Hey, welcome back.
I'm Keith Barry.
I'm Emily Thomas.
And I'm Mike Quincy.
And today we're talking about a car
that we just bought, that we just
bought for our test program.
And it's an interesting one.
It is the 2023 Kia Sportage.
It's a compact SUV.
It's sort of the sibling to the Hyundai Tucson.
Ours, the one that we bought, is a mid-range EX all-wheel drive.
It cost us about $31,000 which is a lot less
than the average new car and we didn't
have to pay a markup on it.
And the Sportage has been redesigned for 2023.
There are three new trim levels that
are all about looking rugged and being adventure-focused.
There's the XLine, the X-Pro, and the X-Pro Prestige,
and they have blackout wheels and fog
lights and all-terrain tires, but the other LX, EX,
SX Prestige are also around.
It's longer than the old Sportage, 7.1 inches longer,
and all-wheel drive versions get a teensy bit more ground
clearance.
Now the new model did get a price bump.
So it's about it's more than $1,000 more for the base model,
but do we still think that this is an affordable vehicle?
I mean it starts under $30,000, and a really well-equipped one
that we just bought it's just 31.
Quincy, is this an affordable family car?
Well I guess in the broad scope of things, I suppose it is.
But just but just in terms of looking
at the average price of a new car, which is about $46,000,
which is still it's still crazy to me
that an average car costs that much money.
But the problem with-- it really isn't so much as whether or not
the Sportage is necessarily affordable,
but it's what Kia and Hyundai are really
doing right now in terms of their own retail space.
We have this great story on ConsumerReports.org.
It's called "The Worst Deals On New Cars Right Now"
and it's absolutely dominated by models from Hyundai and Kia.
I mean, the Kia Telluride is 21% over MSRP.
The Kia Forte and Sorento are 20% over MSRP.
The Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, Kia Seltos, and Kia Carnival
are 19% over MSRP, and the Kia K5 is 18% over MSRP.
I mean, what are Kia and Hyundai you're selling right now,
fresh donuts?
What the heck?
I think it's interesting though that the price went up
on the Sportage and they repriced it
and we didn't have to pay over MSRP.
So maybe it's just that the industry
is sort of shaking itself out.
But that's good news for Kia and Hyundai, right?
These are good cars that people are
willing to pay more than what they're asking for them, right?
Well, it does say something, especially
in terms of the Kia Telluride which is absolutely
breaking records not only in sales but in Consumer Reports'
own testing.
It's not that necessarily that we put this vehicle on the map.
But since it's got--
We kind of did.
Exactly, Emily.
But I mean, since then, they can't keep them in stock,
and it's really turned out to be a really good vehicle,
really good reliability, and easy to recommend.
But as we've talked about in other Talking Cars Podcasts,
just buying one or buying just about anything right now
can be a real challenge.
Yeah.
Now Emily, is there a reason why you would maybe just
want to stick with one of the lower trim lines on this?
Are you gaining or losing anything
by getting the more affordable version?
So with Kia and Hyundai, one of the great things
is that even their base models often
come standard equipped with a lot of safety systems
that typically with other brands, even luxury brands,
you would have to pay extra for.
So for example, with the base trim of the Sportage
you get automatic emergency braking with pedestrian
and cyclist detection, you get lane
following assist, lane keeping assist, lane departure warning.
If you want the additional features of blind spot
warning, rear cross traffic alert, their safe exit assist,
you only have to go up one trim line, which
is about $2000 more, which is not that bad.
So the trim line that we got, the EX,
which is like the second up from the bottom,
gives you all of this great standard safety equipment.
Another system that comes standard on it
is their rear occupant alert, the one that's
based on their door-logic, so it provides you
with a reminder at the end of the trip
to check your back seats, and new to the 2023 Kia Sportage,
which I'm super pumped about because I've
been waiting for Kia to finally do this is a rear belt-minor.
Yay.
Everybody do dance.
So that's the thing that tells you
if your car takes off the seat belt while in the back seat
and tries to--
Yeah, so any rear occupant unbuckles
during the course of the trip, you
get an alert in the driver cluster
which is great because rear belt usage is
a lot lower than front belt usage and your seat belt
is your first line of defense in any crash.
So it's super important.
I'm really excited they finally put that
on, and another great system to have
a standard equipment for a base trim.
So safety-wise, you really get a lot of bang for your buck,
when even purchasing one of the lower trim lines from Kia.
So yeah, that's great.
And the other thing is I look at this list
of the features in the window sticker of our EX, which again,
bread and butter vehicle.
When we buy a car to test its CR,
we buy the version that most people are going to buy,
not the super stripped down or the super loaded version.
It isn't just safety features, there's other stuff too.
You get heated seats and a heated steering wheel,
you get an upgraded infotainment system,
you get automatic wipers, you get a wireless charger.
You don't get adaptive cruise control,
you don't get wireless CarPlay or wireless Android Auto,
but still, I mean you get USB ports in the seats in the back.
Now we've all driven this vehicle.
Quince, I'll start with you.
What do you think behind the wheel?
I mean, is that where things fall apart,
or is it still just riding high here?
Well no.
It's always a mixture of good news and bad news.
One of the things that Hyundai and Kia seems to be doing,
actually mostly Kia, is they have this switchable touch
panel for the climate and the infotainment system.
It's carried over from the EV6 which we've already
had a lot of experience with.
It's really tedious to use.
I'm looking at the digital logbook and just
about everyone is kind of thrown off by this at first
because it defaults to the climate system, first of all.
And if you go to like tune the radio or adjust the volume,
you've got these rotary knobs, but you're
adjusting the climate system and you
have to see the little arrow, the up-down arrow, and hit
that to get into the audio,
I mean, it's a really odd design,
it can't be about saving space or anything like that.
Listen, we've always been happy that car-makers are giving us
rotary knobs for volume and tuning
and climate and all that stuff, but to have
them kind of do double duty in this case is confounding to me.
I know we'll get used to it if you drove it every day,
you'd get used to it, and here at Consumer Reports,
we're always driving different cars,
so it kind of keeps our experience fresh.
But overall, this car has some decent space,
it has a really usable backseat, good visibility,
driving it is not very exciting, I suppose.
The steering is reasonably responsive, but not sporty.
The engine has adequate power but it gets a little bit noisy.
The delivery isn't as smooth or as consistent
as maybe you'd think.
So it's kind of--
We talked about is this an affordable car?
This is maybe, we think of this as kind of a real mainstream
car.
It's not super sporty, not super luxurious,
but it's probably more than adequate for a lot of people.
Yeah, Emily I remember you talking about the Tucson,
which this shares a lot with when
you drove the non-hybrid Tucson and then the hybrid Tucson
and just, the get up and go was not there.
Yeah, the Sportage kind of reminded me
of driving the Tucson where you're
kind of waiting for that initial power delivery when
you're getting off the line.
It comes in gradually but it's not there's not a lot of oomph
there.
But when I drove the Tucson hybrid because
of the electric component, you do get that initial power
delivery which is a lot smoother and I enjoy that a lot more.
I did not really enjoy driving the Tucson
and so when I got a chance to drive the Tucson hybrid
I was way more happy about it which was great.
So the Kia Sportage was OK.
I took it around the handling course
and I'm not Ryan or Joe so I wasn't taking it fast
around the bends or anything, but even still it
didn't feel as steady as some of the other vehicles
that I've taken around the course before.
And like Quincy said, the back seat is pretty comfortable.
You have decent fore-aft room back there.
The cargo space is really good, which
I think is great because when I think of the Sportage,
I think that it's more of a family vehicle,
and so for people that have kids or taking
their kids to practices and stuff like that,
you have plenty of room for all your kids'
gear, your groceries, things of that nature, which
would be great for like the day to day kind of things
that you need to do.
But like Quince said, it's not exciting
but it certainly does its function.
You know, it's great for what you need to do,
which is transporting you and your lifestyle so.
Keith, I know that you and I are big fans of hybrid models
when you have a choice of a regular or a hybrid.
You and I are always like get the hybrid, get the hybrid.
So we're kind of seeing this pattern here
with the Tucson versus the Tucson hybrid.
We have experience with the Santa Fe versus the Santa Fe
hybrid.
You know, it seems like everything Emily is saying
and I agree.
The hybrid version really almost always seems
to be the way to go here.
And the good news is that the hybrid version is coming.
It's not here yet.
It's coming from a different factory
but it is going to arrive, and I think
it might fix a lot of those issues.
It's not going to fix--
It's not going to grow to extra rotary knobs in the center
console, but--
I don't know, maybe they'll hear us.
Maybe they'll change it.
Maybe.
I know.
It's so unfortunate.
I mean, I'm sure you get used to it.
But it's not like there isn't space.
It's a nice roomy interior.
Anyhow, we are waiting to get our full test data on it.
It's going into test very soon, the Sportage that we purchased,
it's getting its break-in miles now,
and we're going to buy the hybrid version as soon as that
comes out as well.
So we'll have some more information about it.
But I imagine that if you go to CR.org
and look at what we say about the Tucson,
it might give you a pretty good idea because I don't know
if we mentioned, this, you probably know this
if you've been longtime Talking Cars viewers,
but Kia and Hyundai share a corporate parent
so that is that's why they have so much in common.
Onto questions, we have a video question, thank you.
Video questions, send them to TalkingCars@icloud.com.
Our video question is from Theo from State College,
Pennsylvania.
As much as I do love my Volvo V60, save the wagons,
it's time to replace it in the next few years.
I'm looking at the new Acura Integra
with the six speed manual and I'm wondering
what your thoughts are on this.
I know you guys say to usually stay away
from the first one or two model years of a new car,
but I'm wondering if the new Integra is an exception because
of its relationship with the current and past generation
Civic Si and the Acura ILX.
Let me know your thoughts, thank you.
And keep on Talking Cars.
So yeah, this is an interesting one because the he's right.
And by the way, I love that V60.
I remember driving that car and I enjoyed
that generation of Volvo.
But yeah, Theo's totally right.
The Integra is basically just a version
of a car that already exists, so is it really a first year?
Quince, you talk to Anita Lam, our statistician,
and she's the one who calculates these.
What information have you have you come back with?
Well, in general, we're predicting
about an average reliability for the first year of the Integra,
and Honda and Acura are not the slam dunk for reliability
that they used to be.
I mean, they're among the most reliable brands
but even with a first-year model,
I think buyers should be a little bit cautious.
Like I said, you can't you can't just
assume that because it's from Japan,
say, that it's going to be able to knock it out of the park.
Yeah.
I would say that in this particular case
where it's sort of a limited vehicle and it's special,
and if you've already lived with an early 2000s Volvo,
I think you're probably going to be happy with the reliability
here.
So I think you're going to be OK with this, Theo.
You're obviously not the most risk-averse person
in the world.
Emily and I both laughed when you said that, by the way.
No disrespect to the Volvo lovers out there.
I've been down that road.
I mean, it's an upgrade.
Early 2000s to a 2022, 2023.
And super-producer Dave Abrams knew
you were going to be hosting, Keith, he's
like, oh let's give them a Volvo question.
Yes, we won't go down my own automotive history.
Your subtle, subtle love for old cars.
Exactly.
But the one thing that would have
made me wary about this car is if they
had put in the Acura infotainment system
with the kind of dueling touch pads, and that is just--
I dislike it and I think a lot of people a lot
of people at CR with a lot more training and education
around human factors and user experience feel the same way.
So I'm in very good company.
The good news is that Honda really went back to basics
with that Civic interior.
It's plain, it's almost like Audi five years ago
where everything is just exactly where you'd expect it
and there's that nice touchscreen
right in the middle, pretty simple,
exactly the same as the Si, is what it looks like in photos.
None of us have driven it, but at least it
appears to be that it's going to be that Honda infotainment
system.
So that's not something to worry about.
Emily, what else should he be looking at?
So it seems like wagons maybe would
be a good option for you, Theo.
So I would suggest the Subaru Crosstrek.
I really enjoyed that car.
I thought it was fun to drive and I had it
even with my kids and stuff and we took them around.
I even really liked our plug-in hybrid
except for the cargo space.
So depending on what it is that you need cargo space for,
if you just need to keep a few groceries or some small bags,
that's fine but the battery takes a lot of room back there
and so it does limit your ability to cart around stuff.
So if you have a more adventurous,
outdoorsy lifestyle that needs more room maybe not the best
option, the plug-in hybrid but you could get the regular one
and it performs well in our testing, has good reliability.
So it's kind of a win-win if you decide that the Integra is--
perhaps you should wait a little bit.
It's a tough call.
I mean, it's like, save the wagons and save the manuals.
And this has been the enthusiast's cry
for many years.
Cadillac put out some hot rod wagons
with manual transmissions and everyone oo-ed and ah-ed them
and then nobody bought them.
So Cadillacs, well there's really no market here.
But, I mean, he's obviously looking
for some kind of hatchback practicality
and I was thinking like the Volkswagen GTI,
the Toyota Corolla has a nice hatchback in the XSE version
that you can get with a manual transmission,
but really, if it's about wagons,
I'm going with the Subaru Outback.
I mean, I like Emily's pick.
It's a little smaller I think maybe
than he's used to with the Volvo,
and the Outback has done so well in Consumer Reports'
evaluations, but Keith, you're not only a Volvo fanatic,
but also kind of a wagon guy yourself, what would
you say to him?
I would say there's one thing that's
unfortunate about the Crosstrek with the manual,
the one thing is that it doesn't come with some of the safety
systems.
They haven't figured out a way to integrate
some of those safety systems in there.
But the Crosstrek with a manual does exist
and it is something to keep in mind.
I don't know.
It sounds like--
I would go with your heart here.
And the Integra, I think you're going to be fine with it.
If you like that look, if you like that kind of sedan-y sort
of--
If you like it, go for it.
I'm giving you permission.
I don't know.
Are we giving permission?
Keith says, yes, you have been blessed to get the Integra.
Go get the Integra.
Life's too short.
All right.
If you want to learn more about the Integra
or any of the other vehicles we've
talked about, head over to CR.org, we have a preview of it
there.
And if you have any questions about anything
we've talked about or anything that we've never
covered before, please send them to TalkingCars@icloud.com.
Thanks so much for joining us and we'll talk cars again soon.
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