• One of the most spacious five-seat SUVs in its class
• Large boot
• Flexible rear seats

The Sportage scores strongly here thanks to it being a little larger than rivals such as the Skoda Karoq, Seat Ateca and Peugeot 3008. There’s plenty of head and leg room up front, while the Sportage’s width means you won’t be battling your front seat passenger for elbow room on the central armrest.

The good news continues as you move rearwards, with space for a couple of tall adults to get comfortable. Even six footers will have ample space between their knees and the backs of the front seats while head room is generous. It certainly beats the vast majority of direct rivals; you’d need to jump up to a seven-seater like a Skoda Kodiaq, Land Rover Discovery Sport or Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace for more rear seat space.

Getting three adults in the back shouldn’t be too much of a squeeze in terms of width, although there is a bit of a hump in the middle of the floor for the centre passenger to contend with. It’s not as large as that found on the Ateca and Karoq, although the Discovery Sport has a usefully flatter floor.

Boot space and storage 

The Sportage’s generous proportions once again pay dividends, with its boot trumping most rivals. Again, you’d need to move up to a larger seven-seat SUV to get more space. There’s plenty of storage up front for odds and sods thanks to a variety of cubbies, while rear seat passengers get pockets and a hook on the back of the rear seats with a nearby USB C port plus door pockets.

In the mild hybrid models, the Sportage gets a very decent 591 litres of boot space, and you sacrifice only 4 litres in the full hybrid – which retains a useful amount of underfloor storage. The plug-in hybrid model’s boot is smaller again at 540 litres, but that’s still larger than many rivals.

If that’s not enough, you can recline the rear seat backs in a 60/40 split, allowing you to prioritise comfort or boot space, and they fold flat in a 40/20/40 fashion (useful for through-loading long items while still carrying passengers). This is done easily via the side doors or levers in the boot. Unlike some rivals such as the Discovery Sport, the rear seats don’t slide backwards and forwards.

Is it easy to park?

Forward visibility in the Sportage is fine, but the rear screen is smaller than in boxier rivals like the Skoda Karoq. Thankfully front and rear parking sensors plus a rear-view camera are standard on all models.

You’ll need one of the high-end trims to get a 360-degree camera system, with self-parking capabilities reserved for the same trims but only with full or plug-in hybrid power.

Safety

• Lots of standard safety kit
• More advanced equipment on top trims
• Five-star Euro NCAP rating expected

All Sportages get plenty of standard safety equipment, much of it designed to stop you having an accident in the first place. This includes advanced automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist and trailer stability assist.

Automatic versions of all but base models get semi-autonomous driving assistance that helps you maintain your speed in traffic and assist with steering on the motorway. Opt for one of the top trims and you get a blind spot alert system that also displays a video feed aimed down the side of the car onto the digital driver’s display. They also get a system to stop you hitting objects whilst parking.

At the time of writing Euro NCAP is yet to crash test the Sportage, so we don’t have a rating for it. As it’s based on the Hyundai Tucson, that car’s five-star Euro NCAP rating should give some indication of how the Sportage will do. We’d therefore expect it to be very good, if not quite as safe as the Nissan Qashqai.

Watch Kia Sportage Euro NCAP safety test video