Kia Sportage Problems

The crash testing has been done by ANCAP and, even though Kia recently had a safety glitch with its Carnival, I’m expecting a five-star result for the Sportage.

Kia’s warranty on commercial vehicles and rental cars is the same as that on their regular passenger cars in time terms, but the kilometres are limited. Being a rental car yours would have been sold with a warranty of 5 years and/or 150,000 km, and it would have been transferable to you when you bought it. If you were told it would be shortened to 3 years you were misled.

The only reason to go European with that budget is to buy a badge, as the Asian cars do the job and are surprisingly classy with great warranty. Once again, I'd send you first to Kia to check out the Sportage.

We contacted Kia and it seems there are a couple of possible things you could do, but they need more information to identify the type of key your car uses. They recommended that you contact their customer assistance service on 131 542 and they will be happy to assist you.

The Tucson gets The Tick from me and rates above the X-Trail, but my first choice is the all-new Kia Sportage.

Both get The Tick from me but I rate the Sportage as best in the compact SUV class today and that means it would be my pick. As for the ride, you are being misled — I find it's a great drive in all conditions thanks to local tuning by suspension guru Graeme Gambold.

You left out my choice, which is the Kia Sportage.

Right now, for me, it’s the Kia Sportage. It gets The Tick and should be right on the money for you.

Both are very good cars, they're well designed, well built and reliable. The Outback is the more fuel-efficient of the two, but it has a CVT auto where as the Sportage has a conventional automatic. You should drive the Outback to see if you like the CVT before making your final decision. Clearly the more frequent servicing of the Subaru means its running costs are slightly higher, and the shorter warranty could have an impact later on. It's a line-ball decision, but for mine I would probably go for the Kia.

Suzuki is a classy brand and the Grand Vitara gets The Tick, even if I'm not a fan of the constantly variable transmission.