Test Drive with Nik Miles – 2023 Kia Sportage

Join Nik Miles as he goes over the ins and outs of the new 2023 Kia Sportage. Nik takes us on a test drive, tells us about all the newest upgrades and how the car feels while driving, and gives us an honest review of the vehicle.

After the video, make sure to check out our selection of Kia Souls at our dealership in Vancouver.

https://www.dickhannahkia.com/new/Kia/sportage2023

I’m Nik Miles at Dick Hannah Kia with the 2023 Kia Sportage. This vehicle has been all redesigned for the fifth generation, and now this vehicle gets so many new things. It also gets the brand-new Kia Frontage and the new Kia grille. This vehicle was the very first SUV to do the Paris to Dakar Rally and the Baja 1000. And for 2023, it gets a new trim level in the X-Line version, which is slightly higher. We’re going to take a look at the exterior, we’re going to take a look at the interior, and first of all, let’s jump on the inside and see how the 2023 Kia Sportage drives on the road.

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The first thing you’re going to notice when you get inside the 2023 Sportage is this huge piece of glass that goes three-quarters of the way across the screen. This is now all digital. There are no analog gauges at all, and you get the choice of half of it being the infotainment. You can scroll through menus just by swiping the information here. You can choose what kind of information you want just by pouring through AC here; for instance, you want your information, you can choose anything from map, phone projection, voice memo, valet mode, quiet mode, HD radio, and media. You can set up whatever you want. I mean, the choices are endless. And of course, depending on what trim level you want, what kind of Sportage you choose, that chooses how many options you want and how much you want.

There is a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can get multiple devices. Apple Carplay and Android Auto are standard in every single Sportage that you choose. So, you already have multiple choices of information that you can project onto this screen. And then, the gauge cluster in front of you can be either used from the infotainment system or you can use it from the steering wheel. And you can get Adaptive Cruise Control, or you can use your different modes. They have Driver Attention System inside this vehicle to make sure that I’m paying attention to the road. There’s an Auto Stop/Start System in this vehicle that can save you between three and ten percent on gas depending on how much city driving and how much highway driving that you do in the vehicle. You can also get lots of different choices of how you program your vehicle. So, there are so many in-depth menus here to choose from.

Now let’s talk about how it drives. There’s great acceleration. This is the regular four-cylinder gas. There is a Turbo Hybrid and a Turbo Plug-in Hybrid version available. Steering is great, and the driving is perfect in this vehicle. If you want to go for the hybrid, you’ll find a little bit of a more dynamic drive. And the plug-in hybrid, which will come a little bit later in the fall of 2022. The gas vehicle itself is a great drive in itself. You’ll see some of the steering and fuel economy numbers. You’ll find that the suspension, we’ll just try to do a bit of speed bumps here, is actually much better. It gains about 1.5 inches of ground clearance. And if you actually want to get more ground clearance and more off-roading you’ll go for the X-Line version. And still more off-roading capability? You want to go for the X-Line Pro version. And the X-Line Pro does something specifically different and that is more off-roading capability. There is a front-wheel drive and a four-wheel drive version of this vehicle, and of course, the gas consumption changes with both of those vehicles.

Now let me talk a little bit about the trim on the inside of this vehicle. You do have the option of a 360-degree camera, depending on what trim level you get. The trim is really nicely done on the inside of this vehicle. First of all, there are soft-touch finishes everywhere. There is a wood-style finish throughout the interior. There is some piano black. They took the inspiration of modern furniture on the inside to really decide how this trim actually looked. There are matte black finishes around everything, and then the aluminum style finishes on all the door handles and some of the surrounds on the steering wheel. The steering wheel is this nice three-spoke with the Kia logo in the middle. There’s a lot of fit and finish on everything here that is a combination around the air vents. And you’ll see everything is a flowing line from the center console all the way out.

Everything is kind of thin in the way it finishes. The wood and everything from the HVAC controls all come out from the center stack and go across the middle portion of the vehicle. And it’s a very clean, modern design with center stitching. And you can upgrade the sound system depending on how much sound system you want to pay for. And also depending on what trim level you’re looking for. And the off-road trim level that on the inside is the X-Line. And again, more rugged, and you’ll look at rubber floor mats depending on what kind of trim line you’re looking for. An X-Line trim that is the rubber floor mats that you can take out and hose out after you get your outdoor adventure finished.

The first thing we notice when we look at the 2023 Kia Sportage is not just the tiger nose grille, but the whole front end of the vehicle has become the tiger. That is what they’ve done with the design of this vehicle. So now we have this sort of tiger eye at the front end of the vehicle, and then the whole sort of nose portion has become the grille. Now it has a very unique front-end grille which is in this nice gloss black version. Below that is another portion of the grille and then above a very sort of thin black line. It’s quite a complicated front-end version of the vehicle. It has very unique daytime running lights, which are this almost check mark, and then the headlights sit on the inside of that.

So, let’s walk around the side and look at some of the things on this vehicle. They have brand new wheels on the new Sportage. And this is the X-Line version, the special masculine sort of aggressive off-road version of the new Sportage. They have specially developed tires which give you a little bit more traction for off-roading, especially in the X-Line Pro version, and that gives you the ability to do a bit more aggressive off-roading. I took this vehicle when it was first launched into the deserts in California and did some aggressive off-roading that the competition definitely can’t do.

So, we have black mirror cams with LED signals in them; monochromatic door handles; we have some cladding with a little bit of silver on the bottom of the vehicle, nicely-shaped body lines. We have black around the doors. The B-pillars are black, and then we have this nice, swooshing lines which come together at the back, really nice diamond piece of design here on the C-pillar, and it all comes together with this aero spoiler. Now don’t miss the fact that this X-Line has its own roof rails as well in black.

Now when you get to the back here, everything comes together with those lights, with that black line, the big key logo in the back, and you can see this piece of cladding which goes all the way across the back has the number plate right in the middle there. This is to stop all of those rocks and that mud hitting the back of the vehicle and doing any damage. That aero spoiler which has the third brake light embedded in it, actually houses the windshield wiper at the back. Come to the inside and the back here, you just press the button, open the back here, huge amount of space at the back here. Thirty-nine cubic feet of space, but there’s also a second storage area under here which has the spare tire in. That’s a great place to store your valuables when you get out on the trail as well. So, tons of space in the back of the vehicle here.

The Sportage is only a two-row vehicle. If you’re looking for a three-row, you’ll need to step it up to the Sorento, which is Kia’s three-row vehicle. Everything back here is cleverly packaged with a huge 41 inches, which is, by the way, class-leading in this vehicle of leg room. You’ll find that there is a lot of hidden space back here. On the back of the headrest, there is a very clever space here for either something like an iPad or a hook for a bag. At the back here, you’ll find a hook and a map pocket at the back of both seats as well. Now, if you’re looking for the USB charger that’s cleverly hidden in the side of the front seats. Now there is air vents and a clever little pocket in the middle of both seats at the back of the center console for both driver and passenger. There is so much room at the front of the back seat passengers that there are approximately 16 inches between the backseat passengers and the front of the seat in front of them. If you pull down the center seat here, you’ll find two cup holders in the back.

If you’d like to put a 2023 Kia Sportage in your driveway, contact Dick Hannah Kia on the phone, by the internet, or come down to Dick Hannah Kia in Vancouver, and this could be sitting in your driveway in the future.