[BraveArc]

It’s been one and a half months since we bought the car. Figure it’s the right time to write about my experience with the car having spent a good amount of time with it. Let me start from the beginning.

NEED:-
My parents have lived in Kuwait for almost 2 decades now. I did a bit of my schooling here and moved to India for my college. Now that I’m done with my degree, I decided to move back here. For a while atleast. We have had a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder since 2010, and with me coming here the need for another vehicle arose.

SEARCH:-
We decided to get another SUV within a budget of KD6500. There were a too many options in this price range so we narrowed down the list with one simple condition, i.e. how common the vehicle was on Kuwaiti roads. It made a huge difference. In the end the list was narrowed down to Chevrolet Captiva, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Ford Escape. Some of the eliminated SUVs include GMC Terrain, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, etc.
First we went to Chevy and spoke to their sales representative. Turned out they hadn’t received the 2014 models yet and the 2013 stock was still available. This made possible bigger discounts with the right amount of bargaining (Yes, you can bargain for cars in Kuwait). We got all the details and we settled on the Captiva 2nd highest model in the 5-seater variant as that was within our budget.





Next, we headed to the Kia showroom. One thing about Kia and their current crop of vehicles, there isn’t a single vehicle that looks bad or boring. Each and every vehicle that was in the showroom was a looker. The sales people here were super friendly and we saw that the 2014 Kia Sportages had arrived and were in the showroom, so that got me the most excited (Dad and mom were oblivious to such things). After discussing with their sales rep we centered on the 2 wheel drive full options which was exactly KD6500. The only variant above this was the 4WD which also had leather seats but for some reason the alloys on it were 1 inch smaller and not all that great looking. The one we were interested in, was loaded with lots of features as you would come to expect from both the Korean giants. All KIAs came with a whopping 10 year warranty and plus, mom liked the looks of the car and as a result we decided to stop our search and get this.





BUYING:-
Now, that we had decided on what we were getting. We bargained a bit and brought the price down from KD6500 to KD6350. Next to be decided was the colour. On display were three colours. The blue looked very good but the only one left was on display and so we decided against it. Most of their current stock was already sold and the sales rep informed us that the only colours available were Maroon, Silver and dark grey so we decided to get the maroon. Since we were getting the car through the monthly installments route, we had to get some more documents. As we left the showroom, an orange coloured Sportage parked up right in front of us and it looked amazingly good under the Sun. We went back in immediately and asked for that color. He said it’ll take maybe a month or two for the new stock to arrive. Parents decided the colour was too good and didn’t mind the long wait. We told him that’s the colour we wanted or we would look elsewhere. A couple of days later, the sales rep called us and told there was an orange car which was available as the guy who booked it never came back with the payment and so we could have that. Dad immediately got all the documents ready and we booked the car. We would have the car in 4-5 days we were told.

DELIVERY:-
Taking delivery of the car was at the KIA vehicle delivery centre which was in a totally different area to where the showroom was. We went there in the morning and saw lots of KIA vehicles waiting to be picked up. Our vehicle was easy to spot in the crowd of blacks, whites and greys. We met the delivery rep and showed him id proof and he started the final form work. The car was given one final check and was wiped clean. Dad asked the delivery rep to bring the car out as we were too nervous to drive it out as there were quite a few vehicles inside. The guy drove it out, explained a few of the features and told to bring in the car at 2000km for its first free service. He also informed us that KIA recommends servicing the car every 5000km. Guess that’s why they are so confident in giving the 10-year warranty.

Delivery Day:


THE SUV:-

Exterior:
The KIA Sportage is definitely one of the best looking SUVs out there. Compared to the rest of the SUVs in the segment, this one appeals to both sexes. Good use of Chrome in the front to show off the new KIA family look grill designed by Peter Schreyer. The 2014 model has bigger fog lamps that house the direction lamps which light up to show the road when taking turns. The 2WD full options variant comes with very good looking alloys too. The car comes with distinctive headlamps with projector lamps and LED daytime running lights which adds to the overall look when they are on. The wheel arches are on the sportier side coming out a bit. The door handles are in chrome and have a good solid feel to them. The ORVMs follow the design language of the car and fit in perfectly to the rest of it. They contain the side indicators for the car and it is pretty large and visible form far on. The ORVMs fold in automatically and the best part is the way they fold in. They fold at an upward angle which for some reason adds to the attractiveness of the car. Coming to the rear, the tail lamps bulge out a little bit to add to the curvy nature of the SUV’s design. The indicators are not part of the tail lamp and are on the bumper instead. The rear sensors can be found in the plastic cladding which gives the orange bumper a clean look. The rear view camera is found just above the number plate and cannot be noticed very easily.

The Front:



The Back:


ORVM:


Rearview Camera:


Alloys:


Performance:
The SUV has a 2.0 litre petrol engine outputting 164bhp @ 6200 rpm and 20.1 kg-m @ 4600 rpm. After driving diesel SUVs (XUV500 & Captiva) in India for 4 years, driving this feels very weird. The Sportage is very silent at low revs but the pull of a diesel due to the high amounts of Torque they produce is not there. It’s difficult to get used to the 2.0l petrol engine. The engine does get loud as the rpms cross the 4,500 mark and it isn’t exactly the greatest of sounds. Suspension is on the stiffer side so body roll is very less. The speed limit on most roads in Kuwait varies from 80-120kmph. Car doesn’t struggle to hit the 3 digit mark but past that the rate of climb does drop a bit. Our Pathfinder is a 4.0l V6 and that gains speed very very quickly. Other than that the vehicle is absolutely faultless.

Engine:


Interior:
Inside, the SUV is neat and simple. Comes in a two tone grey finish consisting of dark grey in the top and bottom of the dashboard and satin silver in the middle. The plastics feel great and have a long lasting feel to them. The Sportage’s dashboard is straightforward, with a sensible layout and switches that are easy to use. At night all the switches glow in orange and the music system LCD too is in orange which goes with the exterior colour of the car. The instrument cluster is easy to read with the speedometer in the middle and the tachometer to the left. A small LCD screen contains the odometer and tripmeter. It also shows the outside temperature, distance to empty, etc. The driver’s seat offers decent support, too, and there’s a good range of adjustment for both that and the steering wheel. The thick front pillars can obscure your view at times. It’s not EcoSport bad, but it’s close. The rear window is small so view through the IRVM isn’t all that great so I use the ORVMs primarily. There’s ample amount of head and leg room in the back but it’s comfortable only for 4 people as the gearbox tunnel is quite high. Boot space is average and the rear seats are the usual 60/40 split-fold type. But they don’t fold flat so that’s a minus.

Dashboard:


Instrument Cluster:


Centre Console:


Gear lever:


ORVM controls:


Equipment:
The car is loaded with quite a lot of features. But it still doesn’t come close to Indias own XUV500. But some of the features include:
1. Automatic Head lights
2. Automatic wipers
3. Rear view camera
4. Reverse sensors
5. Automatic folding ORVMs
6. Bluetooth
7. Cruise control
8. Triptronic gearbox
9. USB & AUX input for music
10. The Instrument cluster LCD shows Outside temperature, Range, Live fuel consumption, average fuel consumption, average speed, ECO Mode and time elapsed.
11. Guide lights when making turns in the night.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:-
After almost 2 months of usage, this is what I could come up with.

Pros:
1. Good looks.
2. Large equipment list.
3. High resale value.
4. Very little body roll.
5. 10 year warranty

Cons:
1. Engine lacks power.
2. Tall gearbox tunnel in rear means only 4 people can sit comfortably.
3. Engine becomes noisy as the rpm increases.

Front Grill:


Head light:


Head light(DRL on):


IRVM with camera view:


Front door bottle holder:


Rear door bottle holder:


Fire Extinguisher in front of front passenger seat:


Rear Seats:


Rear seats with arm rest down:


Instrument Cluster LCD Controls:


Boot:


Boot with divider absent:


Boot with rear seats down:

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[a4anurag]

Congratulations on the Kia

Just noticed one thing in the pictures shared by you of the car.

Why is the engine bay so dirty on the Delivery Day? Is this how the delivery was done?


Anurag.

[BraveArc]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Congratulations on the Kia

Just noticed one thing in the pictures shared by you of the car.

Why is the engine bay so dirty on the Delivery Day? Is this how the delivery was done?


Anurag.

Took the photos 2 weeks after the car was delivered. The dusty weather of the middle east always make the Engine bay dirty.

Some more pics of the car:-

Steering:


ORVM Closed:


View of car with ORVM closed:


Instrument cluster LCD showing instantaneous fuel consumption:


Instrument cluster LCD showing outside temperature:


Centre console at night:

[Soumyajit9]

Congratulations on the beautiful ride !! This KIA looks advanced and with loaded features !!
Drive safe and keep us posted on the performance !!

[14000rpm]

nice ride. I was considering buying this 6 months ago before settling for a used Honda CRV for the same price. Space was CRV's USP.

Nevertheless I still thing I should buy a Sportage as a second car. Thanks for your review. never knew anybody who owned one.

[sukiwa]

Congrats on new set of wheels.

Originally Posted by BraveArc

ORVM controls

What's button above circular mirror control button, is it for folding ORVMs? Doesn't those auto-fold after removing car key?

Cons:
2. Tall gearbox tunnel in rear means only 4 people can sit comfortably.

Can you please post an image of rear row from sideways, current rear seat photo can't show height of gearbox tunnel.

Fire Extinguisher in front of front passenger seat:

Is this standard/mandatory fitting for cars in Kuwait?

Instrument cluster LCD showing instantaneous fuel consumption

It seems close to 18 litres for 100Kms. What's fuel consumption, close to 5-6 kmpl?

[BraveArc]

Originally Posted by sukiwa

Congrats on new set of wheels.



What's button above circular mirror control button, is it for folding ORVMs? Doesn't those auto-fold after removing car key?

Thanks and yes, the button is used to fold the mirrors. They don't fold automatically when the car key is removed like in the Nissan Micra.

Originally Posted by sukiwa

Can you please post an image of rear row from sideways, current rear seat photo can't show height of gearbox tunnel.

Will post pics soon

Originally Posted by sukiwa

Is this standard/mandatory fitting for cars in Kuwait?

yup, It's mandatory to have it in front of the co-drivers seat. Where in front is up to the company.

Originally Posted by sukiwa

It seems close to 18 litres for 100Kms. What's fuel consumption, close to 5-6 kmpl?

The car gives around 12-13. The photo I posted is instantaneous fuel consumption. The below pic shows average fuel consumption.

[9thsphinx]

Looks fab in the orange shade - the machined alloys complementing the vibrant color!

I love the design language of the new gen Kia's. The front is fresh and the theme is more or less fluidic in nature. A friend sold his Civic and bought an Optima in the US and has never been more satisfied - goes to speak the Koreans are giving tough competition to the Japs.

Anyway, congratulations for your new ride. Drive safe.

[arunu]

Thanks Bravearc for sharing your review.

I have been in oman for almost 5 years now and currently drive a honda city. I am planning to buy Kia sportage or Kia Sorento in March since there are certain places in oman where sedans are not allowed. You need a 4wd or AWD to go there.

Sportage is the best looking and highest selling cross over from Kia.

There are certain differences in the models between Kuwait and Oman like, we dont get FWD, we only get AWD with 2.0 or 2.4 lt option. Warranty is 6 years un-limited kms from dealer (5 yr / 100000 from kia) and 5000 or 3 months service interval. My friend drives a 2.0 AWD and avg is around 8-10 in city. (but that's not a consideration ).

Sportage looks best in this Copper orange color. Enjoy many more safe kms and thanks for sharing.

[BraveArc]

Been a while since I updated this thread.
A few months back the car started giving an issue where when I put it in reverse, it would suddenly jerk and the gear indicator would disappear and the power would drop and if I shifted to D, it would jerk again and not move as smoothly. So, I'd turn the car off and on back again and things would be back to normal. It used to happen once in 4-5 days and I needed the car full time so I continued using it without taking to the service center.

The bellows pics show the problem when it occurred, the gear is on 'R':-



Three weeks back the car was due for it's 15,000km service. So, I took it and then I told them about the issue. They identified that a part had to be replaced, but it wasn't available in Kuwait and had to be brought in from Dubai. Got the call to bring the SUV, two days back.




Been a few hour since it's been fixed. As a force of habit I keep constantly checking the gear indicator. Everything has been good up till now.

[BraveArc]

Somebody did this to my car the previous night when it was parked on the ground opposite my building. Spotted it in the morning. Whoever did it moved their vehicle somewhere else and didn't even leave a note or anything.




Just gave the car to a mechanic. To fix the rear fender alone will cost me around Rs.6500 and if I want to fix both, it could be double that. I told him to polish the door and only fix the rear fender for now.