Kia Sportage 1.6 CRDi ISG 4 5dr DCT Auto
Price : From 23000$ To 40210$
Overview
What is it?And being the best-seller, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Kia has chosen to largely leave the looks alone. Changes run to new bumpers, new fog lights, full-LED headlights with four-point daytime running lights – oh, and gloss or matt black grille and silver skid plates. Told you it wasn’t much.
Interior tweaks are limited as well. We’ll come onto these in more detail in a tick, but suffice to say that build quality is OK (although not as impressive as the brand new Ceed) and GT-Line cars get – wait for it – black leather with red accents. To be fair, it’s easy to scoff but the seats look smart and the rest of the interior isn’t an unpleasant place to be.
Petrol engines remain largely the same as the pre-facelift car, but the diesel range has been extended to include a mild hybrid version, as well as two power outputs for the new 1.6-litre. Diesel? In this day and age? What [i]will[i] the neighbours think?
The good news is that the old 1.7-litre diesel has been dropped – we’ve previously said it had all the refinement of a canal boat motor. Now there is a new 1.6-litre CRDi that produces either 114bhp or 134bhp, emits as little as 126g/km and comes with front-wheel drive as standard, or four-wheel drive if you plump for the dual clutch automatic transmission.
The 2.0-litre diesel has also been fettled to include a mild hybrid 48V system. It’s not a full-on hybrid so there’s no electric motor to give extra power, rather an uprated starter motor with larger battery that combine to overcome some of the inertia in the crankshaft. Basically, they just help the engine along a bit.
This system is a cheap way to pinch a couple of extra CO2 points because there’s no major engineering tweaks needed. The engine bay doesn’t need altering and the new battery pack can sit under the boot floor. But does it matter that it hasn’t cost a small fortune to install? It’s all about fine gains, so Kia rightly takes what it can. Sadly, though, we can’t tell you what those gains are as there are delays getting the results out of the new WLTP testing process.
Driving
What is it like on the road?
The suspension is carried over lock-stock, so like the pre-facelift car it feels lighter on its feet than you’d give it credit for. But sadly that means the poor ride quality is also present again. It’s nothing serious, but when the rest of the car does a generally good job of isolating you from the world outside, the fidgeting suspension isn’t ideal.
GT-Line cars get their own specially tuned suspension and ‘athletic handling’ – in other words, they also don’t ride particularly well. Smaller wheels would help, but overall it’s not as cosseting as it should be.
On the inside
Layout, finish and space
The fundamentals of the Sportage’s cabin haven’t altered in this facelift, so there’s too much hard plastic on show and it’s missing the Ceed’s solidity.
Ergonomically, it’s hard to fault with a neatly integrated sat nav screen (touchscreen, obvs), and with enough buttons elsewhere to make everything easy to use but not so many that it looks like someone sneezed on the dash. There’s a new, frameless 8-inch screen on the upper models that looks smart, but other changes are pretty limited. New air con controls anyone?
More positively, it’s certainly roomy enough for most parents and three kids, just losing out to the likes of the Seat Ateca and Nissan Qashqai for rear headroom.
Owning
Running costs and reliability
If you’re after the ultimate in fuel economy (at least in a Sportage sense), then the twin-clutch 1.6-litre diesel is the one to get. Its 57.6mpg and 129g/km under the new WLTP testing procedure aren’t to be sniffed at. The petrols don’t make quite as much sense – even if you do very few miles every year, the 1.6 petrol can’t manage more than 39.8mpg so the diesel is the better option.
As ever with Kia, the Sportage comes with a seven-year warranty. And now ‘Kia Care’ has been extended, so you can pay for the first seven years of servicing and get a bit more cost certainty. Previously, you could only do the first five years of servicing
| Length | 4,485mm |
|---|---|
| Height | 1,635mm |
| Height (including roof rails) | 1,645mm |
| Seats | 5 |
| Doors | 5 |
| Luggage Capacity (Seats Up) | 467l |
| Wheelbase | 2,670mm |
| Max. Towing Weight - Braked | 1,600kg |
| Tyre Size Rear | 245/45 R19 |
| Tyre Size Spare | Space Saver |
| Wheel Type | 19" Alloy |
| Top speed | 112Mph |
| Engine capacity | 1,598cc |
| Fuel type | Diesel |
| Transmission | Automatic |
| Engine Power - BHP | 134bhp |
| Engine Power - KW | 100kW |
| Engine Power - RPM | 4,000rpm |
| CO2 | 130g/km |
| Standard Euro Emissions | Euro 6 |
| Fuel Tank Capacity | 62l |
| EC Urban | 58mpg |
| EC Extra Urban | 57mpg |
| EC Combined | 57.6mpg |
| Cylinders | 4 |
| Cylinder Layout | In-Line |
| Number of Valves | 16 |
| Camshaft | DOHC |
| Drive train | Front Wheel Drive |
| Fuel delivery | Turbo |
| Catalytic Convertor | |
| Engine Layout | Front Transverse |
| CO | 0.15 |
| HC | 0.03 |
| NOx | 0.03 |
| HC+NOx | 0.08 |
| Particles | 0.0002 |
| Standard manufacturers warranty - Years | 7 |
| Standard manufacturers warranty - Mileage | 999,999 |
| Service Interval Mileage | 20,000 |
| Service Interval Frequency - Months | 12 |
| Manufacturers Paintwork Guarantee - Years | 3 |
| Manufacturers Corrosion Perforation Guarantee - Years | 6 |
| NCAP Adult Occupant Protection | 90% |
| NCAP Child Occupant Protection | 83% |
| NCAP Pedestrian Protection | 66% |
| NCAP Safety Assist | 71% |
| NCAP Overall Rating | 5 |
| Vehicle Homologation Class | M1 |
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