Kia Sportage: 2021 carsales Car of the Year Highly Commended

The all-new Kia Sportage was a late inclusion in the 2021 carsales Car of the Year award, proudly presented by Bingle, arriving fresh off the boat just in time for field testing.

But it quickly became apparent the fifth-generation mid-size SUV sets a new standard in Australia’s biggest single new-car segment and was a strong chance of replicating the larger Kia Sorento’s victory in the 2020 COTY award.

In the end, the new Sportage fell short of the top gong – oh so narrowly – yet its savvy mix of value and technology most certainly makes it worthy of being among Australia’s top-selling SUVs.

Based on an all-new platform, powered by new engines, wrapped in a bold new design and housing class-leading safety tech, the perfectly exemplifies Kia’s bold steps forward in terms of both its vehicles and market share.

The new Sportage launches with four equipment grades (S, SX, SX+ and top-spec GT-Line, as before) and three engine options – all of them shared with the new Hyundai Tucson.

The popular model’s first hybrid powertrain will no doubt see it do battle with the top-selling Toyota RAV4 Hybrid when the Sportage’s petrol-electric variant arrives in 2022.

The model under scrutiny for carsales COTY is the premium Kia Sportage GT-Line petrol, which Kia Australia predicts will be the volume seller in the range.

It’s powered by a peppy, new-to-Sportage 1.6-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine (132kW/265Nm) matched to a slick seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and all-wheel drive.

As good as the drivetrain is, the headline act for the Sportage is an onslaught of tech-savvy inclusions, most notably class-leading safety equipment such as lane follow assist and autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with junction turn assist, as well as car, cyclist and pedestrian recognition and a front centre airbag – all of which should see it stand apart from popular rivals.

Blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, adaptive cruise control and an electric park brake are also standard in the most popular automatic models.

Presenting a muscular stance, the new Sportage is built on Kia’s latest architecture and stands 15mm taller, 10mm wider and 175mm longer than before (with an 85mm-longer wheelbase), giving it not only a larger silhouette but a more spacious cabin and a larger boot fit for growing families.

Like all new Kia models (but importantly not its Hyundai counterpart this time), the new Sportage has undergone a local chassis tuning program, giving it crisp steering, ride and handling attributes that are perfectly at home on Aussie roads.

But the icing on the Kia’s cake is a value-packed pricing structure that is higher and broader than before, but still starts below

 $32,500 and now extends beyond $52K for the flagship GT-Line diesel with all the fruit.

Even at base level the new Sportage brings a clever AEB system, multi-connection Bluetooth compatibility, an 8.0-inch infotainment touch-screen, LED headlights and 17-inch alloy wheels.

Combined with consistently high judges’ scores and an outstanding RedBook cost-of-ownership ranking – thanks in part to the Korean car-maker’s standard-setting seven-year warranty – the new Kia Sportage is easily among the three best new models released in Australia in 2021.