Kia Sportage SUV: practical and smart

Price: £17,500 - £29,505

Pros: Spacious interior, seven-year warranty, great value for money

Cons: Some cheap-feeling trim, lifeless steering, bouncy ride

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4.1/5, Carbuyer " It looks like a compact SUV – and indeed it is – but look beyond its chunky profile and high driving position and you’ll see the Kia Sportage is closer to a regular hatchback when it comes to usability and running costs. If that isn’t tempting enough, there's also Kia's attractive support package designed to keep the costs of ownership down further still, including fixed-price servicing and a generous seven-year/100,000-mile warranty. But the Sportage offers more than just reasonably low running costs in a trendy SUV body. It's also an attractive and distinctive-looking car that's packed with standard equipment. What's more, the four trim levels it comes in are called, simply, 1, 2, 3 and 4, with four-wheel-drive versions identified by a KX prefix.Two-wheel-drive versions are powered by a choice of 1.6-litre petrol and 1.7-litre diesel engines. A more powerful 2.0-litre diesel, available in two power outputs, is reserved for models with four-wheel drive. This engine is also offered with an optional six-speed automatic gearbox. The diesels are relatively cheap to run, but newer rivals such as the Nissan Qashqai and Mazda CX-5 are more affordable still. With that in mind, we’d advise choosing the smaller 1.7-litre diesel".

4/5, Auto Express "If you opt for the front-wheel drive entry-level diesel model, you’ll benefit from low emissions and more the 54mpg fuel economy, which although isn’t as impressive as the faster Mazda CX-5, it's worlds ahead of the Land Rover Freelander."

3/5, What Car? "The Sportage isn’t as classy as a Nissan Qashqai or VW Tiguan because some of the cabin plastics are comparatively lightweight, and the switches don’t move with the same precision."

3.5/5, Parker's "The Sportage is Kia's best-selling model in the UK and keen to keep it that way, Kia has tweaked the design and fine-tuned equipment lists for 2014 to help keep the model in-line with the competition."