Features

Gallery: 2025 Kia Sportage 1.6T High – dashing looks, CKD Kulim, RM179k

Aug 14, 2025 6:38 pm

For many of us, the Kia Sportage is a familiar fixture in the SUV landscape. The name, having been around since its debut in 1993, quickly gained popularity in markets like the US and Australia. In fact, the Sportage was the 10th best-selling vehicle in Australia in 2024, followed by the Tesla Model Y. That says a lot, doesn’t it?

Over here in Malaysia, the third-generation (SL) model launched in 2011 was fairly well received, thanks in part to its unique styling and generous list of equipment. The fourth-generation QL model continued to buck the trend and met with some semblance of a success, but the lion’s share of sales went to its turbocharged rivals, the Proton X70 and Honda CR-V.

Now in its fifth iteration, the Sportage finds itself contending for attention in a market inundated with flashy – and sometimes outright novel – SUVs. The divisive Tiger Nose aside, it’s a fairly handsome C-segment SUV, and for the first time is available with a 1.6 litre turbocharged engine, powering either the front wheels or AWD. The unit sampled here is the 2WD.

The turbo four-pot isn’t the most impressive on paper (177 hp and 265 Nm of torque), but provides enough shove for quick overtaking manoeuvres when cruising on the highway. Its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is unusually rubber-bandy off the line, though this becomes virtually nonexistent once you’re up to speed. We suggest going for the six-speed automatic in the 2.0L models if you drive mostly in urban settings.

Spec-wise, we like that it rides on modest wheel sizes – 17 inches for the NA variants, and 18 inches for the 1.6T. Ride is sufficiently comfortable for all but the worst surfaces, and NVH is also well controlled. We also like the Sportage’s overall fit and finish. The plastics used throughout the cabin feels good, and key touch points are covered with soft-touch materials.

There’s heavy use of piano black finishes around the cockpit, which attracts dust and grease a lot more easily than we’d like. The omission of the eight-speaker Harman Kardon sound system in this 2WD trim makes us feel a tad shortchanged (this is exclusive for the top AWD model), and cabin lighting is oddly still of the bulb type.

On the safety side of things, every variant except the base 2.0 comes with adaptive cruise control (ACC), high beam assist (HBA), blind spot collision avoidance assist (BCA) and rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA). The turbocharged models add on blind-spot monitors (displayed in the instrument cluster when the turn signals are used), but this kit is barely on the level offered by Chinese makes.

The Sportage range is priced roughly from RM150k to RM190k, a sizeable increase from the previous generation despite being a CKD model. Included is a five-year or 100,000km warranty, a five-year or 100,000km free scheduled maintenance package, as well as a V-Zion Film window tint worth RM2,300 (pre-installed from the factory). The full variant line-up is priced as follows, on-the-road and without insurance: