USED BUYING GUIDES: Kia Sportage
ONCE a value brand, Kia has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the mainstream over the last couple of decades. Its success can be attributed to its industry-leading seven-year warranties, its cars’ stellar reliability record and – perhaps most importantly in the modern car market – its excellent SUVs.
Models like the Niro, Sportage and Sorento have all successfully won Kia countless fans around the world and given more established manufacturers serious headaches over the years.
The Sportage was introduced as Kia’s first SUV way back in the early nineties, using parts courtesy of Mazda and Ford; for the European market, it was in effect a South Korean car built in Germany by Karmann, using Mazda engines. Although it sounds like a rather strange recipe, it proved to be a pretty appealing proposition for buyers,
