√Kia Sportage wins 2022 Drive Car of the Year

The Kia Sportage has been crowned the 2022 Drive Car of the Year. And it is fair to say it has moved on from the no-frills runabout your aunt used to drive.

After a year of reviews and analysis, three weeks of in-depth testing, and from a field of almost 90 vehicles overall, the 2022 Kia Sportage has taken the top honours in the 2022 Drive Car of the Year awards.

With available features like twin 12.3-inch displays embedded behind a single, curved glass screen, to being able to wow your friends by using the key to remotely back the car in and out of a car-space. This all-new Sportage offers a level of technology, luxury and practicality that you might normally expect from a premium brand.

While pricing for the Kia Sportage starts from $34,690 drive-away (Sportage S with a 2.0-litre petrol engine and a manual transmission), we’ve spent time in the range-topping Sportage GT-Line all-wheel-drive diesel ($52,370 drive-away) to get a full taste of everything on offer.

It has a striking and modern design, with blade-like LED running lamps up front, large alloy wheels, and plenty of angles and contrasting surfaces to keep things interesting. Eight colours are available across the range, with a funky green and smart blue (like our car) the standouts.

The new Sportage is bigger than the outgoing model, offering a longer wheelbase for more passenger room, and a larger boot for all your clobber. Fancy additions like a hands-free power tailgate and keyless entry enhance the appeal, and go further to make this feel like an upmarket car.

From behind the wheel, the massive curved screen, wood-like inlays and touch-panel climate control display immediately strike you. This is a thoroughly modern car.

All the features you expect are available, including integrated satellite navigation, support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a digital radio tuner, but there are some special treats too. You can drag a three-dimensional image of the car around to see your parking space in 360-degrees, you can even activate a ‘quiet mode’ that mutes the rear stereo speakers but keeps yours on, so the kids can rest and you can still enjoy that true-crime podcast without scarring their little minds.

The diesel engine in combination with the eight-speed automatic transmission is very flexible and manages the demands of urban driving as well as long distance touring with ease and efficiency. The diesel Sportage has a claimed combined cycle fuel consumption of 6.3L/100km which means at $1.80 per litre, the 54-litre tank will cost about $100 to fill but should last about 850km, or about three weeks for the average commuter.

Kia have tuned the suspension for Australian conditions so the car rides well over cobbles and speed humps, and makes longer regional drives a breeze. Modern driver assistance gadgets like blind-spot warning, intelligent speed limit assist and lane-keeping assist are standard across the range, and you have the peace of driver attention monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and even a pre-collision braking system that works at intersections.

Plus, being a Kia. There’s a seven-year warranty, a capped-price service schedule and a strong resale proposition down the track.

It’s an all-boxes-ticked package, the Sportage offering buyers a practical and stylish car that has been tuned specifically for our roads, and a level of safety and assistance technology that isn’t democratised by price.

A modern car for a modern Australia, and in terms of a Drive Car of the Year winner, what more could you want!

Read about all the other 2022 Drive Car of the Year categories and winners