2025 Kia Sportage

Pros

• Inside, it is high-tech, stylish, and quiet.
• Lots of space for people to sit and a big trunk.
• It is easier to use off-road with the X-Pro type.

Cons

• The normal engine moves slowly forward.
• More fuel economy.

How do you drive a Sportage? The Sportage could be more exciting to drive every day. The X-Pro trim we tried has all-terrain tires and is designed to be used more off-road. This makes it feel less stable when driving on the road. Anyway, this is smaller than not having power. Our Sportage test car went from 0 to 60 mph on the highway in more than 9.5 seconds, which is very slow and puts it seconds behind the winners in its class. If you don’t choose the Sportage Hybrid, which we highly suggest, you can’t get any other engine options.

The engine makes most driving situations more difficult than they need to be. The gearbox is always looking for the best gear to make the most of the power it has, so the driver needs to plan for passing. Besides that, we liked how quick and smooth the brakes were and how easy and accurate the driving was. The game would be a lot more fun if a new engine were added.

How does it feel to ride in the Sportage? The Sportage is a great choice if comfort is important to you. The chairs offer great support and just the right amount of softness in all the right places, but there are few options for changes. If you choose a better model level, the front seats can be heated and cooled, and the upholstery is strong but could be more pretty. Your guests in the back seats will like how the back seats can recline further.

The Sportage’s suspension is very soft, so it can easily handle bumps and broken ground. However, on roads that aren’t level, it may occasionally bob up and down in an uncomfortable way. Kia also did a great job of blocking out noise from the outside and making sure there were no creaks or bumps inside.

We think the way the climate controls are set up is pretty smart—the touch panel controls change to media controls when they’re not being used—but we can see how some users might not like it. Aside from the interface, the system does a good job of keeping the house at the right temperature.

How is the state of the inside? One more good thing about the Sportage is that its interior is smart and easy to use. Kia has changed the layout and style of the interior while keeping it useful. Kia has kept a lot of the actual buttons that work, and the new touchscreen icons may be different from everyone’s taste, but they do look modern. There is 8.3 inches more ground clearance in Sportages with all-wheel drive than in front-wheel drive cars, which means the step-in height is a bit higher. In spite of this, the car is still easy to get in and out of because the door areas are nicely squared off.

Large windows and clear body measures from the driver’s seat make it very easy to see what’s going on. For people who want even more vision, the Prestige trim levels also have a great surround-view camera system. There is enough space for everyone in the car except for the front passenger’s legroom. We wonder if very tall people would feel too close to the roof in the front seat. People who are six feet or less should not have any issues, though.

What’s wrong with the tech? The Kia Sportage has a lot of technologies and features that help the driver. Both rows come with a lot of USB-A and USB-C ports, as well as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Both the instrument panel and the infotainment system had 12.3-inch screens, and the car we tested had a wireless charging pad. The Sportage we tested had built-in mapping that was easy to use, but it didn’t have real-time traffic information, which is a shame. In addition, the touchscreen buttons stop working when you move.

There are many driving assistance features on the Sportage, such as blind-spot alert, adaptive cruise control, surround-view monitoring, and parking assistance. We like how well everything works in real life. None of the collision warning systems gave us false alerts and adaptive cruise keeps good gaps without having to keep stepping on the brakes. Smart Park lets you move the Sportage into or out of a parking space with a key fob. It’s a fun joke.

What’s going on with storage? The Sportage has storage space, which is a must for any modern small SUV worth its salt. The Sportage is one of the roomiest cars in its class. It can hold 39.6 cubic feet of goods behind the second row and 74.1 cubic feet when that row is folded down. The hatch can be used to fold down the back seats, and the load floor is large and flat. The back seat has enough room for even bigger rear-facing car seats, and the bases for the seats are easy to find and use.

The rest of the house has a lot of storage space. On the center panel, in front of the shifter, there is a small box with a lid that is big enough for more than a phone and comes with USB ports and a wifi pad. The clever cupholders can also be pushed back into the walls to make more room for other things or bigger drinks. The Sportage can pull up to 2,500 pounds when it has the right supplies. This is enough for a small boat or trailer, and it’s about normal for a small SUV.

How much fuel does it use? The all-terrain tires and all-wheel drive system on the Sportage X-Pro that we drove help it get an EPA-estimated 26 mpg on the highway. This could be more impressive when you think about how many rivals can run faster. The problem is made worse by the Sportage’s late return. Most of the time, one trait is given up for another. Our mixed drive test route gave us 26.4 mpg, which means the Kia should meet its fuel efficiency claims. That being said, if you’re like us and use a lot of gas in the city, this number should go down.

Is the Sportage worth a lot? There is less of a price difference between the Sportage and its competitors, but it still feels like a great deal and has a lot of features. In exchange, it has a sleek interior, good build quality, and a few high-end extras like ventilated seats that none of its rivals offer. There was almost everything you could want in a modern small SUV in our fully equipped Sportage X-Pro Prestige test car.

The base warranty for a Kia lasts five years or 60,000 miles, and the engine warranty lasts ten years or 100,000 miles. No one makes products as good as those except Hyundai, a sister business. Kia also gives you five years of roadside help, which is equal to 60,000 miles.

This generation of Sportage looks better than the last one, but we’re not sure if everyone will agree. It’s bold and sure of itself, a bit too much. That means you might really enjoy it! The interior of Kia looks great to us, and most people will, too.

The X-Pro trim can really step up, even though it looks a little stronger and is made to handle more difficult off-road tasks. Since we spend most of our time moving, the powertrain is probably the weakest part and the reason we’re unhappy.

As of this writing, Kia hasn’t said anything public about the 2025 Sportage. Based on last year’s Sportage, we suggest the EX model. If anything changes, we’ll let you know. The EX is only slightly better than the original LX, but it comes with some useful updates and costs about the same right out of the box. Some of the improvements are keyless entry, heated front seats, vegan leather seating, and a cargo floor with two levels for more options.

Styles of the Kia Sportage

The Kia Sportage is a small SUV plus a wagon. There are seven trim levels: LX, EX, X-Line, SX, SX Prestige, X-Pro, and X-Pro Prestige. Each one has an eight-speed automatic transmission and a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine that makes 187 hp and 178 lb-ft of torque. It is possible to get most Sportages with all-wheel drive, but front-wheel drive is what comes standard. All-wheel drive is standard on the X-Line, X-Pro, and X-Pro Prestige cars. Outside groups have also tried the Sportage Plug-in Hybrid.