The Kia Sportage has gone a long journey from a cheap off-road vehicle to a serious contender in the compact SUV segment.
And the third generation was its big breakthrough.

In 2006, the designer of the Audi TT, Peter Schreyer, took the challenge to lead the design team of the Korean car-manufacturer Kia and the 2010 Sportage was the third model designed by him. Some of its cues were seen before on the Kia Kue concept-car in 2007.

The angled headlights and the grille with a bump on top and bottom were introduced as the “Tiger nose”, the corporate grille introduced by its lead-designer. It didn’t look like a station-wagon on stilts but more like a proper SUV with streamlined bodywork. The angular lines blended into an overall rounded shape was very appreciated by the customers.

Since the platform was designed for such vehicles, it offered enough room for five passengers and a big trunk. The infotainment system knew how to read MP3s files from a USB stick and it also had an AUX-in connection. Those features were not very common for many other cars on the road. Another unusual feature was a small LCD color-display inside the rearview mirror that showed images from the backup camera.

The 2010 Sportage featured a wide range of engines and three types of transmission. It was available as a 2WD or all-wheel-drive model. For base models, the standard gearbox was a 5-speed, while on others was the 6-speed manual or, as an option, a 6-speed automatic.