Kia Sportage Sportage, SL

The ix35 with sharper bodywork and usually more equipment for the money. It shares its engines, its gearboxes and its faults with the Hyundai, which is the whole argument.

Overview

The SL is the crossover Kia Sportage, built 2010–2016 and facelifted in 2014. 2 standard engines are documented here, each with its own issue list, inspection sequence and price band. Asking prices across the standard range run €5,800–€16,900, and 0 of the 2 carry a risk level of 4 or 5; the facelift cars sit at a premium over otherwise identical pre-facelift ones. The 1.7 CRDi D4FD is both the cheapest way in, from €7,500, and the lowest-risk engine of the range, which makes it the obvious starting point. Prices are illustrative placeholders rather than a sourced market sample. See the methodology.

Body stylecrossoverProduction2010–2016
Platform siblingssold in this body onlyFacelift (LCI)2014
What changed at the 2014 facelift
New grille and lights; Revised suspension tune; Equipment upgrades. The engine changes are the ones that matter, a car built in the changeover year can carry either engine, so check the engine code on the block rather than the registration date.

Engine matrix: pre-facelift, 20102013

The 2 variants sold before the 2014 facelift. Power and years come from the variant records; prices are illustrative, not sourced.

2 of 2
BadgeEngineFuelYearsPowerTorqueRiskIssuesPrice bandGood buyVerdict
1.7 CRDiD4FDdiesel20102013115 PS260 NmR23€5,800€14,000€7,500BuyView
2.0 CRDiD4HAdiesel20102013136 PS320 NmR33€6,800€15,500€8,650BuyView

Engine matrix: facelift / LCI, 20142016

The 2 variants sold from the facelift on, priced at a 9% premium over the pre-facelift car.

2 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.

2 of 2
BadgeEngineFuelYearsPowerTorqueRiskIssuesPrice bandGood buyVerdict
1.7 CRDiD4FDdiesel20142016115 PS260 NmR23€6,300€15,250€8,200BuyView
2.0 CRDiD4HAdiesel20142016136 PS320 NmR33€7,400€16,900€9,450BuyView

Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →

Model-year availability

Which engines were on sale in which year, from the year ranges in the variant records. Availability varied by country.

Variant10111213141516
1.7 CRDi D4FD
2.0 CRDi D4HA

● full year · arrives or leaves mid-generation. Years from 2014 in the accent colour are facelift (LCI) cars. Verify the engine code, not the model year.

Rating map, price against risk

Good-buy price plotted against risk level for every standard engine, so the value corner is visible at a glance.

Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.

cheap · low risk€7.5k€8k€8.5kR1R2R3R4R5good-buy price →risk ↓1.7 CRDi D4FD: Buy, risk 2, good buy €7,5001.7 CRDi2.0 CRDi D4HA: Buy, risk 3, good buy €8,6502.0 CRDi
Buy / strong buy Buy with conditions Caution / avoidLeft is cheaper, up is safer. The top-left corner is where the value is.

Prices across the range

Where the money sits across the whole chassis. Every figure here is an illustrative placeholder, not a sourced market sample.

Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. GT cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.

Cheapest good buy€7,5001.7 CRDi D4FD
Median good buy€8,650across 2 engines
Dearest good buy€8,6502.0 CRDi D4HA
Full range€5,800€16,900P10 to P90

Every standard engine · cheapest first · 1.7 CRDi D4FD highlighted as best value

€10k€15kGood buy
1.7 CRDi D4FD€7,5002.0 CRDi D4HA€8,650

at or under the good buy · good buy · median · bar spans the 10th–90th percentile

Chassis-wide issues, every engine inherits these

Faults recorded against the bodyshell and running gear rather than one engine, so every variant on this page inherits them.

Panoramic roof drains and boot waterSportage platform€100–€600
Damp headlining, water marks down the A-pillar trim, or standing water in the spare wheel well. The roof drain tubes block with debris and the water backs up into the cabin. Boot water usually comes from the tailgate light seals instead, and the two get confused because the symptom looks the same.
Check: Lift the boot floor and feel the spare wheel well, then check the headlining around the front pillars for staining. Both checks take a minute and they catch the fault before it reaches the electrics.
Body & corrosioncommonDetectable at viewingevidence: documented70160k km

Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 2 times: GT cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.

Buying summary

Our read on the chassis, built on the records above rather than added to them.

Best value: 1.7 CRDi, the same engine as the ix35 and just as undemanding. The seven-year warranty means the records are usually complete, so a car with gaps is worth questioning. Check the panoramic roof drains and the boot floor for damp, since it's the same body issue as its twin. So confirm the four-wheel-drive system engages on any car so equipped, and read the filter history on every diesel.

Cheapest and dearest in this chassis

The ends of the range by good-buy price. Useful for sanity-checking anything you're quoted.

Lowest entry price

1.7 CRDi D4FD : from €5,800, risk 2

2.0 CRDi D4HA : from €6,800, risk 3

Lowest risk

1.7 CRDi D4FD : risk 2, good buy at €7,500

2.0 CRDi D4HA : risk 3, good buy at €8,650