2.0 CRDi XE 5dr 4 X 4

Rivals are better

I bought this Kia second hand from Perry’s Kia at 4 yrs old/55k miles for my wife (I drove it sometimes). I was attracted to the 3 years left on the warranty. I had been looking for an AWD SUV/Crossover for a while and the Kia seemed decent.

I had owned a Hyundai a couple years back and had a bad experience but thought the Joint Korean firm may have improved since. In fairness, they have. But progress still needs to be made. Before getting on to the bad however, I’ll start with the good.

The Sportage cost me £0 in repair bills thanks to the superb warranty.

It has a good sized boot

The seats are fairly decent over long journey (could be better though)

Looks quite big and chunky on the road (if a little dated now)

Now then, on to the bad...

The first issue arrived fairly quickly, at just 62,000 miles the Sportage developed a rattle from underneath the dashboard. I took the car to Perry’s and they couldn’t find the fault. Eventually I got annoyed, hit the dashboard and all was good!

The mpg is really low (avg around 31) and road tax quite high.

Windscreen washer tank cracked and leaked twice

On one occasion the car wouldn’t disengage AWD mode due to an error - took the car to Perry’s and all was sorted free of charge.

Front Suspension arm rubber bushes deteriorated twice (once at 37,500 miles before my purchase at an MOT) and again at 65,000 miles at my first MOT causing a failure.

Not much equipment for top of the range XE and the price >£10,000

Quite loud and sluggish diesel engine

To sum the Sportage up, practical and spacious, good warranty and servicing costs. However, some reliability issues (improved over old Kias/Hyundais though), terrible mpg/road tax.

I did also buy a newer shape Sportage (1.7 CRDI) and can say Kia are improving, they still need to make progress however. So would I buy another Kia?
Yes, but only after they’ve spent more time trying and improving. So for the foreseeable future, no.

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