2018 Kia Sportage vs Mazda CX-5

What's the difference?

The Sportage is a clear example of why people are picking SUVs over hatchbacks. 

The equipment levels and the notable bump in practicality are real boosts to the appeal and, although the Sportage SLi is a tad pricey compared to some competitors, it nails the look and feel most couples or small families are looking for.

While the SLi is our pick of the range, keep in mind there are strong rivals in this crowded price bracket that can offer all-wheel drive, a more comprehensive safety suite or are slightly more practical. So your SUV choice will largely fall to which features are more important to you.

The CX-5 GT is a triumph of style and substance. The range is generally a tremendous value-for-money line-up and this upper-echelon offering is no different because a GT buyer will want for nothing – except perhaps Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and if we can live without those, you can too. More of a city-friendly SUV than a rough-and-ready off-roader, the GT is still capable of getting you to where you want to go, as long as you have a realistic notion of AWD-suitable terrain: think formed trails, well-maintained National Parks tracks and perhaps even, at a stretch, very firm sand.

Is the CX-5 a legitimate Adventure vehicle, or should it stay in the suburbs? Tell us what you think the comments below.

If you stare for too long into the Sportage’s insectoid face, you might be forgiven for seeing a touch of Porsche influence. It’s those light clusters that ride on top of the bonnet rather than integrating into the front, and the rear LED light housing that runs horizontally across the back of the boot.

Bold design choices, but they really help to give the Sportage its own personality. It looks nothing like other SUVs, whether you compare it to the delicate lines of the CX-5 or the wacky angles of the CR-V.

The giant alloys are more attractive than the ones available on the previous-generation Sportage, but the chrome bar that integrates into the fog light housings does nothing for the whole bug-like look. 

I pointed it out to a friend who agreed they look like little mandibles with which the Sportage feeds… creepy, but less boring when compared to the pre-facelift model.

Inside is where the SLi starts to set itself apart from the lower grades. The powered leather seats are nice and comfortable and offer an ergonomic seating position that’s not too high up.

Smart little design bits like the asymmetrical centre console that increases knee space for the driver have been carried over from the last Sportage, as well as soft-touch surfaces in tactical positions.

On the negative side, having an 8.0-inch screen embedded in the top of the dash is starting to look a bit dated, and the abundance of similarly-coloured plastics makes it all a little boring to look at.

Another thing I noticed about the Sportage was the solid build quality. All the doors including the boot had a hefty amount of weight and a thick thudding sound when closed. Remember when that was just a European car trope?

People who know me, know that I put more stock in what’s under the bonnet than appearance but, having said that, I am still capable of appreciating attractive things. The previous version of the CX-5 looked good; this new one looks damn good. Everything is simply neater, sleeker and more streamlined than before, inside and outside.

Fit and finish is tighter and all materials and designs complement, rather than clash with, each other. That bright white leather – adding a real overall touch of class – doesn’t hurt either.

This CX-5 looks and feels like it sits more comfortably in the realm of sports cars than that of family-friendly SUVs – but I spend zero time in sport cars, so what do I know?

Kia shares much of the same philosophy with sister brand, Hyundai, when it comes to cabin storage. It’s smart, and there’s plenty of it.

The nicely-sized centre console has two big cupholders to the side, a deep centre box and a large stowage area underneath the air conditioning controls. Much like Hyundai’s range, the storage available in the doors is purpose built for large bottles (even 1.25 litre vessels aren't out of the question). 

In the back seat, the Sportage continues to shine with ample leg and headroom (an SUV selling point over a hatchback) as well as rear air conditioning vents, and two power outlets. Extra rear-seat luxuries include neat little cargo nets on the back of both front seats, as well as a drop-down armrest with two more cupholders.

Room is such that the middle seat would even be decent for an adult.

Boot space with the seats up is 466 litres. So yes, it’s bigger than a hatchback, most of which top out at around 395 litres. It’s also bigger than the CX-5’s 442L capacity, but is dwarfed by the Honda CR-V with its 522 litre capacity.

On our trip the boot managed to swallow a four-man tent, sufficient supplies for at least two nights of camping, as well as some chairs and recreational items. It was a snug fit. 

This is partially due to the high boot floor which is there to accommodate a full-size alloy spare. This is standard across the whole Sportage range, and allowed for peace of mind when driving those unsealed roads… 

From the front to the back everything is pretty well suited for day-to-day life.

There is ample room for driver and passenger up front with electric adjustment for those forward pews.

Second-row travellers also get stacks of leg and headroom and the driver seat goes nowhere near encroaching on space behind. When it comes time to collapse those second-row seats, it is a 40/20/40 split.

Storage solutions include a space for phones and loose change in front of the shifter, four cupholders (two up front and a pair in the second-row centre arm-rest), and a bottle-recess in each door. Annoyingly, there are two USB ports in the glovebox, which is deep enough for a dog to sit in (only joking!), so it is difficult for the driver to readily access those as a charging point.

There are air vents for both rows.

Down the back, cargo space is 442 litres with the second row up; and 1342 litres with that row flat.

Our review vehicle – an upper-spec Mazda CX-5 GT AWD diesel – had a manufacturer listed price of $47,390 at standard spec, but ours also had Soul Red paint ($300) and optional front and rear floor mats at a cost of $187.02. There is a stack of gear for the price as standard including keyless entry and start, a 7.0-inch touchscreen (with Mazda’s MZD Connect multimedia system but no Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), satnav, reversing camera,  front and rear parking sensors, head-up display, cruise control, a 10-speaker Bose stereo, dual-zone climate control, electric front seats, white leather trim, auto wipers, powered and heated folding mirrors, power windows, a sunroof, electric tailgate, 19-inch alloy wheels and a space-saver spare tyre (tucked under the cargo floor). There’s also active automatic LED headlights, LED foglight and plenty of active and passive driver aids.

The 2.0-litre petrol engine in our SLi produces 114kW/192Nm. Those numbers aren’t bad, but in reality leave you wishing for just a smidge more oomph once you’ve hit peak torque at 4000rpm. This is especially true with the car loaded up with three passengers and a bunch of camping gear.

Kia has pulled a bit of a sneaky here and made the larger 2.4-litre petrol with 135kW/237Nm available on the top spec GT-Line, only at an $8000 premium. It’s exactly the power bump you’d need, but perhaps not worth the significant extra cost.

For those who don’t mind diesel, you can get your torque fix via an optional 2.0-litre diesel (that’s also AWD only) on the SLi at a $5400 cost. It has a whopping 400Nm of torque.

The SLi drives the front wheels via a six-speed traditional torque converter auto.

The GT has a 2.2-litre SkyActiv diesel engine – producing 129kW@4500rpm and a chunky 420Nm@2000rpm – matched to a six-speed automatic transmission. No complaints about this pairing.

Unsurprisingly, asking a 2.0-litre non-turbo petrol engine to haul a 1532kg SUV comes at a bit of a fuel cost compared to a turbocharged alternative. 

Kia claims the 2.0-litre Sportage variants will drink 7.9L/100km on the combined cycle. Not great, but not bad. 

On my week-long drive over almost two tanks of fuel I landed on a figure of 9.2L/100km. It’s a little over Kia’s figure, but given I asked a lot of the free-revving little engine I was pleasantly surprised it was less than 10.0L/100km.

All petrol Sportage variants happily drink 91RON unleaded and have 62 litre fuel tanks.

We recorded 8.3L/100km for about 160km of daily driving (country, suburban, city and freeway) and 8.7L/100km for 150km of AWD-appropriate touring (including a substantial amount of dirt-road driving). The CX-5 has a 58-litre fuel tank

The local engineering edge to the Sportage pays dividends. It’s a pleasure to commute along Australian roads and was pretty impressive on the unsealed stuff.

While it doesn’t quite achieve Volkswagen levels of suspension wizardry, the Korean automaker has relied on German expertise (via ZF Sachs dampers) when it comes to the ride.

The result is a close to giant hatchback ride and drive experience, without some of the nastier surprises that often come with extra weight.

It’s not as soft as the CR-V, but not as stiff as the CX-5, and I think that’s a good middle-ground. Reasonably heavy steering adds a bit of sporty flair, but that’s becoming more common on today’s Korean and Japanese SUVs.

I was expecting the Sportage to become rattled on the unsealed part of my journey, but it stuck to the ground and (laterally and horizontally) coped well with rutted dirt.

I put this down to the large rubber and suspension improvements but will concede the extra weight of three people and equipment on board probably helped.

As mentioned in the engine and transmission part of this review, the 2.0-litre engine could use more power to go with the well sorted road feel. It revs hard, but leaves you wanting more, especially up hills. 

Around town though, it’s responsive and smooth, if a tad noisy. The six-speed torque converter auto is near-unnoticeable. 

This CX-5 is 4550mm long, 1840mm wide, 1675mm high has a claimed kerb weight of 1744kg and an 11.2m turning circle. It feels low and long – even though it’s not really – and is rock-steady to drive, at any speed.

This CX-5 never feels like anything but a supremely well put-together unit and that makes for a smooth driving experience. Steering is light at the right time and takes on a real weight when you need it to; the 2.2-litre engine is eager and works well off changes in the six-speed auto.

It’s better suited to open-road cruising, than stop-start city driving as it tends to lag off the mark when you actually need it to swiftly budge.

Mazda reckons its staff have worked hard to make the current CX-5’s NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) levels much better than those in the previous model, but we’d never noticed anything in that earlier thing, and nothing in this latest model, so we have to take their word for it.

The GT is on 19-inch alloys, shod with Toyo Proxes R46 rubber.

The CX-5 has a five-star ANCAP safety rating, as a result of testing conducted in September 2017. It has six airbags, ABS, reversing camera, blind-spot monitoring, reverse cross-traffic alert, front and rear auto emergency braking and more. It has two ISOFIX and three top-tether points.

Kia’s seven year/unlimited kilometre warranty as always outshines most rivals who have only just updated to five-year unlimited kilometre warranties.

The service schedule isn’t too demanding either, with the SUV requiring attention once a year or every 15,000km, whichever comes first.

Service prices are capped, but vary from $252 for the first service, to $604 for the fourth service.

Mazda offers a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty on the CX-5; capped price servicing is included. The servicing schedule is set at six months/10,000km and will cost from $317 to $387.