Kia Sportage Gt-line Urban

The Kia Sportage – now in its fourth generation – has certainly seen a massive raft of changes over its time, and for 2018/19, the ‘Korean SUV that could’ has come a long way…

The latest addition to the Sportage line takes the range up to nine and a tiki tour round town in a Gt-line Urban 2WD is going to demonstrate that Kia’s Sportage is always improving and will continue to be around for many years to come.

So what’s the haps’ with the latest Gt-line? After all, there’s already one of those heading up the range. That’s true, but it’s a diesel and not everyone likes diesels. And it’s an AWD, which some ignorantly suggest has a less than wonderful effect on fuel consumption.

So along comes the Gt-line 2WD petrol to smooth over the pain points. And it does a very good job of it too – just quietly is all.

The Gt-line has a pleasantly laid out cockpit and nicely integrated-into-the-dash, eight-inch touchscreen to display all the de rigeur features; satellite navigation, handsfree Bluetooth with Apple Carplay/android Auto, phone mirroring and App sorting gadgetry using generous font sizes and touch areas.

Standard switchgear is neatly and logically arrayed below the screen for those not fond of cleaning fingerprint-fouled touchscreens and below the primaries are the super-luxury switches for the electrically heated leather seats.

And then, more tech: the Gt-line comes with a wireless charge pad for those with Qicompatible phones. The impoverished ones – like me – can always use the USB port which is right over the pad.

The Gt-line badge means you’re going to see shiny pedals, a slightly squashedat-the-bottom leather steering wheel with multifunctional capability for voice command, phone control, audio manipulation and cruise control functionality.

And from cruise control, contemporary carmakers like Kia, have contrived autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, blind spot detections rear cross traffic alert, downhill brake control and lane keeping assist systems.

A word on this last: most LKA systems are somewhat intrusive and tend to shunt you back into line a little too abruptly.

It’s a credit to Kia that the Sportage system consistently guides to keep you between the lines rather than waiting to the last minute to push you back.

Under the bonnet is a two-litre engine, which features continuously variable valve timing, a variable induction system, optimised injectors and an improved cooling system serve to deliver smoother, better performance and reduce emission levels.

Engine power goes to the front wheels via six-speed conventional automatic with manual sport mode in keeping with the Gt-line nomenclature.

The Kia Sportage is a very likeable trucklette, which does everything well, except to stir passion, despite the brand’s best attempts to glam it up a bit cosmetically and technically.

A little like American Indian scouts of days gone, Kia Sportages are out there, you just don’t see them very often. And when you do, they slip back into urban camouflage with remarkable alacrity.

Still, that can’t be a bad thing because the successful-selling Sportage has always been this way: it gets on with the job, fails to disappoint and keeps selling like crazy, even if it is conspicuous by its ability to blend into almost invisibility. Hard to not love it when you’re driving one, though.