What is it" Fourth generation of brand-redefining SUV.
Key features: More efficiency, more new technology, sporty GT-line trim level.
Our View: The importance of the Sportage SUV to Kia, particularly in the UK, cannot be underestimated. This is the car that when it first launched in 1995 began the transformation of the Korean brand into the volume player it is today.
Described by its makers as one of the first of the ?compact crossovers? that everyone now wants, the Sportage has evolved through three generations and become Kia UK?s best seller. It?s a measure of the model?s importance that in 2015, its run-out year, the Mk3 recorded its best UK performance, 23,010 sales boosting its slice of the brand?s total volume from the usual 20 per cent to 29 per cent. Now the fourth generation Sportage has arrived ? an all-new model with promised improvements in all areas, and an expectation that it will routinely take 28 per cent of sales as the brand works towards its stated target of a 100,000 annual volume by 2020.
The recipe is familiar in today?s market ? improved efficiency from new and revised powertrains; an upturn in quality in line with a push upmarket; and lots of new technology both in terms of safety features and desirables such as extra connectivity.
One of the most obvious changes on first sight of the car is its styling. The previous Sportage was quite conservative in its visuals, whereas this version has gone much more radical.
Mk3 to the left, Mk4 to the righ...