the Bucket: Bucket Seat: KIA Sportage GT Line

When KIA South Africa said they were handing me the keys to their new Sportage for the Summer break, I honestly couldn't wait till it arrived in my driveway for a month of adventures. The amount of good press and awards the car has received globally in 2022 is testament to the strides the brand has made over the years in not only giving what the consumer wants but going the extra mile in providing the best for their customers. I've always been a keen admirer of the Korean brand, while it shares a lot of similarities with another Korean brand that is sold locally, I always felt KIA had the edge over them in every aspect of the cars. There is a sense of refinement and class that comes along with KIA's, whether you driving the little Picanto or the range topping Sorento, they all give you the same drive and feeling of assurance when you're behind the wheel. So fast forward to December 15th when the car got delivered, soon as the Infra-Red Metallic beauty rolled into my yard, I just knew it was going to be a special December.

DESIGN

The styling of the new Sportage is unique and something that the brand is bold enough to express their new design language with. The eye catcher is the front end with the new boomerang styled daytime LED lights that start off at the bottom of the grille and extend to follow the bonnet line. The indicator lights and LED headlamps fit neatly into the V of the boomerang and gives the car a winged look from the side. The model variant I had was the range topping GT-Line S, which is their sports version that doesn't have any performance enhancements but a rather sleek sporty finish. Key design features to note at the honeycomb styled grille, the brushed aluminum mud skid plate up front, the large 19-inch bi-colour rims that look magnificent when in motion. The body is very bold in design but has clean lines and great contours that make the car look great. I'm a big fan of how they styled the rear, especially the rear window and roof line with the built-in rear spoiler that has a chrome accent that meets at the rear passenger window that is parallel to the window chrome sill. It's very pleasant on the eye when viewing the side profile. The rear lights a more sharp in design that the front, with the angular edge aiming inwards and a solid black bar linking the two tail lights completing the neat look of the rear. The KIA badge is large and prominent in the center which has a delicate crease that just gives the car a more sharper look, one that personifies the name "Sportage". The rear diffuser on the Sportage GT-Line S is also very sporty, with the vertical fins and blacked out. The design of the interior can only be described as spaceship like, from the time you open the door, you are mesmerized by clean modern design, even the seats are impeccably molded and has a contemporary but functional look to it. The rest of the cabin is neatly designed and is driver-centric with most of the controls easily accessible to the driver with a few tricks that I'll chat about later in the review.

PERFORMANCE

There definitely was an advantage to having the car over the duration of a month verses just a week which would have been the norm, just so I could get the full experience of cars performance in terms of fuel economy, power output and general driving assessment. The KIA Sportage is for now, only available in the 1.6-litre Turbo GDI engine, which produces 132kW and 265Nm of torque via means of a gasoline direct injection (GDI). This is mated with a 7-speed DCT gearbox which is standard across the model range with no manual transmission available. I usually tend to have issues with Asian automatic gearboxes and I feel most of them aren't as refined as the German's with it tending to hold revs higher for no reason and the timing in changes being erratic more often than most but with this new 7-speed DCT in the KIA Sportage, it was very responsive, and you could make out the differences in timings depending on which driving mode you were in. While the Sportage had Eco, Normal and Sport, I chose to drive in Smart mode most of the time which sort of picks up your style of driving and adapts the cars performance based on how you drive. Having done just over 4,000km in the 4 weeks s I had the car, I can honestly say it is one of the better cars I've driven in the year in-terms of fuel performance, power delivery and road comfort. Driving to and from Johannesburg had me average 6.2-litres per 100km! While I could never really replicate that average in Urban driving with me hovering either just above or below the 10-litres per 100km mark, I still managed to get over 500km every time I went to fill l up, which was pretty good for the 54 liter tank. The car feels extremely agile on the road, it instills driver confidence especially on the major roads. The drive is soft but capable for most surfaces, having driven through various terrains, I was extremely surprised at how nimble it can be around tight corners and bends at various speeds. In terms of engine performance, this one definitely ticks all the right boxes which is possibly why KIA opted to launch it with just this one variant.

COMFORT

As mentioned before, the KIA Sportage has a very stylish interior with its being modern but also practical. The GT Line seats came with contrasting white stitching and white piping with the added GT-Line logo embossed just below the head rest. The seats were a combination of suede and artificial leather with a firm but comfortable feel, with great lumbar support hat doesn't make you feel the long drives. The seats came standard with heating and ventilation, the latter of which I used quite a bit in the Durban summer. Funny enough the Sportage also came with steering wheel heating which came handy on my trip to the midlands, yes it gets cold there in December! The entire cabin is made from a host of stylish and durable materials that are not hard to the touch and the ones that are, feel of good quality and robust for their needs. Most of the dash and the inlays are finished in a high gloss black plastic, which is sort of the norm now for most manufacturers, even though it's a nightmare to keep them clean with dust being its best friend. The dash on the GT model features a dual screen, with the instrument cluster being a 12.3-inch widescreen display that has incredibly precise animations of the rev and speedo, the colour graphics are dependent on the driving mode selected with each having a cool animation that comes with them. This is matched with a 12.3-inch widescreen infotainment touch screen display for the general entertainment needs, vehicle info and air-conditioning. The car comes loaded with mobile phone apps, but the downside is that the phone has to be plugged in via USB to work.

There is also a multimode control display panel that's neatly located below the center screen that displays the climate control functions but can be switched for entertainment functions as well. This helps to declutter all the need for more buttons, making the cabin look neat and clean. The car host of storage with a wireless charging mat, with a center storage compact that doubles as a cup holder which folds away neatly when not needed. The rear seats are similar design to the front with the faux leather and suede combo, and they get seat heating! first time I've seen this for the rear passengers on a car. They also have rear vents but the temperature is controlled by the passenger climate settings up front. What is cool, is that KIA have opted to put the USB charging ports on the side of the back rest of the front chairs, this allows a better cable reach for the passengers at the back. Another feature which I found odd and clever at the same time was having a buttons on the side of the front passenger seat that allowed the driver to move the chair! The car came with a large panoramic sunroof which was amazing and I loved the amount of natural light that was let into the Moving to the trunk, the Sportage GT Line has an automatic tailgate with a space of 591 liters, this can be increased to 1780 liters when the rear seats are dropped. The rear seats also have a 40:20:40 split which I found great when you just needed to drop the center portion to get long loads in. There is also a power outlet in the boot for you to plug in fridges, pumps or whatever else needs power.

SAFETY

If safety is your concern, fear not as the Sportage is packed with safety features starting with the general ABS, ESC, 6 airbags, Downhill brake assist for those steep hills, Hill start assist with auto hold that prevents the car from rolling on a steep incline and trailer stability assist should you be towing anything. Extra safety features which were standard on the GT Line included the smart cruise control that has lane keep assist, that makes sure the car stays in the lane with help of active steering and warning if you take your hands off the wheel for too long of a period, follow assist with active braking that allows you to set a following distance to the car in front of you, and it will automatically slow down when they do, it will also come to a complete stop if need be. There is also front collision avoidance assist which works with the follow distance to warn you of objects or cars that may come into your path. Another feature I quite like is the adaptive LED headlamps with high beam assist to help you on those very dark roads, with the high beam automatically switching on then either switching off or adjusting when it sensors another vehicle approaching to not affect their view.

VERDICT

Overall, it has been a pleasant December break for me that as made a lot better by the KIA Sportage, I cannot fault it one bit as it served its purpose with flying colours. From being stylish and comfortable, to providing great fuel economy and versatile to suit any excursion. Everyone that drove with me only had pleasant comments about the car and how surprised they were at the offering from KIA and how much was included in the standard price for the car. This new Sportage model is sure to take over from its predecessor as being a popular model for the medium SUV market, I foresee this GT Line model to be the one that would garner the most interest, just purely from the offerings and looks. It certainly obvious why the car has gotten so much attention worldwide and also the number of awards it has won so far. Hopefully we see KIA bring the hybrid model sometime this year as that would surely be a winner in my books.

SPECIFICATIONS