Review of the new Kia Sportage 2.0-Litre CRDi

As a schoolboy, there were few words I dreaded more than "Get your pen, pencil and ruler out for mathematics." Maths was a definite blind spot for me, largely due to a teacher who was utterly unenthusiastic and the fact that I spent two years sitting next to the class clown. Fortunately only a very basic level of arithmetical prowess is required to figure out whether the Kia Sportage 2.0-litre diesel makes a very wise buy.

Let's look at the bottom line first. The diesel Sportage range starts at £16,195 for the 2WD XE version with the automatic gearbox while the better-equipped XS variant is priced from £17,695 in 2WD automatic form. If you want a four-wheel-drive model, you'll need to tack another £200 onto those prices and settle for a manual gearbox. As a point of reference, the 2.0-litre petrol version of the Sportage costs £13,995 in XE trim with 2WD but that model has the manual gearbox, so buying diesel is going to be at a premium. Is it worth it?

That may well depend on how many miles per year you drive and how long you plan to keep the car. If, like many British motorists, you average around 12,000 miles a year and plan to keep your Sportage diesel for three years before trading it in against something else, the fuel consumption figures are interesting. A petrol Sportage XE will actually consume a similar amount of fuel to the diesel model. A small fuel saving for a bigger initial outlay may not seem particularly special, but think of it as a bonus. You see, when the time comes to sell the Sportage diesel, it'll hold onto its value better than its petrol counterpart, and given that many owners will finance their buy with a guaranteed residual value at the end of their ownership period, the diesel version should work out the more cost effective buy. Cover more miles and the sums will swing increasingly in favour of the car that drinks from the black pump.

Maths exercise over, it's now time to look at what you're actually getting for your money. This is a modern common rail powerplant and emissions are pegged at a very respectable 187g/km for the four-wheel drive model, not so good 210bhp for the 2WD. With four cylinders displacing 1991cc, this Euro IV-compliant 16v engine now develops 138bhp at a fairly high 4,000rpm and 305 Nm of torque. It's good for a top speed of 110mph in the four-wheel drive guise and will cover the sprint to 60mph in 12 seconds. The engine seems to lack the midrange shove of most common-rail diesels, almost as if its turbocharger was bleeding away boost, but the flipside of this is a very pleasant linearity of feel that makes it an easy engine to live with day in, day out.

"This diesel engine doesn't have that elastic 'lag and surge' characteristic that afflicts so many other such units"

A combined fuel economy figure nudging 40mpg in the four-wheel drive model is respectable going for such a spacious vehicle and even around town the 4x4 Sportage will see over 30mpg. The diesel is moderately capable off road, although anything too arduous will betray its comparative lack of wheel articulation. Even over modest obstacles, the 4x4 Sportage is prone to lifting a wheel and the four-wheel drive system isn't quite clever enough to realise when one wheel is six inches off the ground and divert drive to the other one. Instead, it uses a more rudimentary 'torque on demand' system that keeps the Sportage in front wheel drive up until that moment when the front wheels' start slipping. It then transfers a percentage of drive to the rear wheels. Unfortunately it seems a little dull witted when performing this task, allowing the car to sit spinning its front wheels impotently for a few seconds before deciding to switch to all wheel drive.

The Sportage also adopts a few MPV-style practicality features. The rear seat cushion and the backrest are a case in point, adopting Kia's 'Fold and Dive' system. Whilst it may sound like a tactic taught by Argentinean football coaches, it is in fact a method of creating a spacious, square-sided and completely flat cargo area. The front passenger seat backrest can also be folded flat to house extra long loads and at the back there's even a flip-up rear window which means that items can be dropped into the luggage area without having to open the tailgate. Not that opening the tailgate is overly difficult. Unlike many compact 4x4s, the Sportage is big enough to keep the spare wheel in its proper place - under the luggage bay floor - instead of mounting it on the rear tailgate. This means that the tailgate is pleasantly light to open and doesn't whistle at motorway speeds - a problem that afflicts cars with hatch mounted spares.

Inside, the seating was remodelled to give increased comfort and the indicator stalk is now where it should be, on the left side of the steering column. The Sportage was launched before the cee'd redefined the standard of build quality we could expect from Kia but it's still acceptably solid. Low grade plastics let the side down in places but the controls are very straight-forward to use.

On the right of the steering wheel assembly are the switches for the four-wheel drive system but only if you've gone for one of the four-wheel-drive models. The entry-level Sportage derivatives use a conventional 2WD set-up and even the more expensive 4x4 versions send power exclusively to the front wheels until slippage is detected. Then power can be redirected aft to maximise grip.

The exterior styling is neat without offering too much in the way of signature detail. The chunky wheelarches give the car a rather over-inflated look but the overall effect is not unpleasant. It just blends into the background a little. The latest cars can be identified by their single bar through the grille plus the reshaped headlamps and bumper but it's still nothing very dramatic. Offering a car that looks not unlike many rivals costing thousands of pounds more may indeed be a wise move. The only change I'd consider would be the fitment of wider wheels to fill out those chunky arches a little more convincingly.

Slapping a low sticker price on a car isn't anything particularly clever. Being able to do so while at the same time offering a quality product is a trickier proposition. Kia have pulled that off with the Sportage 2.0 CRDi diesel. If you need a small 4x4 and are looking to use it for towing (the towing limit is now 1,800kg), light off road use or just want to keep day-to-day running costs at a manageable level, look no further.

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