pockets and little bag hooks on the back of the front seats, there are also USB-C sockets built in to the front seats which are nice and high up and easier to access than ones that are mounted down low on the centre console.

The rear door bins are fine too, and the rear windows go all the way down. There’s an integrated coat hanger in the back of the front seat headrest which is also a nice touch.

Boot space

At up to 591 litres, the Sportage’s boot is basically huge, and you only lose a few litres to make space for the batteries in the hybrid version. Folding the seats down allows for up to 1,780 litres of space.

Compared with alternatives, the Sportage is on the high side of average. It comfortably beats the Jaecoo 7 (500 litres) and Nissan Qashqai (504 litres) for capacity, though if you need maximum space, the Omoda 9 offers 660 litres while the Chery Tiggo 8 has 700 litres with its third row of seats folded flat.

On the petrol model, you can adjust the height of the boot floor to take away a slight load lip, and very sensibly there’s space under the boot to store the rear luggage blind when you’re not using it. All models also get a 12-volt socket, hooks, tie-down points and handles that release and fold the backs of the rear seats. Those fold down in 40:20:40 formation, so you can still have two people in the back and carry a long, narrow load.

High-quality screens, but top-spec models don’t live up to the price tag in material quality

The design of the Sportage’s cabin is really nice, with some interesting touches such as the arrow-head air vent just in front of the front seat passenger. All models get a big, bright, 12.3-inch infotainment display, while most trims also get a 12.3-inch digital instrument screen to go with it.

Kia is actually matching, even besting, some premium-brand models with this infotainment setup, as it looks expensive and it’s easy to use. Helpfully, there’s a second touch-sensitive panel below the big screen which, at the touch of a button, changes from heating and air conditioning controls to shortcuts for the navigation and media selection. If that sounds over-complicated, it’s not — it’s actually really easy to use and the whole setup is so much better than what you’d find in an equivalent Volkswagen.

Quality levels are good, and while you will find a few cheaper plastics down low, up top everything’s made of lovely soft-touch materials, even if it doesn’t feel quite as posh as the likes of the Omoda 9 or BMW X1, though both of those sit on the high side of the Kia’s price range.

Perhaps more importantly for a family car, the overall build is rock-solid, and we couldn’t even make the centre console wobble around in spite of really, really trying to. The circular gear selector is a nice touch for automatic and hybrid models, while the steering wheel buttons are actual proper buttons, and not the fiddly touch-sensitive ones you'll find on some Volkswagen models.

The Sportage has a fairly broad engine lineup that opens with a petrol and a manual transmission. This makes 147hp and is offered with an automatic gearbox on higher trims, achieving up to 40mpg on official tests.

If you’re going to be mostly town driving then the hybrid makes more sense. You’ll see around 50mpg from the 235hp self-charging hybrid in mixed mileage, or closer to 40mpg on a long run. This figure drops a little further if you opt for the four-wheel drive model.

A plug-in hybrid should join the range soon, and that will be the pick of the bunch for company car drivers, because of the favourable benefit-in-kind rates.

Kia has loaded the Sportage up with electronic driver aids. As standard, you get forward collision avoidance assistance with pedestrian and cyclist detection, an intelligent speed limiter, lane-following steering, trailer stability assistance if you’re towing, and a tyre pressure monitor. You can optionally add to that, including the clever little blind spot cameras, and the parking collision avoidance system (which automatically brakes if you’re about to back into something), as well as the remote parking assistant. There’s also a switchable driving mode for four-wheel drive models, which changes the settings for mud, snow, or sand but few Sportage owners are ever likely to really need or use that.

The Sportage has been tested by Euro NCAP for safety, and it scored a full five stars, including an 87% rating for adult occupant protection, and an 86% score for child occupant protection.

Kia has an enviable reputation for both reliability and customer service, and with the brand’s lengthy seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty coming as standard, we don’t expect that many owners will encounter problems.

That said, it ranked 18th out of 31 manufacturers in the 2025 Driver Power ownership survey. This is a respectable mid-table position, though perhaps not as high its reputation would suggest it should finish.