Image: Matthew Kanniah
The latest cars from Kia are something special, from the small Picanto to their largest car the Carnival, Kia is on a roll when it comes to design of their vehicles. Enter the Sportage 1.6 CRDI GT-Line, one of the prettiest SUVs on our roads.
In terms of exterior styling, Kia has knocked it out the park. To be honest, it has an interesting design and is hard to fault. As standard you get 19-inch wheels, LED headlights/taillights, and LED daytime running lights.
Image: Matthew Kanniah
The cabin of the Sportage is modern and premium. It boasts a combination of artificial leather and suede upholstery, a 12.3-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, and a 12.3-digital instrument cluster. Other niceties include heated front seats and steering wheel, as well as four USB ports for practicality. Talking about practicality, you get a boot capacity of 571l and when you fold the rear seats you get a decent 1760l of boot space. We have to commend Kia on their insulation. The diesel engine in the Sportage is not exactly quiet, but it somehow managed to block engine and wind noise. Our one niggle is the piano black, it looks good but is a finger print and dust magnet.
Propelling the Sportage CRDI is a 1.6-litre 4-cylinder turbodiesel engine that produces 100 kW and 320 Nm. Power is sent to the front wheels via a 7-speed DCT gearbox. Kia claims a combined fuel consumption of 4.9 L/100 km but we managed a rather decent 5.5 l/100km. It’s a joy to drive, though on the highway you do feel like having a bit more torque to make overtaking maneuvers a bit more seamless.
Image: Matthew Kanniah
The Sportage 1.6 CRDI GT-Line comes with a raft of active and passive safety features. All models are equipped with an Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) and Electronic Stability Control (ESC), as well as Hill-Start Assist Control (HAC), Downhill Brake Control (DBC) and Trailer Stability Assist (TSA). All models in the Sportage range feature Smart Entry with Push Button Start, as well as an electric parking brake with auto-hold. Also six airbags: a driver’s airbag, front passenger airbag, side airbags, and side curtain airbags. ISOFIX child seat anchors
The Sportage has worked its way to the top to compete head to head with the likes of the VW Tiguan. At R783,995, we can tell that it worth the money. Not only does it look great, but its economical and comes with an array of standard features which you’ll have to fork out a few more rands if you had to opt for a German rival.
