{"id":29380,"date":"2022-06-23T11:40:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T15:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=29380"},"modified":"2022-06-23T11:40:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T15:40:36","slug":"payne-kia-sportage-hybrid-is-a-fancy-family-widget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/payne-kia-sportage-hybrid-is-a-fancy-family-widget","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Kia Sportage Hybrid is a fancy family widget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlevoix<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 The new\u00a02023 Kia Sportage isn\u2019t so much a car as it is a Universal Studios theme park attraction: an affordable look at the latest auto technology that you can do with the whole family: huge screens, semi-autonomous driving, red leather, hybrid-electric power.<\/p>\n

My Matte Gray (yes, Matte Gray in a $38,000, non-luxe car) tester looks like it was sketched by a Hollywood designer.<\/p>\n

The front is all grille, chrome accents\u00a0and LED light bars \u2014 the headlights pushed to the very edges of the fascia. It\u2019s a stark contrast with the previous-generation Sportage and its anthropomorphic features. The \u201822 Sportage was a cutie, its big eyes and happy mouth \u2014 er, grille \u2014 seemingly inspired by Pikachu from the Pokemon family. The new Sportage looks like something from the Tron movies.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIs that from the future?\u201d my neighbor John commented as I rolled past his driveway on my way Up North for a long Memorial Day road trip to enjoy the Kia\u2019s featured attractions.<\/p>\n

While it must conform to the traditional layout of four-door SUV, Sportage challenges styling convention. Sister Hyundai has done the same with its angular Tucson ute, which is built on the same platform as Sportage. The Kia\u2019s rear is nearly as intriguing as the front with a wedding cake construction that separates rear window, taillights, license plate panel\u00a0and diffuser into four planes. The whole sculpture sits under a fashionable\u00a0floating-roof design.<\/p>\n

For all its design ambition, however, my Sportage tester was quite practical. It sat on high-profile, 18-inch wheels with a useful, Wrangler-like 8.3 inches of ground clearance should I encounter a typical Up North dirt road.<\/p>\n

The long drive up I-75, however, was anything but typical.<\/p>\n

The Sportage has the best semi-autonomous system this side of Caddy\u2019s Super Cruise and Tesla\u2019s Autopilot. I\u2019m not making this up. Like Super Cruise (and unlike Autopilot) the system has no interest in nannying me all the time.<\/p>\n

\"Using<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Unlike those sophisticated systems, Kia doesn\u2019t give its adaptive cruise feature a fancy name and it won\u2019t self-navigate to your destination (so it won\u2019t automatically switch lanes in the process). Otherwise, it allowed me to relax, assume a chair-like seating position (hands on my knees) \u2014 only reaching for the steering column when another car got in the way.<\/p>\n

The radar brick in the front grille read cars in front of me, slowing down from my set speed of 79 mph as I approached. Assuming the controls, I turned on the blinker, drove around them, then settled back into hands-free driving. The cameras kept the car centered, even in long interstate curves. While Tesla\u2019s Autopilot nannies me every 30 seconds to apply torque to the wheel (making sure I\u2019m paying attention), the Kia system left me alone, rarely asking me to affirm my presence.<\/p>\n

A brief rainstorm through Flint didn\u2019t faze the system. Over the Zilwaukee Bridge, Sportage was a rock, following the lane beautifully. A pair of full-size pickups \u2014 in a hurry to get up I-75 \u2014 roared into view behind me, swerving across lanes and passing traffic. Suddenly alongside, they cut in front of me and into the left lane. The Kia braked quickly as the Ram cut across its bow \u2014 testing the emergency braking system \u2014 then continued on its way as the pickups disappeared into the distance. Impressive.<\/p>\n

As the Sportage drove itself, I had the chance to make phone calls, save my favorite radio stations, marvel at the interior. The modern cabin is on par with the Sportage\u2019s sci-fi exterior and cutting-edge adaptive cruise control.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A huge, hoodless\u00a0curved screen stretches across the dash like \u2014 well, a Mercedes. It houses two\u00a0digital\u00a012.5-inch screens \u2014 one for instrumentation, the other for infotainment \u2014 that are graphically impressive and configurable. Amid all this electronic wizardry, Sportage is still curiously a generation behind its peers in not offering wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Happily, there was ample console space to plug in my phone for navigating my journey. The Kia native system was no match for the smartphone\u2019s voice and navigation abilities.<\/p>\n

The handsome\u00a0gloss-black center console is full of clever ideas. To minimize buttons, the infotainment and climate controls alternately access the same middle console screen for adjusting, say, volume or heat. Kudos to the first member of your family who figures out this little Easter egg without first consulting the glovebox manual.<\/p>\n

\"Love<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Speaking of buttons, the starter, rotary shifter\u00a0and rotary mode controller are all neatly aligned like the sun, moon\u00a0and earth in a solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

Console cupholders are multi-functional. Taking a page from Honda \u2014 whose Civic and Pilot consoles are engineering gems \u2014 the Kia\u2019s cupholder rims can be hidden at the touch of a button, turning the space into bigger storage for a box of fries or a small purse. I made good use of the space while downing a fast-food meal on my trip.<\/p>\n

All of this was wrapped in red leather under a panoramic sunroof that I usually see in, well, a Mercedes (or Mazda CX-50, another mainstream vehicles with upscale ambitions like Kia).<\/p>\n

\"Who<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Again, this in a $38,000 automobile.<\/p>\n

Speaking of family, there is lots of room\u00a0for second-row passengers. Sportage boasts excellent rear legroom, courtesy of a wheelbase stretched by 3.4 inches over that last-gen, and I could tilt the seatback farther to allow myself more headroom.<\/p>\n

How does it drive, you ask?<\/p>\n

So high-tech is Sportage that I almost forgot the hybrid drivetrain, which went about its duties in\u00a0workman-like way. The hybrid marries a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-banger with a single electric motor for a healthy 226 horses. It made good acceleration out of stoplights, but when it came to tackling the twisties on my favorite M-32 west of Gaylord, the Kia wasn\u2019t interested. It\u2019s no Mazda CX-5.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The hybrid drivetrain is new to Sportage (there is also a plug-in model available with 32 miles of battery-only range) and claims a combined 38 mpg with all-wheel drive \u2014 a big jump over the non-hybrid\u2019s 28 mpg. That\u2019s welcome news as I passed by gas price signs of $4.51 (soon to rise above $5).<\/p>\n

But in my week of driving, the Sportage hybrid returned a much more modest figure of 29 mpg. Oh\u00a0well. That\u2019s a rare miss in a vehicle that otherwise exceeds all expectations for the average family ute.<\/p>\n

2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid<\/strong><\/p>\n

Price: $28,585, including $1,215 destination fee ($38,000 Hybrid SX-Prestige AWD as tested)<\/p>\n

Powerplant: 1.6-liter turbocharged\u00a0inline four mated to twin electric motors and 1.5 kWh lithium-ion battery pack<\/p>\n

Power: 227 horsepower, 258 pound-feet torque<\/p>\n

Transmission: 6-speed automatic<\/p>\n

Performance: 0-60 mph, (8.0 sec., Car and Driver est.); towing, 2,000 pounds.<\/p>\n

Weight: 3,896 pounds (as tested)<\/p>\n

Fuel economy: 38 city\/38 highway\/38 combined; range, 521 miles<\/p>\n

Report card<\/p>\n

Highs: High-tech features; comfortable interior<\/p>\n

Lows: Polarizing looks; fuel economy came up well short of 38 mpg<\/p>\n

Overall: 4\u00a0stars<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlevoix\u00a0\u2014 The new\u00a02023 Kia Sportage isn\u2019t so much a car as it is a Universal Studios theme park attraction: an affordable look at the latest auto technology that you can do with the whole family: huge screens, semi-autonomous driving, red leather, hybrid-electric power. My Matte Gray (yes, Matte Gray in a $38,000, non-luxe car) tester […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29381,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29380\/revisions\/29381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}