2011 Kia Sportage review: 2011 Kia Sportage

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2011 Kia Sportage

6.7

2011 Kia Sportage

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The Good

The 2011 Kia Sportage's all-wheel-drive system includes a differential lock and descent control. The navigation system detours around traffic and works quickly. Voice command includes dial by name through the phone system.

The Bad

The engine is merely average tech, with a more advanced power plant on the horizon. The navigation system doesn't include 3D maps.

The Bottom Line

A good multipurpose vehicle, the 2011 Kia Sportage offers a solid cabin tech package, but we would wait for next year's turbo version.

The modern crossover, with its people- and cargo-carrying capabilities, makes for a perfect multipurpose vehicle, and the all-new 2011 Kia Sportage embodies all of these practicalities. Keeping up with the modern theme, the Sportage's simple and refined cabin tech takes care of on-the-road infotainment needs.

Honda has long ruled the economy car roost by offering quality in a lower-price segment, but this new Sportage shows that Kia can compete. Although the dashboard was a little plasticky for our tastes, our car's Premium package brought in leather seats, a smart key, and two sunroofs.

Kia really nailed it when it comes to the Sportage's design. The car incorporates smoothed metal for a modern look, and proportions that give it a tough stance. We particularly like how the roofline descends toward the wide D-pillars, and how the grille and headlight casings form a distinct unit below the hood.

Although modern, the Sportage's design isn't quirky. The tailgate hinges upward; the rear seats fold down to maximize cargo space; and the shifter sits upright on the console. In other words, everything works like you would expect.

Small and capable engine
Less expected is the single engine choice for the car, a 2.4-liter four cylinder--especially given that most small SUVs have a V-6 option. Although making only 170 horsepower and 163 pound-feet of torque, the Sportage did not feel underpowered. This minor miracle comes about because of the Sportage's low weight of only 3,355 pounds.

Currently the only engine choice, this inline four leaves lots of room under the hood.

When pressed, such as during a passing maneuver, the engine made an awfully strained noise, moaning like the ghost of a Christmas yet to come. Variable-valve timing (pretty average engine tech these days) gains the engine some efficiency, but next year a turbocharged direct-injection 2-liter engine making 270 horsepower will become available.

The engine's power is fed to the wheels--all four of them in our EX trimmed version with all-wheel drive--through a six-speed automatic transmission. Despite the model's name, Kia does not offer a sport mode or paddle shifters in the car, something we did not miss given its utilitarian nature. There is, however, a manual mode that is useful for engine braking. The transmission itself is typical of automatics, seeking the higher gears and taking a moment to change gears when shifted manually.

Given the small engine, the six-speed transmission, and an electric power-steering unit, fuel economy for the Sportage is a comfortable 21 mpg city and 28 mpg highway. Our observed mileage fell far short of that range, however, with an average for city and freeway driving of only 20.2 mpg. During much of our driving, we watched the trip computer sit below a 20 mpg average. We could have possibly come closer to the EPA numbers by paying more attention to the green eco light on the instrument cluster.

Despite the rapidly declining gas gauge, we liked the feel of the Sportage. The car is built solidly and the power steering is well-tuned; it's responsive without being twitchy. As an SUV with a small engine, we refrained from any hard-cornering antics, but the car still felt quite stable on curvy mountain highways.

A skid plate under the front of the Sportage suggests off-road capability, but is more useful for its aerodynamic qualities.

During most of our driving, in the city and on freeways, that stable suspension translated to economy car ride quality. Far from soft, we felt most of the bumps in the road as minor jolts in the cabin.

Interestingly, the car's all-wheel-drive system also included a differential lock button and descent control. The all-wheel drive is a new system called Dynamax, a compact torque distribution unit that, according to the literature, senses impending low-traction conditions and makes adjustments before problems start. As we were testing during a dry summer, we could not verify that particular claim, but having the capability to lock the differential will help the car get unstuck in some situations.

Two options for voice command
Our car came with a voice command system to control the navigation, phone, and audio system, but an even more advanced version is coming out in the near future. With the current voice command, we were able to place calls by saying the name of a person in our phone's contact list, and could input addresses by saying city and street names, only having to spell them out when the system did not recognize the name.

The voice command system recognized spoken street names, but also let us spell them out for greater accuracy.

Not ready at the time of this review was a system called UVO, which will give users full control over an attached iPod through voice command, complete with artist and album name recognition. Unfortunately, you won't be able to get UVO and the navigation system together. We imagine that Kia will integrate the systems in a later model year.

Besides voice command, the car has a touch-screen LCD for controlling cabin tech applications. The onscreen interface looks good and is very easy to use while driving, with large, clearly marked buttons.

The navigation system, with maps stored in flash memory, worked quickly. Although it lacks 3D rendering, it has just about every other feature we could want. During route guidance it read out the names of upcoming streets. It also showed traffic information garnered from Sirius Satellite Radio.

With a route programmed in, the system advised us of bad traffic ahead, giving us the option to have it calculate a detour. We always like a navigation system that can keep us clear of traffic. The traffic pop-up screen includes an option to look at the specific traffic problem, but as we were tooling down the freeway at 60 mph, it did not seem advisable.

The iPod integration requires a special cable from Kia that plugs into both the USB and auxiliary audio ports.

As the navigation system uses flash memory instead of a hard drive for map storage, there is no room for onboard music storage. However, the rest of the audio options are more than satisfactory. There is a USB port for flash drives, but you will have to use Kia's own cable for iPod integration; a standard white iPod cable will not work. Bluetooth streaming audio and satellite radio are also present.

The audio system includes a subwoofer in the cargo area and six cabin speakers, but even so, the bass was weak. Listening to multilayered electronic music, we heard a reasonable amount of detail from the system, but it was not a particularly broad or rich sound. Being Kia's Premium audio system, there is no upgrade option other than aftermarket equipment.

Kia uses the Sportage's LCD for the backup camera display, and overlays distance lines. A sonar distance warning also helps while parking, but that is the extent of the driver assistance features.

In sum
The 2011 Kia Sportage offers a couple of stand-out items in its performance tech. The all-wheel-drive system is technically very capable, and should help out in certain conditions. The electric power-steering unit and the six-speed transmission should also make a difference in fuel economy. Although it uses variable-valve timing, the engine itself is pretty average. In light of the direct-injection turbocharged engine coming next year, which should boast 100 more horsepower, we would suggest waiting to purchase.

The upcoming UVO system is not as compelling a reason to wait, only because of the either/or choice with navigation. Kia hits all the marks with the current cabin tech suite, offering solid navigation, a good Bluetooth phone system, and good audio sources for the stereo. Still, nothing in this package reaches above and beyond.

As for design, the car looks good and has a very practical interior. We like the onscreen interface for its aesthetics and usability. Nevertheless, the interior design is run-of-the-mill, and the cabin materials are a little rough.

Spec box