A mix of the old and new Kia

If the price is right the new Sportage should appeal, but Kia’s new SUV does little else to tempt potential buyers away from its rivals

AT THE turn of the last decade the parent company of Hyundai-Kia promised to be one of the five biggest car producers on the planet by 2010.

Anyone driving a Kia Rio at the time would have understandably mocked their chutzpah. Here was a company that featured under the “others” tag line at the bottom end of global car production tables.

Last year, they ranked fourth – ahead of Ford – according to figures from Global Insight. Even if you take Nissan and Renault as ultimately one entity given their managerial and boardroom links, the Koreans still make it into the top five. And they are not finished yet.

The firm’s masterplan is to make Kia the youthful, sporting brand, while Hyundai features more family-orientated models, leaning towards the premium sector.

Those who dismiss the Korean brands would be wise to hold their counsel. Kia has radically overhauled its image with models like the C’eed and Soul, while its seven-year warranty has been a big hit with buyers, particularly in these straitened times.

So what of the new Sportage? Is it the dynamic, youthful offering that fits with the masterplan? Or is it closer to the old-school Kia? Well, it’s a bit of both.

For a start, it’s a great looking car. The styling features Kia’s new grille which is planned to be the trademark for the brand. Inside, the cabin looks smart, albeit with remnants of cheaper plastics below the eyeline. Overall it’s a really sharp-suited SUV, aimed at the one sub-segment of that market that is actually recording sales growth.

Now in its third generation, this latest Sportage is the product of European minds. Penned at its design centre in Frankfurt, it has been engineered for European roads and is built at the firm’s relatively new plant in Slovakia. So if ever there was a Kia created to suit European tastes, this should be it.

Yet, despite its great looks, a growth market and plenty of European input, somehow the Sportage misses the mark and it’s all down to the handling.

While Kia executives make much of the fact that the development work on this car was carried out on European roads, this new car wallows in ways that we’d normally associate with soft US suspension settings.

At speeds of 80km/h or more, the steering is accurate if uninformative and on some of the tighter twisting roads on which we tested the car, it simply didn’t give any feedback in the corners.

Finally the ride, over what would be typical national roads in the west or south of Ireland, didn’t wash out the bumps and potholes. In the front seat, you felt the road vibrations in your legs.

It’s really rather strange that Kia could get the handling and ride so out of sync with European roads, given its development background. It’s not the worst handling SUV on the market by any means, but for a car that’s meant to have dynamic appeal it seems very wide of the mark. What’s even more puzzling is that most of its underpinnings are shared with Hyundai’s new iX35, and that car handles noticeably better than this.

The engine range is also shared with the iX35, starting initially with a two-litre 136bhp diesel, to be followed early next year by a 1.7-litre 115bhp diesel.

The two-litre falls into tax band C (€302 annual motor tax) with manual transmission in either two or four-wheel-drive, although it rises to €630 for automatic transmission. The 1.7-litre diesel will fall into tax band B (€156 annual motor tax) with emissions of 115g/km.

Performance and economy are good, but really only on a par with rivals, so the Sportage’s appeal rests on its looks. Sadly that’s just not going to be enough to beat rivals like the Ford Kuga or the upcoming Mini Countryman, unless it gets its price right.

Kia has long competed in the value for money sector and indications are that the Sportage will retain this trait. Prices have yet to be confirmed but we expect the price of the Sportage in two-wheel-drive format to come in below the Hyundai iX35 range, which means it will be offered below €26,995.

That will certainly lure customers, particularly as the Sportage comes with Kia’s popular seven-year warranty. Then there are the various standard features like iPod connections and the like that cost extra on some rivals. If they start at €25,000 then they may still have a sales success on their hands. However, with Ford now offering an entry-level Kuga for €28,995, the Sportage will struggle if it’s not priced right.

That’s what is so frustrating about the Sportage: it had all the ingredients to drive off with a sizeable chunk of the Irish SUV market, and right up until we started turning corners and tackling less than velvet surfaces, we would have sworn it would be one of the big sellers of 2011.

If the price is right, the overall package will still appeal to buyers, but given its top five position, Kia should be looking to offer something more tempting to buyers than simply a bottom line proposition.

FACTFILE

Engines:2-litre 136bhp diesel and 1.7-litre 115bhp diesel. A choice of two-wheel and four-wheel drive, the latter with the option of 6-speed automatic

L/100km (mpg):5.5 (51.4) for the 2-litre diesel, 5.7 (49.5) for 4WD

Emissions:147g/km for 2WD; 149g/km for 4WD

Motor tax band:B (1.7-litre); C (2-litre)

A nnual Motor Tax:€156 (1.7-litre); €302 (2-litre)

Prices:To be confirmed

Arriving:October