Kia Sportage 2023 Long-Term Review

UPDATED 27/04/2023: After rating the diesel as the best engine choice, and highlighting a variety of issues we’ve encountered during our long-term test of the three most popular 2023 Kia Sportage variants, the question of which model grade we’d recommend is still to be answered.

Is it worth paying extra for the GT-Line over the S or SX+?

Essentially, it’s a personal choice, so from this writer’s point of view it’s a case of natural selection – go for the S if the budget is tight (you won’t really be disappointed), take the GT-Line if money is no object (the price is simply too high for mine) or opt for the SX+ if you’re after top value as opposed to highest spec (it’s the sweet spot).

See our earlier sections in this long-term test, and links to a variety of other news and reviews, for specific detail on features that distinguish each model.

But living with them for several weeks has shed light on the commonalities and fundamental differences that have guided our decision.

What’s clear is that the Kia Sportage, no matter the model grade, is an outstanding car and worthy of the accolades already bestowed upon it. Having driven all the major players, the Sportage is simply one of the best mainstream mid-size SUVs on the market.

I averaged more than 1500km in each model, routinely travelling 150km-plus between St Kilda and Meeniyan in regional Victoria, where there’s no choice but take the Sportage along bluestone laneways, tram tracks, clogged city streets, major arterials, broken old highways and back-country rough bitumen and corrugated dirt roads.

It’s a route that soon exposes a car’s weaknesses, but across which we never grew tired of driving the Kia Sportage.

That comes back to solid foundations and, not least of all, excellent engineering that includes local suspension tuning. No question, honing the chassis for Australian conditions makes a huge difference, as seen on my patch every day of the week.

On each alloy wheel and Nexen tyre combination – 17-inch on the S (2.0 MPI 2WD) and 19-inch on the SX+ (1.6T AWD) and GT-Line (2.0 CRDi AWD), all with 235mm width but a lower profile on the AWD models (55 versus 65) – the Sportage remains supple, comfortable, absorbent and quiet.

There’s simply no shock allowed to enter the cabin, even when striking big holes and bulges in the road, which makes the Sportage a standout in class for ride sophistication and refinement.

Go looking for boundaries and they’re found easily enough, but the handling characteristics are summed up as solid, predictable, reassuring and resolved.

The steering is nicely weighted, the brakes resistant to fade under duress and headlight performance just sufficient from the LEDs on S and SX+, but great from the projector-type beams on GT-Line.

The turning circle is an unimpressive 12.2m on the higher-grade models, down to a much easier-to-manoeuvre 11.4m on the entry-level S.

All three model grades rate highly for interior space, versatility, storage, presentation, fit and finish, front seat comfort and support, driver positioning and sheer attention to detail – lovely switchgear damping, rear seatbacks that lock into position when folded, and so on.

The standard equipment levels are generous at every stage, and while there’s a sense the S is a lonely child next to the SX+ and GT-Line, you’ll soon settle into life without the luxury touches.

For all the reasons we’ve described above, and below in earlier sections, we can easily overlook the switchgear blanks, offbeat instrument panel layout and DIY parking, etc.

The relatively hard, flat rear seats are perhaps the biggest disappointment, proving uncomfortable over a few hours in them while stationed at a hospital carpark.

We heard no complaints from the rear stalls from younger passengers though, over shorter stints.

The 2023 Kia Sportage SX+ is preferable over the baseline S with its effortless keyless entry/start, better range of driver’s seat adjustment and support (electric, including lumbar, but sadly the front passenger misses out), safer auto-dipping mirrors at night, convenient powered tailgate and front parking sensors.

It affords extra practicality with rear charging points, coat hangers incorporated into the front head restraints and remote fold-down levers in the boot for the rear seatbacks.

Kia might tell us otherwise, but the rear seats feel more comfortable in the SX+ over the S too. The quilted fake leather upholstery is certainly nicer than the cloth trim, and the tinted windows add a layer of privacy to the cabin.

Most of all, the larger 12.3-inch touch-screen and the extras that come with it – digital radio, native sat-nav, personalisation options and a better-sounding stereo – is worth the step up to SX+ from base grade if you can afford it.

No question, the GT-Line has more of almost everything wherever you turn, but arguably too much given the tech problems we encountered with the car (see the sections below).

The 360-degree camera is particularly welcome, and the curvy dash display a triumph, but the panoramic sunroof is fiddly to operate if you only want extra light brought with the retractable blind and not air as well with the sunroof opening automatically.

The sunroof also deletes the more effective overhead cabin lighting that comes on lesser versions, so be prepared for a darker and more frustrating experience as you fumble around at night looking for stuff, such as items on the rear bench.

Overall, the LED interior lighting that’s claimed to be a feature of the GT-Line proves to be less practical than conventional lights found in lower-tier models.

UPDATED 4/04/2023: Long-term reviews such as this one with the 2023 Kia Sportage provide insight into how well a car stacks up once you’re over the honeymoon period, and although we’ve moved through three different models over the period, there were some disconcerting one-off and nagging issues with the cars.

Some of these may be easily explained, and possibly down to operator error, while others should be comfortably handled under Kia’s seven-year factory warranty.

The company will also argue that some of these aren’t issues at all, but we’d call them problems endemic with modern driver assist technology – not just with Kia but other brands, too.

So let’s start the discussion…

In our Sportage SX+, there was a distinct rattle emanating from the driver’s window at freeway speeds.

In the Sportage S, which is the only model to offer wireless smartphone mirroring, we found CarPlay occasionally failed to operate, either with or without a cord (which you still need for recharging).  

In the Sportage GT-Line, the buttons for driver’s seat heating and ventilation failed to illuminate for the duration of our test, making it difficult to adjust at night.

What’s more, the large central touch-screen blacked-out and was inoperable on one occasion when driving through the city at night. Just as we would with any computer, we stopped what we were doing, turned the thing off, waited 10 seconds and turned it back on again…

In general, we found the automatic high beam dipping function on all cars too slow to react, often when entering street-lit towns, when in sweeping bends on country roads and always when approaching a crest.

This problem on crests is a common one and hugely frustrating for oncoming traffic, particularly truck drivers who can be temporarily blinded in the moment before the truck’s headlights meet with the Sportage’s.

We want Kia to make the auto-dip function more sensitive to oncoming light, and in meantime, all Sportage drivers should be ready and willing to override the system and dip manually.

While we’ve hit on a ‘sensitive’ subject, we’re also looking forward to the day when the Sportage understands that we’re simply turning right when we put the indicators on in a double turning lane, not barging into the car next to us.

Ditto for when reversing onto a street and detecting cars in opposite lanes, nowhere near the Sportage’s trajectory. Ditto for lane departure systems easing sensitivity on lined and unmarked roads alike (and staying off once you’ve gone to the effort of shutting them down). Ditto for automatic wipers responding to intermittent rain in a timely fashion.

And does anyone else find the blind spot cameras that show up in the instrument binnacle in high-end Kia (and Hyundai and Genesis) models actually distract rather than assist with lane change manoeuvres?

In the name of convenience and storage space, there’s also no owner’s manual in any Kia Sportage, just a quick-reference brochure, so we implore everyone to ensure they have the manual downloaded on their smartphone.

We went looking for the manual when we needed to change a tyre in a relatively remote location (happily, there’s a full-size spare on board), but had no phone reception and only experience behind us to ensure simple mistakes weren’t made.

The reference guide didn’t, for example, say to tighten the wheel nuts before driving off, only to have them finger-tight before lowering the jack…

If that’s not disconcerting enough, there’s the operation of the rear anti-collision tech – be it the rear cross traffic collision avoidance (RCCA) or reverse parking collision avoidance assist (PCA) system.

In the Sportage GT-Line, we sparked a road rage incident when attempting a reverse turn into a narrow inner-city laneway. Down a one-way street, it was meant to be a simple partial right turn to the kerb and then a reverse into the lane while straightening back up.

But the Sportage was having none of that. I can only assume it saw a parked car in the rear-view camera while we were reversing – again, the Kia not taking the angle into account – and slammed on the brakes, locking them tight. With no brake release from a heavier throttle, a shift into Drive unlocked them, but a second attempt brought a repeat response.

This time, aggressive acceleration in reverse forced the brakes to unlock, allowing me to enter the laneway and prompting the driver who had approached from behind to quit blasting on his horn and shouting at the top of his lungs.

That’s pretty much ‘driver assist’ technology at its least effective, and most stressful for occupants, but it’s not the worst aspect of the Kia Sportage…

As it turns out, the road rage incident described above was, according to the other driver, all a misunderstanding, for he claimed that the horn blasting and shouting was made to warn me that the reversing lights on the 2023 Kia Sportage GT-Line weren’t working.

That was wrong, but an understandable mistake because the reversing light happens to be a small thin strip at the bottom of the car – nowhere near the tail-light clusters, sitting flush under a silver-painted lip on the bumper and, if that’s not bad enough, easily obscured by dirt, mud and, we’d suggest, even direct sunlight.

I’m still advocating for revisions to the advanced driver assist tech on the otherwise excellent Kia Sportage, but accept the reversing light is probably the SUV’s biggest single problem – one we’d expect could be easily rectified with a model update.

At the time of writing, there have been no recall notices issued for the current fifth-generation Kia Sportage that was launched in November 2021.

Overseas agencies cataloguing motor vehicle customer complaints have listed a variety of issues, including defective windscreens and panoramic sunroof glass, poor braking performance, ineffective air-con, and warning lights pointing to airbag and driver assist safety system malfunction.

But these were on American-built models; Australian-spec cars are produced in South Korea.

At this stage, negative carsales reader comments and postings on social media and other Australian owner forums mainly relate to general unrest about the intrusiveness of systems such as lane departure warning.

UPDATED 23/01/2023: There’s still no hybrid powertrain available in the 2023 Kia Sportage, leaving the three four-cylinder engines as your only choice – 2.0-litre petrol, 1.6-litre turbo-petrol and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, all of which we’ve detailed with specs etc further down in this review.

We’ve also now had the chance to drive each of these three back-to-back, several weeks at a time and across a broad range of conditions.

All have markedly different characteristics, but when a regular mix of urban and open-road touring miles are thrown in, the diesel emerges as the best all-round powertrain.

Yes, you pay a premium at the dealership and the bowser, but for the sheer blend of effortless performance and frugal fuel consumption, the oil-burner is a beauty.

Over more than 1500km, mostly country kays but with short city stints included, we averaged 6.4L/100km – just a 100ml sip over the official laboratory-based combined-cycle figure the manufacturer supplies.

In comparison, over similar distances and conditions, the 1.6-litre turbo-petrol consumed 8.3L/100km and the natural-breathing (non-turbo-assisted) 2.0-litre petrol was also close to this mark at 8.1L/100km.

So the diesel has a clear advantage in terms of economy and CO2 emissions, but our recommendation runs deeper than that.

This is a smooth and muscular engine that has plenty of room to shine in the 2023 Kia Sportage, adding only 250kg to the tare weight compared to the lightest petrol model but never feeling breathless in a family-oriented five-seat SUV that still only tips the scales at 1760kg.

The surge from easy applications of the accelerator, at low revs, never fails to impress, and strength across the engine’s mid-range is always welcome whenever the driver asks for more with a quick overtaking move and the like.

A trip to a favourite beachside destination with two adults, three grown-up kids and a couple of wimpy dogs on board did take the edge off performance, but didn’t melt it, while a longer tour with two occupants and a full load was accomplished with ease.

There is some diesel clatter heard at standstill and parking speeds, but it’s nothing like a more agricultural diesel engine (as found in our ML Mitsubishi Triton ute, for example) and, besides, I’m not the only one in our household to find something reassuring about the trademark rattle and hum. Give me the sound of combustion over silence any day.

Cruising on the open road, the engine is quiet and barely ticking over at 1500rpm in top (eighth) gear, while the smooth and efficient transmission is always at the ready to kick down when required.

For sure. Our real-world economy of about 8.0L/100km in both the naturally aspirated and turbocharged petrol engines is pretty darn good, and both engines perform capably in the 2023 Kia Sportage.

Our higher consumption in the 1.6-litre T-GDi turbo-petrol is partly due to the fact that the engine invites exploration in the upper reaches of its rev range, with its smooth and lively characteristics that come on strong as the tacho needle winds its way around toward redline.

That’s all well and good around my place where a winding stretch of road is, well, less than a minute away. You can dial up the engagement factor, with or without Sport mode engaged, and revel in the engine’s perkiness, raspy exhaust note and the fun it offers in concert with the manual shift paddles and the car’s accomplished chassis dynamics and all-wheel drive grip.

But across a broad range of driving conditions, we’re less enamoured with the 1.6T and its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, the latter proving to be a faithful partner out on the open road but something of a millstone at lower speeds.

There’s an elasticity with this powertrain that feels great when you stretch it, but which loses its lustre as it contracts. This is most obvious in stop-start and cut-and-thrust inner-city traffic, where the Sportage turbo/DCT combo is often caught hesitating, bogging down, shifting erratically, overreacting at times and always asking the driver to go easy on the throttle.

As if to rail against our impatience, the Sportage turbo also produced an almighty thump in the driveline and flare from the engine on more than one occasion when reversing with a bit of haste.

That leaves a lasting impression which sees us recommend the 2.0-litre petrol engine, with its traditional torque-converter six-speed auto, over the 1.6T/DCT.

There are no sporting pretensions here, and we suspect most Sportage owners will prefer the consistency brought with the milder-mannered petrol and make do with the lower output.

Whether around town or further afield, there is sufficient power and responsiveness to make relatively light work of most situations, with the caveat that much of our driving was done with one or two adult occupants and only occasionally with a decent load.

When we did push it to extremes – that long-distance pre-dawn dash to the airport we mentioned earlier, with three big blokes packing in way too much luggage – the Sportage 2.0 MPI was handicapped but not hamstrung, lacking pulling power on uphill stretches but always willing and never defeated.

Overall, the base petrol Sportage slots into daily routines with ease and manages acceptably under exceptional circumstances, making it our pick after the diesel.

REVIEW PUBLISHED 14/10/2022: You’ll be the ultimate judge on which version of the 2023 Kia Sportage is worth the outlay, should you get down to the business of choosing model variants after studying the formidable form guide for this top-selling vehicle category.

This is where the Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson (a close relation to the Sportage), Ford Escape, Volkswagen Tiguan, Mazda CX-5 and a variety of other mid-size SUVs are all worthy contenders.

The Kia Sportage currently spans 11 model variants and will expand further as more options become available to the Australian market, including petrol-electric hybrid.

Pricing currently opens at $32,445 plus on-road costs for the 2023 Kia Sportage S with a 2.0-litre petrol engine and six-speed manual transmission (driving the front wheels only), with a six-speed automatic adding $2000.

It’s this auto version of the S petrol that forms part of our Sportage long-term test triumvirate, sitting as the gateway into the range at $34,445 plus ORCs given most buyers automatically choose the self-shifter.

At the other end of the spectrum, the 2023 Kia Sportage GT-Line with 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine and an eight-speed auto (driving all four wheels) is priced at $52,370 plus ORCs.

That’s a hefty 20 large above the Sportage S and a natural inclusion for this test, given the price disparity and our desire to assess whether it’s worth splashing that much cash on the top-shelf model – and an oil-burning diesel one at that.

Slotting in between is the mid-series 2023 Kia Sportage SX+ with 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol power, combining with a seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission and all-wheel drive. The SX+ 1.6T is priced at $43,500 plus ORCs, which keeps it roughly $9K clear of our other two long-termers.

There are other combinations in the Sportage line-up, but our three models on test cover all powertrain options currently available and the most popular grades.

We’ve written plenty already about the 2023 Kia Sportage and the relatively high levels of standard equipment it carries – particularly at the top end of the range, which is where you pay handsomely for it, too.

See our Australian pricing and spec news story and our separate detailed account of the model range. There are also links to individual reviews on the Sportage at the bottom of this page.

Distilling it down, all models have five seats, four cup holders (two front and rear), four bottle holders (one in each door), at least six-way driver’s seat adjustment, a minimum of six speakers for the stereo, a leather-clad multifunction steering wheel (adjustable for both reach and rake), soft material on the dash, power windows/mirrors, air-conditioning, rear air vents, a 60/40-split folding rear bench seat, a cargo cover and roof rails.

So it’s pretty easy to get comfortable, there’s a useful amount of versatility and basic needs of the driver and up to four passengers are well covered.

For security, there’s an alarm, remote locking and a headlight escort function, and we’re thrilled to report that all models have a full-size alloy wheel as standard too, taking a bit of extra weight on board and losing a little boot space in the name of ultimate convenience and, we’d suggest, safety.

We’ll dive further into the key differences between the models as we settle into them during our test.

There’s an impressive array of safety equipment fitted to all versions of the 2023 Kia Sportage and, importantly, a maximum five-star ANCAP rating that independently verifies its protectiveness of all occupants – and other road users – in the event of a crash.

The driver and front passenger are surrounded by airbags – frontal, side, head and a centre airbag between them – while those in the back stalls have curtain airbag protection.

Driver assist safety tech is simply vast for a non-prestige brand selling cars at this price point, starting with autonomous emergency braking (AEB) – covering pedestrians, cyclists and junction assistance – and extending to lane support (keeping you in a lane as well as watching cars behind), blind spot monitoring and intervention, rear cross traffic alert, driver attention alert (including the handy lead vehicle departure alert), safe exit warning, a rear-view camera, multi-collision braking and more.

Sportage models with automatic transmission have trailer stability assist in the suite of electronic handling devices, as well as adaptive cruise control (with stop-and-go), more sophisticated blind spot assistance and automatic high beam on the LED headlights.

Higher-grade projector-type LED headlights are reserved for the GT-Line, which is one reason for considering the top-shelf model grade. Others include its fitment of parking collision avoidance assist when reversing, a surround view monitor with 3D mode and a blind spot view monitor in the instrument cluster.

Tech is the other key area that splits apart the pack of 2023 Kia Sportage models.

Where the Sportage S is fitted with an 8.0-inch colour touch-screen infotainment system, the SX and SX+ offer a larger 12.3-inch LCD screen and the GT-Line goes a step further with its curved display that encompasses the 12.3-inch central display and another 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster.

On the latter, the lower-tier models all make do with a basic digital instrument panel with a 4.2-inch multifunction LCD display.

There’s an anomaly in that the base-model S is the only to offer wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – the rest need you to pack a cord with your smartphone – but it’s still the poor cousin in that it misses out on sat-nav, digital radio, the ‘sounds of nature’ listening tracks (no great loss there) and user profiles for favourite radio stations, Bluetooth priority, etc.

All models have two USB charge points at the base of the centre dash stack – one each for USB-A and C – plus a 12-volt power outlet in this position (there’s a second 12V outlet in the boot), but the tray for holding the phone only has a wireless charging pad on the GT-Line.

The Sportage flagship is also the only to feature a shift-by-wire rotary gear selector, LED interior lighting and ambient mood lighting.

Our three long-term test models cover the full gamut of powertrain options currently available with the 2023 Kia Sportage.

At the entry level, the Sportage S has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that produces 115kW at 6200rpm and 192Nm of torque at 4500rpm. It drives the front wheels only via a conventional six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission. A six-speed manual gearbox is also available.

While the 2.0-litre petrol can be specified in S, SX and, SX+ form, the 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine is limited to the SX+ (as on test here) and GT-Line – and, with its forced induction, has more in the way of oomph, generating 132kW at 5500rpm and 265Nm from 1500-4500rpm.

It’s a slightly heavier car, partly owing to its all-wheel drive system that’s fitted standard. The transmission here is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

A diesel option is available right across the Sportage range, namely a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel that stumps up 137kW at 4000rpm and 416Nm from 2000-2750rpm. It comes with an eight-speed torque-converter auto, driving all four wheels via the on-demand AWD system.

We’ll be testing the mileage claims of all three 2023 Kia Sportage models over an extended period, but the combined-cycle (city/country) economy figures reported to federal authorities are a good place to start.

These official figures show that the least powerful engine is also the least economical, the 2.0-litre atmo consuming 8.1L/100km on regular unleaded petrol, according to Kia.

By comparison, the 1.6-litre T-GDi turbo-petrol – also on normal unleaded – delivers 7.2L/100km, while the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel offers the longest touring range with 6.3L/100km.

All Sportage models have a 54-litre fuel tank.

We’ve already driven the 2023 Kia Sportage in a variety of settings, and will use future updates on this page to detail our impressions over the longer-term.

As well as passing with flying colours in our rigorous Best Mid-Size SUV 2022 program – where the Sportage came out on top – Kia’s new-generation mid-size SUV also earned a coveted podium position in carsales’ 2021 Car of the Year award.

Other settings include the local national launch – our written and video reviews based primarily on the GT-Line diesel – and more in-depth assessments from week-long reviews of the Sportage S 2.0-litre petrol with manual gearbox, the same spec with the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel and, not least of all, the GT-Line in 1.6-litre turbo-petrol form.

But long-term tests are different. It’s not a single drive route chosen by a car-maker that judiciously avoids roads that could highlight a weakness. It’s not restricted by a short-term loan period.

It’s our chance to see how well the car integrates into our lives.

With Sportage, we’ve made weekly solo runs between city and country, taken trips to the beach with kids and dogs, spent long hours waiting in hospital carparks, used the back seat as a mobile office, ventured off-road a little, and put the vehicle under extreme pressure with three men packing in way too much luggage and making a long-distance pre-dawn dash to the airport.

We’ve also encountered flash floods, dealt with punctures in the dead of night on a quiet country road and endured a few inexplicable quality glitches – things that tend only to surface once you’ve lived with a car for an extended period, and which leave a lasting impression…

Interior comfort, layout, versatility and user-friendliness of the 2023 Kia Sportage is another area that’s won plenty of praise from the carsales team to date, but with this long-term test we’ll be assessing the SUV not only in isolation but with the advantage of moving between the model grades.

What’s clear is that the generational change has brought significant improvements to cabin fit and finish, material quality, presentation and general accommodation for front and rear occupants.

The cargo area holds 543 litres with the rear seats upright, while folding them down boosts that to 1829L max. The 60/40-split backrests are folded either manually or, on all models above the S grade, using the release levers in the side boot trim.

That’s a question you might think we’ve already answered. But our long-term test shines a different light on the lauded 2023 Kia Sportage, and our forthcoming updates won’t be general in nature.

We’ll focus on elements that are great and simply not great at all – some of which are common to all Sportage models (and, indeed, some of its rivals), and others which are specific to trim levels and, in a couple of cases, individual cars.

We’ll have a better understanding of what we know is an excellent vehicle, and we’ll have nailed down our preferred engine choice and the best-value trim level.

As to whether the Kia Sportage remains best in class, that’s a question we’re now leaving open and will resolve in the weeks ahead.

2023 Kia Sportage S 2.0 MPI 2WD at a glance:
Price: $34,445 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol
Output: 115kW/192Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 184g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

20232 Kia Sportage SX+ 1.6T AWD at a glance:
Price: $43,500 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 132kW/265Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 7.2L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 164g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

2023 Kia Sportage GT-Line 2.0 CRDi AWD at a glance:
Price: $52,370 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 137kW/416Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 6.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 163g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

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