Kia Sportage

Test drove a few cars over the weekend. One that had managed to leave a positive impression was surprisingly the Kia Sportage. First, I state upfront that I am not sold on performance or badge - it could be a bonus but never the deal maker. I lean towards comfort, safety and practicality. Compared to her Korean twin and a Japanese offering, I found the ride comfort and handling more suited to my liking, with surprisingly low NVH level and minimal noise from roads and surroundings. The well sorted suspension also managed to cocoon the passengers well. Power delivery was linear, which was a plus with normal aspirated engines without the abrupt shove from a turbo. Both front and rear space was great, with a boot big enough to swallow a bicycle with its wheels attached (measured and confirmed). Feel good amenities like reclining rear seats, ventilated front seats and rear aircon vents - yes, to agents of some other car makers, you'd need this locally - were all available in the tested model. Overall, a very pleasant experience with the car during the test drive, and one that I would place it as one of my finalists - if it comes in Mercury Blue (or any colors other than Patina Gold). Caveat: Reliability grading has nothing to do with test driving. But I gave it a 5-star based on my 20 years of experience driving Kia's twins.... Read More

Test drove this car twice and was quite happy with it generally. The drive was smooth and good enough as long as you're not a power-hungry cheongster. It has most features found in all other same-class SUVs, except the sunroof, and the leg room for the second row is not as luxurious as the X-Trail. But there other good things to more than make up for these: the ventilated seats for the front seats, the electronic seats, rear aircon, auto tailgate, etc. Are put it at/near the top of the mid-sized SUVs segment.... Read More