The previous Sportage wasn’t a pretty sight. So Kia approached its successor with a clean sheet of paper – and, as Paul Guinness reports, the end result is impressive.

With this, the third-generation Sportage, Kia has really pulled out the stops. For a start, this is the first model from the Korean maker to have been styled from scratch by former Audi designer Peter Schreyer – and that means it’s a shape that’s bold, distinctive and up-to-the-minute. From its sleek front end through to its upright rump – plus the rearward slant of the two back doors – everything about the new Sportage says ‘stylish’ and ‘modern’.

Its role in life is, of course, to give Kia a healthy share of the compact-crossover market, effectively created by the Nissan Qashqai a few years back. And with the full range of Sportages about to go on sale, there’s an array of different versions – ranging in price from £16,645 to £26,170, and with a choice of four engines (two petrols, two diesels). The range is split into three trim levels, simply called ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’, with all-wheel-drive available on the ‘2’ and ‘3’ versions, badged as the KX2 and KX3 to differentiate them from the two-wheel drive models.

To launch the Sportage, though, Kia imported a limited number of First Edition versions, and it’s this – powered by the 134bhp, 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine – that we’ve been trying out. And it gets off to a good start, with Kia quoting a top speed of 112mph, hitting 62mph in less than eleven seconds. But it’s the way the Sportage feels that really impresses; in everyday use, it seems surprisingly rapid, with plenty of midrange ‘oomph’ for safe overtaking. And with 236lb.ft. of torque on offer, it pulls well from low revs.

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