2022 Kia Sportage vs Renault Captur

What's the difference?

Kia is on a roll with its SUV line-up. The Stonic light SUV is selling like hotcakes, the Seltos small SUV is hugely popular with long wait lists for higher grades and the large seven-seat Sorento has won a lot of praise from reviewers.

That means there’s a bit of pressure on the new-generation Sportage that just landed in showrooms.

Medium SUVs represent one of the biggest market segments in the country by sales, and with impressive rivals like the Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Volkswagen Tiguan and Ford Escape, to name a few, any missteps by Kia will be noticed.

The flagship Kia Sportage GT-Line diesel certainly has show-stopping looks, but is there more substance to the Korean contender?

One of Renault’s most successful models globally with over 1.5 million sales of the original, the Captur has nevertheless struggled in Australia since its 2015 launch.

Last year, it was Europe’s 11th bestseller outright, outselling stalwarts like the Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Tucson and Volkswagen Tiguan. Only the Peugeot 2008 and VW T-Roc were more popular amongst SUVs. In contrast, only 533 found homes over here in 2011.

However, with the largely all-new second-generation Captur launched locally last year now gaining market traction with a 200 per cent-plus sales spike, the 123-year-old brand’s VW T-Cross rival may yet finally fly Down Under.

We take a look at the recently-released RS Line range-topper, to see just how well the Captur shapes up in urban Australia.