2023 Kia Sportage Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Over its first four generations, the Kia Sportage has showcased styling that went from quirky to boring to interesting to… amphibian. The 2023 model arrived this spring looking completely redesigned and, honestly, somewhat French. Remove the new (and improved) Kia badge and replace it with one from Renault or Peugeot or—especially—Citroen, and the Sportage would look very much in line with the rest of the French automaker-of-choice’s lineup.

Don’t take that as criticism, of course. The 2023 Sportage (like so many French crossovers) looks exciting and exotic. A Sportage will earn its driver plenty of attention, and it has a few styling features that we absolutely love. Most notably, the bright boomerang-shaped daytime running lights (DRLs) look outstanding and frame a distinctive grille, and the texture metal trim on the D Pillar adds a bit of class to this compact crossover.

For 2023, Kia will sell the Sportage in Canada with five trim levels. The line-up starts at the LX trim, which comes standard with front-wheel drive (FWD) and available with all-wheel drive (AWD). From there, AWD is standard in the X-Line, EX, EX Premium, and X-Line Limited trims.

Inside, Kia has done away with leather seating upholstery in favour of its more durable (and animal-friendly) synthetic leather. The base LX trim gets cloth seats.

Although more durable, the synthetic leather doesn’t feel quite as nice as the real deal. The Sportage still has a leather-wrapped steering wheel and leather-wrapped shift knob (X-Line and above), anyway, so it’s not a totally vegan vehicle.

The view from the driver’s seat is terrific, with a big front windshield complemented by a relatively low beltline for better peripheral visibility. Unless you buy the LX or X-Line trims, the dash is dominated by over two feet of display. It’s an impressive sight, but elsewhere in the cabin, things look a bit more typical of the compact-crossover class. There’s a decent amount of hard-wearing plastic and piano-black plastic, which picks up plenty of fingerprints. The most peculiar and irritating is a hard plastic plate set just ahead of the door handle for front-seat passengers. It looks interesting but provides an uncomfortable touch point for your knee.

Dual-zone full automatic climate control is also standard from the EX trim.

For the first time, Kia will sell Sportage Hybrid and Sportage Plug-in Hybrid powertrains, both of which will be reviewed as separate models. For the gas-powered Sportage, a 2.5-litre inline four-cylinder engine makes power specs of 187 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque. Kia sells the Sportage available with front-wheel drive (FWD) on the LX trim, with all-wheel drive (AWD) optional on LX and standard on all other trims.

That engine is mated with an eight-speed automatic transmission. It makes noticeably less power than the Sportage Hybrid’s turbocharged 1.6-litre engine, and that difference is even more noticeable as you climb in altitude.

The new engine is slightly larger than the outgoing 2.4-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine. It also makes a bit more power (6 more hp, 3 more lb-ft). Despite the increase in size and oomph, it’s also has slightly better fuel economy, at 9.3 litres per 100 kilometres in city driving, 7.4 on the highway, and 8.4 combined with FWD, and 10.4 L/100 km city, 8.5 highway, and 9.5 combined with AWD.

The 2023 Sportage is more powerful than the 2022 model, but these days, 187 hp and 178 lb-ft won’t feel blisteringly quick. And, sadly, the previous-generation Sportage’s available turbocharged engine is not offered in the new 2023 model-year vehicle. That turbo engine was a gem, making 240 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. The lack of an up-powered engine undercuts the top trims’ attempt at a premium experience. For folks who want a more punchy driving experience, we recommend test driving the Sportage Hybrid.

Although the gas Sportage no longer has a “performance” engine option (and perhaps in an attempt to make up for this), Kia has brought the popular X-Line treatment from the Sorento to the Sportage.

X-Line brings some rugged visual cues like 19-inch alloy wheels, gloss- and matte-black exterior trim pieces, and a gloss-black roof rack. It doesn’t, however, deliver any additional off-road goodies. And in another unfortunate omission, the X-Pro trims that do offer those features, as shown in the photo set on this review, are not offered in Canada.

Off-road, the Sportage feels plenty capable for the majority of off-pavement trials a typical crossover-buyer would subject it to. Although it doesn’t employ the same sort of symmetrical AWD that Subaru does, the Sportage managed to direct adequate power to the necessary wheels when we ran it through an off-road course that required one or two wheels off the ground at multiple points.

The Sportage also offers 21 centimetres of ground clearance on AWD models, which matches or beats all but the most hardcore off-road-oriented crossovers.

As a compact crossover, the Sportage competes in an incredibly tight segment against lots of other vehicles, the most popular of which are the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue, Subaru Forester, and its corporate sibling, the Hyundai Tucson.

The previous-generation Sportage was a good bit smaller than the new one, and it sort of carved out a niche for itself as “the little option.” A 2023 Sportage, however, is 180 mm longer with a 86 mm longer wheelbase than a 2022. As noted earlier, it also features more ground clearance in AWD trims. The previous-generation Sportage overlapped heavily with the smaller Kia Seltos; this one stands on its own as a clearly larger vehicle.

Although that might make for more direct competition, it’s great news for the Sportage’s interior space. Rear-seat legroom stretches an impressive 1,050 mm and 966 mm of rear headroom, and the trunk will swallow 1,121 litres of cargo space behind that rear seat. There’s 2,098 litres of space if the back seat is folded down.

The Kia Sportage also offers decent storage space in the front seats. Driver and front-seat passengers will find the typical cubby ahead of the shifter (which is a regular PRNDL lever-type mechanism) plus two tandem cupholders and a spacious centre console bin. A panoramic sunroof is available.

If there’s one area where the 2023 Sportage falls short, it’s how it uses technology to overcomplicate basic functions. The HVAC controls, for instance, are pretty frustrating. They’re controlled with touch-sensitive buttons rather than physical ones. These can be tough to locate when driving and, making matters worse, Kia added a dual-functionality to those buttons; hit the fan icon and you’ll see what you need to turn the heat up or down, click on the AC, and generally keep yourself comfortable. Hit the navigation triangle just above the fan icon, however, and those climate-control buttons disappear and are replaced with controls for the map, navigation, and radio. It’s cool in theory but frustrating in practice.

In the new Sportage, Kia’s technology offering looks outstanding and has tons of useful features. Once you’ve gotten familiar with it, it’s generally very enjoyable.

The 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system fitted to EX-and up Sportages is sharp and stylish. Pair it with a panoramic, curved, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster on the Kia Sportage X-Line Limited, and it looks more impressive than anything of this price on the market. Passengers might as well assume they’re riding in a Mercedes-Benz.

There are a few peculiarities that can make life difficult:

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are still wired on the top-of-the-line interface, which negates the wireless charger in a way. Buy a base LX trim and you get an 8-inch infotainment screen instead of the 12.3-inch unit—but it comes with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. The backwardness of this logic continues to flummox shoppers and reviewers, alike.

Also, as with all Kias these days, the icons on the screen just look far too similar to one another. They have thin fonts and share the same colour palette. This makes it hard to find the button you need while driving, and it demands that you take your eyes away from the road.

Other than that, the Sportage is an awesome, technologically advanced vehicle. Bluetooth and keyless entry are standard, a wireless charging is standard on all trims above the LX, as are rear USB-C charging ports for the rear seats, while SiriusXM Satellite Radio and HD Radio are standard from EX. A Harman Kardon audio system is included as standard equipment on the X-Line Limited trim level. You don’t have to pay much more than the base MSRP to get impressive tech in this car.

In addition to entertainment and navigational technology, the 2023 Kia Sportage offers an admirable amount of collision-avoidance tech and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) as standard equipment. That list includes automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-keeping assist and lane-following assist, lane-departure warning, and the federally mandated backup camera.

You can add even more ADAS by climbing up the trim ladder. One additional rung (X-Line trim) adds blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert and safe exit warning. Cruise control comes standard on the Kia Sportage, and adaptive cruise control comes in at the EX grade.

As with other vehicles in Kia’s stable, the more expensive X-Line Limited trim level is the only one to include our favourite Kia safety features: blind-view monitor and highway driving assist. We wish these were more widely available. The blind-view monitor, in particular, is a near-revolutionary bit of tech that wows just about everyone who has a chance to use it. It also includes front and rear parking sensors, projection LED headlights, rain-sensing wipers, and a surround-view camera.

Finally, like many all-new vehicles, neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have yet crash-tested the 2023 Sportage.

Pricing starts at $31,933 including a $2,549 destination charge and other fees for a Kia Sportage LX FWD, but we only consider this car competitive in its red-hot segment at the X-Line trim level and above.

Luckily, the X-Line keeps things relatively affordable, and prices only grow incrementally from there. X-Line is priced at $37,533, EX at $39,233, EX Premium at $41,333, and X-Line Limited at $44,733.

That puts the new Kia Sportage’s pricing very much in line with its closest competition—namely the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Subaru Forester (although it’s worth noting that all Foresters come standard with AWD, making them popular and of particular good value to shoppers in snowy climes).

The 2023 Kia Sportage includes a 5-year, 100,000-kilometre comprehensive warranty in Canada.

Kia has been on an incredible hot streak with new and redesigned vehicles for the past few years. The K5 sedan outclasses much of the competition, the Sorento looks like one of the best buys in the midsize crossover segment, and the Telluride has proven so popular that Kia can hardly build them fast enough.

The 2023 Sportage’s driving dynamics don’t wow us like the other Kias, but it is undeniably a feature-rich car. Shoppers who value safety, technology, and style, will likely be very pleased with their purchase of a new Sportage.

Note: Images show a US model.