Kia has just rolled out the latest update to the Sportage. It brings new features, engine tweaks and a higher price tag. Is it worth spending your hard earned on? Paul Maric delivers this comprehensive review.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2026-kia-sportage-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:52
Interior: 02:16
Infotainment: 04:34
Practicality: 06:29
On the Road: 08:54
Self driving tech: 15:53
Acceleration & Braking: 16:36
Verdict: 18:29
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#kia #sportage #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2026-kia-sportage-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:52
Interior: 02:16
Infotainment: 04:34
Practicality: 06:29
On the Road: 08:54
Self driving tech: 15:53
Acceleration & Braking: 16:36
Verdict: 18:29
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#kia #sportage #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00100 to 0 3.89 seconds and 53 meters so it is very wet out here when I went to get in this
00:10nothing would work like the car wouldn't unlock nothing would work so I had to manually open the
00:15car up using the key which is located in there. G'day I'm Paul. Kia has updated the Sportage
00:20Sportage depending on where you're watching this from. So updated front end with new lights
00:25the hybrid which this is hybrid spec gets more power as well so today we're going to do a detailed
00:32review of this car if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review you've got time codes
00:35on the screen or if you're on YouTube you can scroll down and use the chapters below. So this is the
00:40top spec GT line all-wheel drive priced at a little over $60,000 so has crept up in price with this
00:47latest update too but the design changes are fairly minor like nothing sort of too crazy it has a
00:53stacked set of LED lights now off to the side you've got a nice black Kia logo there these dynamic
00:59shutters over here that open and close as required depending on heading and cooling requirements for
01:04the engine and you've got a fog light down the bottom there as well. Then around the side here
01:08similar wheel design to previously but it kind of adopts more an electric Kia vibe you know how with
01:14the EV5 and the EV9 they have these sort of cool looking shapes on the wheels they've gone down a
01:19similar path here as well and that's on an 18 inch alloy wheel got wheel arch protection there too.
01:25By the way we've actually just shot a massive medium SUV off-road test and sportage was included in
01:30that test so that is going to go live soon so keep an eye out for that one make sure you subscribe
01:35all that sort of stuff indicator built into the wing there there with a camera for the 360 camera
01:39glass roof with roof rails there privacy glass and then come around to the back with me.
01:44Now the back looks fairly similar to before you've got LED taillights a HEV badge there which signifies
01:50that this is the hybrid model small black Kia and sportage badges there too with shark fin aerial at
01:56the top and a nicely hidden rear wiper there this whole black lower section as well so let me know
02:03what you reckon about the styling updates you reckon the price creeping up is a good thing or a bad thing
02:07it does come with more specs and Kia Connect now as well so you do have that sort of remote connectivity
02:12with the car but you are going to be paying extra for that so let me know your thoughts in the
02:16comment section below. So we're inside the sportage we'll start off with the Kia so it's got the new
02:20Kia design so you basically whenever you click one of these you can see that lights up and then it's
02:28sort of blank on the back you've got lock unlock boot remote start and then remote parking as well
02:34you know it was really interesting we were sort of filming this off-road test the other day and
02:40the cars were trucked to the facility and when I went to get in this nothing would work like the
02:45car wouldn't unlock nothing would work and you know we always talk about these coming up with
02:50this battery discharge warning so I had to manually open the car up using the key which is located in
02:54there then discovered that there's a 12 volt battery reset button over here now it's a clever feature
03:00because what happens normally with these cars is if you have something in the car that is draining the
03:06battery it will just keep draining the battery up until the car no longer works and there is no way
03:10to get it started whereas here what it's doing is it's preserving the lock state of the car and then
03:15it drains the battery to the point where you know it goes okay this isn't safe any further and it will
03:20then just switch everything off then you just have to press the 12 volt battery restart to get everything
03:25running again so yeah cool feature and haven't really seen it on other cars so it's interesting to see it
03:30here in in Kia products maybe it's something they'll roll out to other cars down the track but
03:34yeah just fun little tidbit in terms of the updates and the look of this interior still looks fantastic
03:39I think they've done a good job here with Sportage to give it that premium vibe this is sort of getting
03:44up there in terms of price a lot of the cars here in the mid-size SUV segment are climbing in terms of
03:49price but it does feel like they're giving you enough value here nice sort of materials used throughout
03:54a lot of infotainment here with the entertainment system they haven't gone down the path of doing what
03:58they've done in cars like the EV9 where they've put the control panel for climate up here
04:02they've retained this section down here which is switchable between infotainment and climate
04:07controls so um yeah anyway what about your touch points so uh nice there in the centre and then
04:13decent on the door as well how soft are they we've got our durometer we've tested the main surfaces in
04:19this cabin if you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before there is a link in
04:23the description below now it builds quality so like that all feels nice and solid through there and
04:29then door slam is what it sounds like let's chat infotainment so your main infotainment screen is a
04:3712.3 inch display you then have a screen ahead of the driver that is 12.3 inches as well the good thing
04:43about the the built-in info infotainment system is that you've got a care connect so it allows you to
04:48remotely connect to the vehicle as required and do things like emergency calls you've also got
04:54navigation built in so you don't need to have a smartphone mirrored to the vehicle if you don't
04:58want to you can still operate that sort of as a normal infotainment system you've also got apple
05:04carplay and android autos so this is what apple carplay looks like nice full screen integration it's
05:10wireless all works very nicely and this is what android auto looks like so again full screen wireless as
05:17well all works relatively easily you've got a harman card on branded sound system as well it's a good
05:23sound system uh built-in weather and uh other bits and pieces here as well so it's a really good
05:29infotainment system works easily and is then backed up with a good voice recognition system as well so
05:34a lot of ticks on that front screen ahead of the driver is pretty basic uh so nothing too crazy
05:39it doesn't give you a huge amount of customization here so you can just display critical elements and
05:43perhaps that's something you don't really need you know there are some cars that have just so many
05:48changes you can make to the infotainment system and the screen ahead of the driver that
05:52i don't know kind of you probably don't ever use any of that stuff but um yeah the fact that this gives
05:57you everything you need is probably enough anyway on the parking front you have front and rear parking
06:02sensors and a 360 camera i'll bring that one up so quality of that is okay so nothing uh nothing
06:08outrageous there but um you can clearly see what's on the suitcase you've got a 360 view there as well
06:14constant battery discharge warning um and then you can flick around there if you want to as well
06:19what other stuff have we got here okay so you can do sort of closer wide angle views etc so and wheel
06:25views as well so you don't scratch those wheels and this is what the horn sounds like now practicality
06:30we'll start off with connectivity in this little cubby holder here you've got two usb-c
06:35charging ports you can also use one of those as an accessory port to run your car play or smartphone
06:41mirroring and then you've got wireless phone charger down the bottom there as well center console here
06:46you've got 12 volt 180 watt outlet and then plenty of storage through the center there as well with
06:51enough space there to conceal things so they can't be seen from outside the car too which is definitely
06:57good news comfort front you have dual zone automatic climate control it's popular in hybrids you can
07:02actually set it to driver only for your air conditioning or climate control so that you're
07:07not using as much energy as you normally would you've got heated and cooled seats for the front row
07:11including heated steering wheel as well electric seat adjustment for the driver and front passenger so
07:17you can go forwards and backwards your backrest can go forwards and backwards you can lift the front of
07:22the seat back of the seat you've got lumbar adjustment as well and then two slots of memory for the
07:27driver steering offers both tilts and reach adjustment too not our reach test all of that stuff is fairly
07:35easy to reach while you're driving now second row a really reasonable amount of leg room here so
07:39knee room's good toe room is great head room's good as well so plenty of space to stretch out you've got
07:45a center armrest here with pair of cup holders in there you've got air vents as well to keep everyone
07:50nice and cool a little bit of storage down there two usb c ports some hooks here map pockets as well
07:57so nice airy place to be seated now our window does it go all the way down so that's manual up and
08:02down look at that goes all the way down very impressive now cargo space so good news here so
08:10you've got just under 600 litres just in the standard setup here and it's good news because you're not
08:17robbed of space under the cargo floor it does have a space saver spare but they haven't mounted the
08:22battery under here it's located under that rear seat so it means that you're not really compromising
08:27on space if you have a look at the new forester for example basically you have no boot space left
08:32because they've put the battery there so that's quite a good setup um show you what it looks like
08:35with the bag in there so reasonable amount of space if you do want uh by the way 12 volt outlet over
08:43there if you don't want more space you can drop the second row from here and that expands the space
08:48to a little under 1900 litres which is fairly good
08:51all righty we've just hit hit the road in the Kia Sportage that I need to switch
09:01all of these annoying safety things off on um yes this is still a concern with new cars today just
09:09the beeps and the bongs and this one has a speed limit warning that doesn't really work that well
09:13all right that's off uh we're in the Kia Sportage Hybrid um let's start off with the drivetrain
09:19so a little different to what you're going to find in other cars on the market namely Toyota's
09:24products even though this is all-wheel drive Kia basically mounts an electric motor to um between
09:30the engine and the transmission and that basically means that you're getting an internal combustion
09:34engine a 1.6 litre turbocharged four-cylinder in this case an electric motor a six-speed automatic
09:41transmission and then a traditional driveline that runs down the center of the car to the rear
09:45and while it isn't as efficient as what Toyota is running which is two electric motors on the front
09:50axle and one on the rear and no driveline down the center it does give you advantages in having a bit
09:56more flexibility around permanent all-wheel drive in the way that you engage and disengage the all-wheel
10:01drive drive train but it comes at the cost of fuel efficiency what does all that mean in terms of
10:08the numbers so the internal combustion engine alone makes 132 kilowatts of power 265 newton meters of
10:15torque so it's a nice and punchy 1.6 litre turbo it mates to around a 47 kilowatt electric motor and
10:20that gives you a combined system output of around 170 kilowatts of power and that all routes through
10:26a battery that is around one and a half kilowatt hours in terms of capacity so that's a whole bunch
10:31of numbers thrown at you there important thing to note is you don't need to charge this car
10:35charges automatically when you slow down uses regen braking and that basically means if i roll out of
10:41the throttle or if i push the brake pedal it'll start charging the battery these paddle shifters
10:46on the steering wheel also allow me to change the level of regen so as i roll out of the throttle now
10:51it's quite intense and it's drawing a lot more energy to plumb back into the battery and you'll see
10:56how much charge you have in the battery when you've got ev there as well it's basically running entirely
11:00on electric alone and it does that when you're taking off and then when it picks up a bit of pace
11:06it switches the internal combustion engine on now what does all that feel like behind the wheel if
11:10you get stuck into it so look it is a little bit laggy there one of the downsides to having a
11:17traditional automatic transmission is that it does need a kick down so as you're driving along normally
11:22if you do need to give it a punch yes even though you have an electric motor in the mix there it takes
11:26a little while to kick down and engage not the end of the world but just one of the downsides to
11:31having this type of configuration now let's talk about fuel economy so kia claims a combined average
11:38of up to around 5.3 litres per 100 k's depending if you go for the front wheel drive or the all-wheel
11:44drive we are currently sitting on 6.2 it's a little bit off that figure and not far off what the
11:53subaru forester is getting so um yeah okay but not amazing there it could be a little bit more
11:58efficient let's talk about the ride uh around town it's pretty good uh it is i mean kia does a lot of
12:07work doing ride and handling tuning for australia i have found with some of the new electric cars that
12:12tunes haven't been all that amazing been quite soft and that is there to cater for larger wheelbase
12:19that sort of bounces the car around a fair bit see what it's like on our sine waves here we do this
12:23at 130 k's an hour just to see what body control is like it actually feels pretty reasonable so
12:30um those sine waves simulate a country road where you're going to find continuous undulations where
12:36it sort of bounces around a little bit and feels sort of nice and comfortable through that now it's
12:40time for our bumpy road we do this at 90 k's an hour it's just a shocker of a road so we'll see
12:46what this feels like alrighty so there's 90 it's actually soaking all of this up really nicely it's
12:54on the firmer side of comfortable but it's actually not too bad it's nicely damped is that condensed
13:02sine wave as well it's kind of floating over that a little bit but um sort of not too bad
13:11in terms of drive modes you've got terrain modes here for off-road driving you'll be able to see
13:20this in action in our off-road video when that goes live in terms of your normal drive modes you have
13:25uh eco normal and sorry eco sport and my drive i just popped it in sport it is really wet out there
13:32at the moment so i'm not going to be able to go too quick because the surface here isn't great but
13:36let's just see what it's like once the speed picks up so you can get an idea of how they've
13:40engineered this we'll lean on to the throttle here
13:43so it's one of these systems that really only engages the rear axle when you get slip on the front
13:55so you're not really getting that sort of vibe that you get with something like a subaru forester
14:00which is a permanent all-wheel drive system this feels like it's on its tippy toes most of the time
14:04not the end of the world for a family car though because ultimately you're not going to be driving
14:11sort of uh too crazy but it does mean that if you are heading to the snow or something like that
14:17you've got to just keep an eye on things and not be too aggressive on the throttle out of some of
14:22these wetter corners it will eventually hook up though and actually it doesn't feel too bad it sits
14:27nice and flat it's a great feel through the steering wheel throttle response is also good
14:32and then the blending they have through the brake pedal for the regen isn't too bad either because
14:41you basically get yourself between a point where you're doing regen and then friction brakes and
14:47they've been able to blend that quite nicely so that it feels very progressive and straightforward
14:52here's our backstroke give it a punch it's got more than enough go it's not sort of lightning fast
14:57but it's not sluggish either so it's a good balance in between there now in terms of your road noise you
15:03are getting a little bit of noise inside the cabin when you're on course chip country roads it's not
15:08the end of the world but i think they probably do with a bit of sound deadening inside the cabin we put
15:13it up against our calibrated sound meter and this is how it went if you do want to see how this car
15:18compares to others that we've tested before have a look at the link in the description below one of the
15:23other things i love here is when you put the indicator on you're seeing the camera vision off
15:27to the side there excellent feature and it just gives you a really good idea of what is happening
15:32down your blind spot now in terms of your visibility i can see clearly down the front they've got a great
15:36head-up display big wing mirrors too visibility out the back isn't too bad it's got a narrow envelope but
15:42not the end of the world and then of course you've got your parking cameras and all that sort of stuff
15:47if you do need to get yourself in and out of tight spaces
15:49now it is time to test the semi-autonomous systems do that at 70 k's an hour here on our three outer
15:59lanes so just engage that system we've got a little steering wheel there that goes green once that's
16:04active too all righty so first lane here it's keeping us nice and center we'll jump over to the next lane
16:11all right that's going green
16:15nice it's keeping us nice and center there as well awesome all right we'll jump over to the outermost lane
16:23let's see what it's like up here it's going green all that color steering wheel
16:28it doesn't like that at all so it's a pass in uh the first and second lane and a fail for the third
16:36lane all righty time to do a little bit of performance testing we're going to do zero to 100
16:41and then all the way through to 120 to see what the 80 to 120 overtaking time is like i might switch
16:48off traction control as well just so we don't get any slip off the line there all righty here we go
16:56that feels good
17:01all righty there's 100
17:04and 120
17:08actually feels nice and uh nice and quick off the line there so let's have a little look at those
17:16numbers so uh zero to 100 uh 7.93 seconds and 80 to 125.16 so both pretty good numbers just as a
17:25comparison because we tested it today as well it is significantly quicker than the forester both for 80 to
17:31120 and zero to 100 so just shows you what a well-sorted hybrid system is able to deliver as a
17:36comparison okay it's time to do a stop from 100 k's an hour it is very wet out there at the moment
17:42all righty
17:44okie dokie so
17:53that is 100 to zero in 3.89 seconds and 53 meters so it is very wet out here we're also not using our
18:03standard roads it's in use at the moment but if you do want to see how the sportage compares to other
18:08cars that we've tested before there is a link in the description below now how fast does it go in
18:14reverse here we go
18:16very fast
18:2168 k's an hour oh my goodness that is so fast
18:28okay so the new sportage hybrid what do we think look i think it really improves upon the last one
18:37that extra poke is very welcome it is let down a little by the transmission it just feels like it's
18:42holding it back sometimes but if you do put that to one side has plenty of punch it has stepped up in
18:47price though but you are getting a fairly comprehensive set of features in there along with all that remote
18:52connectivity tech plus a really decent infotainment system and loads of room as well plus a decent
18:58warranty so it's a win on all those fronts let me know what you reckon in the comments section below
19:02are you going to buy one of these have you been looking at one what are your thoughts if you did
19:06enjoy the video please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates and if you haven't
19:10done so already subscribe to the channel and press the bell icon but until next time take it easy
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