KIA SPORTAGE 2.0 CRDi XE 5dr (2005)

Not quite up to Kia standards from what I've seen of other Kias

Don't get me wrong, the Kia Sportage is a good family-mobile, lots of lovely space and really excellent for seeing above other traffic... but it's had just a couple more repairs needed than I'd expect from a Kia. We did get it second hand and I'm not sure what sort of life it had before us, but still it's been annoying to have to work out these mysterious problems, like the way the car was juddering around oddly at a certain speed (turned out to be something loose in the back), and some weird cranky rattly noise in the gearbox.

I mean it was all done inside the warranty they gave us, but they took their sweet time about it and we didn't get a courtesy car or anything. Hopefully this is just early blues and it'll get better, but one thing that won't get better is the fuel consumption. I'd say we probably average about 30 or so miles a gallon, which is getting a bit crippling these days. That might be a reason to sell on in the future.

On a more positive note, like I said the Kia Sportage enormous inside, the kids love being in there with plenty of space to play around (and often misbehave). Living in the valleys we wanted something that would get us around no matter the weather, and with a couple of exceptions last winter when the snow was really crazy, it hasn't let us down once.

Thinking about the winter, those heated seats were definitely a bonus. I didn't actually know about them at first, just discovered them one day while sitting in a car park. They really really make a difference for cold bums on winter days! Generally actually it's really got lots of nice gadgets and features, seemed good value for the price tag. I really hope these early repair jobs will be one offs and we'll be able to enjoy it from now on.