BMW Alpina B4 vs Kia Sportage

What's the difference?

If you're looking for a sleek, two-door coupe with a sparkling chassis, rear-wheel drive and a charismatic turbo straight-six, BMW has you covered with about eight choices. That should be that, then. But wait. There's more. 

Since 1965, Alpina - the name of a resurrected a typewriter company - has collaborated closely with BMW to produce distinct, high performance Alpina-badged cars. It actually started with a Weber dual-carburettor unofficial conversion for the BMW 1500 in 1962 and over the years built into a racing operation winning championships and races like the Spa 24 Hours.

Alpina returned to Australian shores in 2017 after a long hiatus with a new range including the BMW 4 Series based B4. Not long after, BMW updated the 4 in what it calls LCI (Lifecycle Impulse), so Alpina followed suit with a price drop, new gear and called it the B4 S.

An updated Sportage is a big deal for Kia. It's the brand's best-selling model in Australia and around the world, and arguably has never faced more and stiffer competition.

There's a new Mazda CX-5 around the corner, this time with a hybrid, and Toyota has just whipped the covers off its new RAV4. And that's before you mention Hyundai, Volkswagen, Honda or the litany of Chinese newcomers all here for slice of the pie.

Kia tells us this mid-life update is designed to look better, drive better, offer better tech, better safety and better equipment right across a vast range that includes petrol, diesel, hybrid, two-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, turbo and non-turbo alike.

So the question is, is all of that enough to keep the Sportage fresh in the face of all this new competition? Let's go find out.