Interior Design and Special Features

Step inside the 2010 Kia Sportage and you'll find a pleasing interior with seating for up to five passengers. Build quality and materials are also generally good, with the exception of a few cheap-feeling knobs and switches.

Up front, the Sportage offers head- and legroom on par with most of its competitors. The 60/40-split rear seat offers slightly less legroom, however, making it a bit of a tight squeeze for larger adults.

That split-folding rear seat design makes schlepping stuff easy. In passenger mode there are 23.6 cubic feet of cargo room behind the rear seats, while folding them forward creates a nice flat load floor with a total of 66.6 cubic feet of space. While those numbers are respectable enough, both fall a tad short of the category leaders.

    See also:

    Manual transaxle
    Manual transaxle operation The manual transaxle has five forward gears. Press the clutch pedal down fully while shifting, then release it slowly. A special safety feature prevents inadvertent ...

    Lubricants and fluids
    Checking the washer fluid level The reservoir is translucent so that you can check the level with a quick visual inspection. Check the fluid level in the washer fluid reservoir and add fluid i ...

    Achieving maximum protection through 'passive' technology
    The new Kia Sportage has been designed to score a 5-Star rating in Euro NCAP's crash tests and maximum scores in the USA's two crash test programmes. The all-new platform and bodyshell employs a m ...