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I\u2019ve always chafed at the name Kia \u201cSportage.\u201d Sportage sounds like something MTV\u2019s star beach bum Pauly Shore would say. Like \u201cAfter I do some sportage, I\u2019m gonna get some foodage.\u201d Or \u201cLike, dude, I\u2019m totally spent. That was some serious sportage.\u201d Hip. Funky.<\/p>\n
Not something you\u2019d associate with a compact crossover appliance in the high-volume, mainstream segment. But after driving Kia\u2019s new 2017 Sportage, maybe I was wrong.<\/p>\n
This is no appliance. This dude is loaded with personality.<\/p>\n
In its ambitious climb to social respectability,\u00a0Kia<\/a>\u00a0and Korean-twin Hyundai have slavishly copied German brand wardrobes. Hyundai\u2019s luxury Genesis has aped Audi\u2019s big grille and taut lines, while Kia just hired\u00a0VW-Audi designer Peter Schreyer<\/a>\u00a0himself. Schreyer wasted no time sculpting a sexier Kia. Leaner stance. Signature, \u201ctiger-nose\u201d grille. Personality.<\/p>\n For the new Sportage, Schreyer reached for exterior cues from the Alpha male of the VW family: Porsche. Stroll around the outside and Sportage has an unmistakable echo of Stuttgart\u2019s bullet-shaped Macan. Rake, dual-eyed headlights. Rounded corners. A menacing mouth. The Porsche\u2019s egg-crate grille screams mean while the Sportage has … cute-age? Yes, like an enraged Pokeman. GRRRRRR.<\/p>\n Stomp on the Kia\u2019s turbocharged, 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine and this box goes. It\u2019s not the tire-squirming torque steer of Korean imports of yesteryear, but the refined pep of a German machine. This isn\u2019t a quirky Kia Soul but a serious automobile with crisp handling and tailored interior to match its styling, right down to the alphabet-soup badge on my top-of-the-line turbo: SX-GDI.<\/p>\n The black instrument cluster behind the flat-bottomed steering wheel (sport-age!) is highlighted by white graphics and red dials. The dash is nicely appointed with matte-black row of buttons, air ducts, and horizontal lines. It\u2019s right out of a VW-Audi parts bin.<\/p>\n The Sportage\u00a0follows on the same platform<\/a>\u00a0as the handsome, 2016 Hyundai Tucson (big brother always gets the first wardrobe makeover). Last summer I tested the base, wonderfully-affordable,\u00a0$23,720 Tucson<\/a>, which goes about its business in a very, um, business-like way. My all-wheel-drive Sportage tester is a different animal. Not just because it was dressed to the nines at $34,895 (its base price just $300 more than the Tucson) \u2014 but because it cuts a more athletic stance.<\/p>\n The Kia feels less like the Tucson and more like Hyundai\u2019s Sante Fe Sport \u2014 a sexier version of Hyundai\u2019s larger, mid-sized Santa Fe aimed squarely at\u00a0Ford\u2019s Edge<\/a>. Confusing, I know, but that\u2019s how these Korean twins differentiate themselves.<\/p>\n Befitting their badges, Sportage and Santa Fe Sport get steroid-fed engines \u2014 181 horsepower base 2.4-liter or powerful 240-horse turbo-fours. The Tucson is stuck with a 2.0-liter, 164-horse, 2.0-liter four or a 1.6-liter turbo-4 option with 175 ponies. In a 0-60 sprint, Sportage leaves Tucson in the dust.<\/p>\n If they were high school classmates, you\u2019d recognize Sportage and Sport as the jocks \u2014 Tucson the nerd.<\/p>\n