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Our starting point: The Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton.
(Photo by Neil Dunlop)
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The Sportage performed quite well on a rutted logging road in the bush near Wells Grey National Park in the British Columbia interior.
(Photo by Neil Dunlop)
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A small herd of bighorn sheep in Jasper National Park ended our animal-sighting drought.
(Photo by Neil Dunlop)
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Ho, hum, just another beautiful vista in Alberta's Jasper National Park.
(Photo by Neil Dunlop)
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Road Test: Follow-Up Test
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Follow-Up Test: 2001 Kia Sportage
Rocky Mountain Runabout
By
Neil Dunlop
Date posted: 12-14-2000
It is a confirmed truth that when you're looking for animals on the road you'll never find them. Any time I have visited what I was told is a prime deer, moose or bear viewing spot, I have had to drum up false excitement about a particularly busy chipmunk or vocal crow. It's never much of a substitute.
That's what I was afraid was going to happen on a recent trip across British Columbia. I wanted to see a grizzly, but I was sure I wouldn't see so much as a field mouse because I wanted it too badly. Animals can sense your level of desire and they stay in hiding just to spite you.
I was part of a group of four journalists traveling more than 750 miles from Edmonton, Alberta, to Vancouver, British Columbia, in a couple of 2001 Kia Sportage 4X4s. The pint-sized sport-utes had already come quite a distance. Clear across Canada from St. John's, Newfoundland, to be exact. The Kias were being driven through Canada's 10 provinces as part of a special Kia-sponsored project, called 10 Roads to Discover, to determine the Sportage's road-worthiness and to see Canada along the way. I joined the last leg of the journey and, arguably, the most beautiful in terms of the spectacular scenery offered by the Rocky Mountains, which we would have to traverse to get to our final destination.
Outside of Alberta's Legislature Building in Edmonton, our starting point, I settled into the Kia's cloth-covered bucket seats. I was worried that the chairs, which could only be reclined and moved fore and aft, would not have enough adjustment to prove comfortable over the long haul. Happily, I found a lumbar adjustment (on the driver's seat only) and maxxed it out. In several other mini sport-utility vehicles, or sport cutes, the small interior doesn't allow for a seat large enough to support big people for long trips. However, despite the lack of adjustment options and a fairly compact seat, the Sportage proved comfy for the duration. This is no small feat considering our second day involved 14 hours straight in the vehicles.
Though Spartan, the interior of the Sportage is quite serviceable. It's not luxurious, but what do you want for $21,000? The base Sportage is $16,795, but our vehicles were the up-market EX models ($19,095) which include cruise control; air conditioning; power windows, mirrors and locks; a leather-wrapped steering wheel; faux wood interior trim; a roof rack; privacy glass; alloy wheels; two-tone bodyside cladding and a six-speaker audio system with CD. In addition, both were equipped with the optional four-speed automatic transmission ($1,000) and optional four-wheel ABS ($490), and one was outfitted with leather seats ($900) and keyless remote locks ($225). For our journey, each was also rigged with aftermarket fog lamps, underbody skid plates and nifty roof beacons, which, sadly, I was able to use only once while we traversed the mile-high Trepanege Plateau near Kelowna during the worst fog I've ever experienced.
Coffee, especially low-fat lattes, kept us sane when the road was dull. Use of the cupholder, however, revealed an irksome interior quirk. When the cupholder is extended it blocks the digital clock and the climate controls, so that if you want to use either you must remove your cups. For an intended convenience item, the cupholders are inconvenient. Another annoyance is the lack of a remote hatch release. If you want to get in the rear cargo area, you must unlock the gate with a key. For a vehicle that is supposed to be used for sport and utility, awkward access to the cargo area is unacceptable.
The audio system is quite good, much to the chagrin of the driver in the other vehicle who was subjected to endless country music discs by his passenger. He envied the jazz and alternative rock we kept pumping through our truck. In places, it was necessary to jack the volume beyond doctor-recommended levels to overcome the noise of the Mazda-based 2.0-liter four-banger buzzing in the engine bay. To be fair, asking the Sportage, with its diminutive powerplant, to climb and descend roads in the Rocky Mountains is not a legitimate test of its intended function. During a gas stop, a woman in a V8 Ford F-150 assessed the situation perfectly. "That's not a car for the mountains. It's fine for downtown Vancouver, but for hills you need this baby here," she said while lovingly patting her dashboard.
Generating only 130 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 127 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000, the Sportage is somewhat of a weakling. Takeoffs are slow and there's no real sweet spot to the power band. Loaded with gear and passengers, it's wise to leave extra room for merging and passing. We had a few white-knuckle moments even when we thought we were being prudent. Of course, the trade-off is great gas mileage. Kia estimates the Sportage fuel consumption at 21 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. Good economy to be sure. We drove fairly aggressively through the mountains and averaged 23 mpg.
During our search for the lost roads of Canada's west, we managed to test the four-wheel drive and suspension system. The two-speed on-the-fly transfer case shifts easily and surely into four-wheeling mode. The Sportage's ladder-frame chassis construction provides adequate torsional stiffness and the double-wishbone front suspension and four-link rear suspension combine to provide a ride and handling balance that is neither too soft nor too rigid. While you won't rave that the Sportage is a rock hound, you won't complain that it's a marshmallow either. We had no trouble navigating a couple of rock-strewn, muddy logging roads, but with only 130 horsepower, meager torque, 15-inch wheels and just under 8 inches of clearance, serious off-roading is inadvisable. The four-wheel drive is best used to get extra traction on snowy or otherwise slippery roads, not for crossing the Rubicon.
By the time we climbed out of the Sportage in downtown Vancouver we were impressed with its cheerful, bright interior, good visibility, handsome design and pleasant ride. However, after two days of ascending and descending the Rockies with the buzzy four-cylinder engine, we longed for the throaty note of a powerful V8. But that's not so much the Kia's fault as it is ours for perhaps expecting too much.
We did see animals by the way: bighorn sheep. A small herd of the curly-horned ungulates were peacefully feeding on the side of the Yellowhead highway in northwestern Alberta's Jasper National Park. The backdrop of the jagged Rockies made for a spectacular scene. But I didn't see a grizzly and I really wanted to see a grizzly.
You and I both know they were hiding behind the trees, snickering, as I motored past.
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