The Kia Sportage: Three decades of leadership
Spring has sprung, and it’s a time for renewal as well as nostalgia as we gear up for our Heritage Month celebrations. With the impressive new Kia Sportage being launched this month, we decided to look back at the nearly three-decade history of Kia’s most popular SUV.
Having evolved from a basic but rugged offroader in the early 1990s to the sophisticated modern SUV that it is today, the Sportage has led by example with each generation.
The first-generation Kia Sportage hit the scene in 1993, and during its 10-year lifespan it was offered in a variety of body styles, including a short- and long-wheelbase five-door model and a three-door convertible. While it was innovative in several ways – such as being the world’s first production model to be equipped with a knee airbag, back in 1997 – it was not perfect either, scoring suboptimally in some of the independent crash tests.
However, it served as a springboard for Kia’s effort to become a world leader in quality and engineering, a focus that ensured that a significantly improved and refined secondgeneration model debuted in 2004.
From 2006, the second-generation model was also produced at Kia’s Žilina plant in Slovakia, and by 2009, was not only named as one of the most reliable vehicles by the USA’s Consumer
Reports, but also earned a top rating of five stars in crash tests conducted by the U.S.A’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
It was the third generation Sportage, unveiled globally in 2010, that revolutionised perceptions of the compact Kia crossover for customers and critics alike. And wasn’t it a stunner? Sporting a design that is still regarded as one of Peter Schreyer’s finest works, the third generation Sportage had finally taken its seat at the table, with a vast array of awards following in the years immediately following its release.
Critically, it was at the top of the JD Power Survey for 2012, the only car in that year’s survey to score five stars across all categories from mechanical reliability to ownership costs. From a safety perspective, it received a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the United States, and a top rating of five stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests. More than 1,6 million units of the thirdgeneration model were sold between 2010 and 2015.
The fourth generation Sportage debuted at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in September 2015 and was introduced in South Africa in November 2016. With a bold new design language, a completely redesigned interior and a range of updated engines and transmissions, the fourth-generation model took the baton from its predecessor, winning a Red Dot design award in 2016 as well as a raft of quality and safety awards across multiple territories.
The all-new Kia Sportage, which goes on sale in South Africa on 21 September 2022, certainly does not break with tradition and continues to be a leader on all the important aspects, some of which other manufacturers would not even think to pay attention to. The all-new, fifth generation Sportage carries that award-winning legacy forward with significant improvements in tactile quality, overall refinement, and driver enjoyment. Leading is in the Sportage’s DNA – just as it’s in the DNA of Sportage drivers.
The new Kia Sportage is crafted around the company’s new ‘N3’ architecture, and the vehicle also benefits from a new Terrain Mode, which automatically adjusts the vehicle’s settings for the given environment. The interior of the new Kia Sportage has been significantly modernised, with the dashboard now featuring a large curved display system that incorporates a digital instrument cluster and central touchscreen infotainment system.
Independent Media recently spent some quality time with the impressive newcomer at its local launch in the Western Cape. Watch this space next week for our driving impressions.