According to Kia's president and CEO, Peter M. Butterfield, Kia is to Hyundai what BMW is to Mercedes. Translation: Like BMW, Kia is focused on building sporty vehicles, while Hyundai, à la Mercedes, is bent on delivering more luxurious cars. Before you get your Jockeys in a bunch and start bloviating about how Hyundai and Kia are really the same company and BMW and Mercedes are distinct rivals, we know. And if you're thinking the Hyundai Tiburon is sportier than anything sold by Kia or the Kia Optima is as posh as any Hyundai, yeah, we know that, too. Butterfield was referring more to how the product line will look in the future and not how it looks today. Still, some of the present goods--namely, the SUV you see here--back up his claim.
The new Sportage represents step two in Kia's plans to go from building dependable transportation to cars that are fun to drive. Step one was the introduction last year of the Spectra5, a tautly tuned five-door that we described as "a surprisingly sporty hatchback for the sensible driver" [ C/D, September 2004]. Rarely have we piled praise of that caliber on a Kia. Much of the credit goes to director of product quality and engineering Gordon Dickie, who developed the 5's chassis. Dickie had come over from Mazda a few years ago with an impressive résumé that can lay claim to the chassis development of sprightly cars such as the Mazda 6 and Protegé MP3. When not flogging and fine-tuning Kias, Dickie benchmarks the best cars he can get his hands on, the most recent example being a Lotus Elise. Asked if he'd like to see one in his garage, Dickie said, "It's an amazing-handling car, but I'd still rather have a new 911." He's our kind of chassis guy.
The first Sportage went on sale here in 1995 and decorated showrooms for nearly a decade. It was cute, inexpensive, and popular, selling 62,000 units at its peak in 2000. Kia even concedes that, as names go, Americans often recognize the name Sportage over Kia. But after Y2K, sales slid off rapidly, owing to stiff competition from bigger, more powerful, and just better small SUVs such as the Honda CR-V, Jeep Liberty, and Ford Escape, prompting Kia to pull the plug on the Sportage after the 2002 model year.
So for Kia, the timing of reintroducing the Sportage coincided nicely with the declaration of its new fun-to-drive mantra, mostly because it allowed Dickie and his crew to infuse the Sportage with a markedly sportier tang than its Hyundai counterpart, the Tucson. Although the differences between the two vehicles are not a case of night and day--they share platforms, powertrains, and most dimensions--there's still plenty of individuality. Both have their own dampers, bushings, and spring rates, and they were styled by separate teams. The Sportage has a chiseled, toned look, whereas the Tucson has a pudgier appearance. And they're built at different assembly plants in Korea, making them some of the first twins to be separated before birth.
For this test, we drove a top-of-the-line four-wheel-drive EX version that, for $21,990, came standard with a 2.7-liter
V-6, four-speed automatic, and BorgWarner electronic four-wheel drive. The latter is a full-time unit that routes up to 50 percent of available torque to the rear wheels when throttle position, front-wheel angle, and/or front-wheel slippage demand it. Although there's no low range--the car-based Sportage isn't intended for search-and-destroy off-road use--the system can be locked in place for a 50/50 torque split via a four-wheel-drive button on the dash, making quick work of, say, a romp on the beach or a trudge through deep snow. The base price also includes six airbags, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, an electronic stability program with traction control, 16-inch alloy wheels, and interior comforts such as A/C, a power sunroof, cruise control, a leather-wrapped shift knob and steering wheel, and a six-speaker stereo capable of playing cassettes, CDs, and MP3s. Basically, the EX is loaded. Options on our tester consisted of the $800 Leather package and a $75 rear cargo tray, which together bumped the price to $22,865, or about $4000 less than a comparably equipped Escape XLT 4WD with a V-6. Kias are still a deal. Get this: An entry-level front-drive Sportage with a four-cylinder engine and five-speed manual transmission starts at $16,490--less than the price of a 2002 Sportage.
We picked up our EX test vehicle in San Francisco, and after a few miles traversing the rippled pavement of downtown, we found that Butterfield's claims and Dickie's sport tuning quickly gained credibility. Compared with the Tucson, the Sportage exhibited a noticeably firmer ride, the four-wheel independent strut suspension relaying what seemed like every road imperfection through to the driver's seat. The ride was never unforgiving--any initial sharpness seemed to get absorbed rather than transmitted--but it did communicate the surface in detail. For a so-called sporty vehicle, this is a good trait, giving the driver an accurate sense of how hard he or she can push the tires. In the case of our Sportage, the 235/60R-16 BFGoodrich Traction T/As can be pressed for 0.75 g on the skidpad, just 0.03 shy of the Spectra5. When not screeching on the skidpad, the Sportage seemed to have a level of adhesion higher than its 0.75 g indicated. On the winding roads around Santa Cruz, our EX test vehicle displayed minimal body roll and maintained a flat feel through snug arcs. The steering was accurate and linear but numb in feel, and it was the only control that offset the overall connected sense provided by the suspension and brakes, the latter delivering an impressive 172-foot stopping distance from 70 to 0 mph.
Whereas the ride and handling imparted a sporty feel to the Sportage, the powertrain did not. The 2.7-liter V-6--good for 173 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque--felt generally sluggish, overburdened by our test vehicle's 3740 pounds. Comparatively, a four-wheel-drive V-6 Escape we tested in March 2001 packed 200 horsepower yet, at 3491 pounds, weighed substantially less. The Sportage rambled from 0 to 60 mph in 10.2 seconds and through the quarter-mile in 17.6 ticks at just 79 mph, the former about two seconds behind numbers posted by the Escape, not to mention a CR-V with a 160-hp four-cylinder. Not helping matters were the rather unrefined nature of the engine, which tended to sound thrashy near the top of the rev range, and the obstinate behavior of the four-speed automatic. Pin the throttle, and gears shift with the haste of a slug, the kickdown to the lower gear eating up enough time for the driver to glare at the shifter and say, "Let's go!" Upshifts transpired at about the same pace, and like the downshifts they occurred in less than a seamless manner. If there's a silver lining, it's the manumatic feature, which allowed the driver to dictate shift points, thus alleviating some of the sluggishness.
Kias used to treat passengers to subpar interiors with simple plastics, fit and finish that wouldn't have won any prizes, and noise levels not too far removed from those of heavy-duty diesel pickups mucking about in the mud. We are here to say this is no longer the case. Cruising down a freeway through Bakersfield was an exercise in serenity, with nary a noise emanating from wind or road. The materials--even the hard plastic covering the dash--have a premium look, if not feel, that belies the bottom-line price. There are even luxury cues (Watch out, Hyundai!) such as damped movement on the glove-box and sunglasses-holder doors. Ergonomics are excellent, thanks to a straightforward dash layout with easy-to-use controls.
We do have a complaint involving the seats. Our seven-hour drive from the City by the Bay to the City of Angels felt more like 10, owing to the front seats' flat cushions and lack of lumbar support. Numb rear ends and fatigued backs were the side effects. Making matters worse was the slick leather--it was difficult to maintain a secure position. We'd vote for more supportive, bucket-like seats. And although we can't comment on the comfort of the 60/40-split back seats over an extended drive, we can say the rear offers commendable levels of head- and legroom, as well as plenty of foot space under the front seats.
Loading gear into the cargo area can be done via the liftgate or the back window, which opens separately. The dual opening is a nice feature, as is the optional under-the-floor storage tray that's handy for concealing valuables.
The people who predict such things estimate that by 2009 the small-SUV segment will account for 1.7 million units, a 38-percent increase from the 1.2 million units sold last year. Since the Sportage is one of the few small sport-utes to come with healthy doses of sport--plus its 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty and vastly improved quality (indeed, Kia has demonstrated a 64-percent improvement in initial quality over the past five years, according to J.D. Power)--Korea's "sport" brand should have little difficulty moving its projected 45,000 units this year. It's a modest piece of the pie and one that no doubt will be appetizing to those looking for value, quality, and a hint of BMW X5.