The Best Years For The Kia Sportage, And Some To Avoid (According To Users)

As is the case with so many car manufacturers in modern times, the majority of Kia's lineup is comprised of SUVs. From the Niro to the Soul to the Sorento, Kia has an SUV in its arsenal to fit any driver's needs, and that includes a wide variety of hybrid or electric options as well. A good chunk of these vehicles have even been created in the last decade or so to fulfill the ever-growing demand for SUVs. All that being said, there is one SUV that has remained a stalwart of the Kia brand for over 30 years, and that would be the Kia Sportage.

Introduced for the 1993 model year, the Sportage has undergone a lot of changes over the years, spanning five different generations. In all this time, you might expect the Sportage to lose some of its luster, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The SUV has seen a major boost in sales in recent years, with 2023 being its highest year of sales yet, and 2024 could certainly surpass that number, too. There is clearly a hunger out there for the Kia Sportage, but not everyone is in the market for a brand-new vehicle.

Therefore, you need to go to the used market to find a Sportage. It is generally regarded as one of Kia's most reliable vehicles, but not every model year is created equal, with some needing to be avoided at all costs. It's also important to note that some 2011 to 2021 Kia models come without an immobilizer, making it easier for thieves to steal the car, which was recently trending on social media. Based on the ratings, reviews, and experiences of drivers, we have selected four model years that you should definitely look at for your next used vehicle and four that aren't worth your time.

Although there are now five generations of the Kia Sportage, we are only going to go back to the second generation of the SUV for our first recommendation of a solid model year to get on the used market. That first year would be the 2007 Sportage, the third year of this generation. The ratings from drivers from a variety of different sources are uniformly excellent. For example, the drivers on Cars.com have given this model an overall average of 4.8 out of 5 stars, which is the highest star rating on the site for this vehicle up until this point. While not quite as high as that audience, the 2007 Sportage owners on Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book have both given it an average of 4.5 stars, which is still an extremely great number. Drivers surveyed by J.D. Power are similarly positive, giving this an overall rating of 84 out of 100 with a quality and reliability score of 83.

That reliability is also shown in the amount of actual submitted issues that the 2007 Kia Sportage has accumulated. Drivers have submitted a total of 75 complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for this vehicle, and considering it has been around for nearly 20 years, that is a shockingly low number. For comparison, the previous year's model has 111 complaints. That is a pretty significant drop. Those posting their issues on CarComplaints are also few in number, with only nine being listed on the site. You pair that with it having only issued two recalls in its life, the 2007 Kia Sportage is a great older option on the used market.

We are staying with the second generation for the next recommendation on this list. The 2010 Kia Sportage was the final year for this generation of the SUV, and at this point, the company had really hit its stride with this model. There is a remarkable consistency in the vehicle's high praise. The drivers on Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book, and Cars.com are all uniform in their average scores, each one earning a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is not a common occurrence for all of the drivers on all three of these websites to agree with these averages on a particular model. For those surveyed by J.D. Power, the SUV was given an overall of 79 out of 100, though that does include a score of 81 for its driving experience.

If the number of submitted complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 2007 model were low, the numbers for the 2010 Sportage are downright minuscule. Overall, there have been just 20 different issues from drivers in the last 15 years, and in that time, it has also only been subject to two different recalls. For the drivers over on CarComplaints, there are only a total of eight submitted problems, which would be the lowest for a good number of years for the vehicle. The second generation of the Kia Sportage went out on a high note, and based on how most of the third generation went, it would be the best for the SUV for a while.

For the next model year on our list, we have to jump ten years into the future from the 2010 model. The Kia Sportage hit something of a rough patch for several years, which we will get into later on in this piece, but the 2020 model was an enormous rebound. This is the first time we get responses from drivers surveyed by Consumer Reports on this list, and this is the very first Sportage model to receive the "CR Recommended" stamp of approval thanks to a reliability rating of 64 out of 100, the highest up to this point for the SUV. 

Those surveyed by J.D. Power were even more effusive, giving this an overall rating of 83 out of 100 with an outstanding quality and reliability score of 89. For the sites where drivers submit their reviews, Kelley Blue Book customers are on the low end, with an average score of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Edmunds drivers have an average of 4.6 stars, and Cars.com drivers are the most enthusiastic, with an overall average of 4.8 stars.

The number of reported complaints with the 2020 Kia Sportage is also relatively low. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a total of 81 complaints submitted from drivers, and only two recalls have been issued for the vehicle. On CarComplaints, there have only been 10 recorded issues. The previous 2019 model does have fewer complaints, with just 42 from NHTSA and four from CarComplaints, but considering that the model has a 1 out of 5 owner satisfaction score from Consumer Reports, the 2020 Sportage was the one that stood tall.

We do not need to go that much further into the future for the next model year on our list. Our final recommendation for one of the best years of the Kia Sportage is arguably its finest, the 2021 model. This one basically just refined everything that was great about the 2020 model to earn either equally great or even better ratings. The customer ratings from Edmunds averaged out to 4.6 out of 5 stars. The Kelley Blue Book drivers were slightly lower at 4.4 stars, and Cars.com customers were the highest at 4.8 stars. 

Meanwhile, the 2021 Sportage earned a second straight "CR Recommended" badge from Consumer Reports, due in large part to a fantastic 80 out of 100 reliability rating from the drivers it surveyed. The only year to get a better reliability score from Consumer Reports is the 2022 model, but because of its terrible owner satisfaction rating, it misses this list. On an even better note, J.D. Power drivers gave this model an overall average of 82 out of 100 with a quality and reliability score of 85.

As far as the number of complaints levied at the 2021 Kia Sportage, they are truly few and far between. If you look at what the drivers over on CarComplaints have found wrong with their vehicles, it would actually only be a driver, as there is just one complaint submitted there having to do with rats eating the wiring. There are only 22 complaints reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with just two recalls. People who are driving the 2021 Sportage seem to find little fault with it.

Now we move onto the not-so-great years for the Kia Sportage in the opinion of drivers. The SUV may have been around for over 30 years, but there have certainly been stretches of suboptimal quality in that time. We are going to start off with a rather large chunk of Sportage's history, as the first years you should avoid on the used car market would be basically every model made between 1998 and 2001. 

The reason for this cutoff point is that the 2002 Sportage was a year that finally had Cars.com drivers averaging out to over 4.2 out of 5 stars in their reviews. Prior to that, they would range between 3.5 and 3.7 stars. Those aren't necessarily terrible ratings, but when there are so many years that are 4.5 stars and above, why settle for less?

The worst of the worst at this time is the 1998 model, which has an abysmal 1.9 stars on Cars.com. Edmunds drivers aren't too much happier with a 2.9 out of 5 for that year, and they don't go over 3.6 stars for the following three years. Kelley Blue Book drivers are far more uniform in rating the mediocrity of this era of the Sportage, giving all four model years 3.4 stars. From 1998 to 2000, every year, over 300 complaints have been submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and in 2001, there were over 200. The idea of getting an old model for a really low price is appealing, but for the Kia Sportage, it isn't worth the low cost.

[Featured image by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]

As you may have noticed, there were zero models from the Kia Sportage's third generation on this list. Beginning with the 2011 model year and going through 2016, the SUV was arguably the roughest stretch in the vehicle's life. None of these years were able to get over a 1 out of 5 owner satisfaction score from Consumer Reports. While this whole generation was littered with problems, the absolute worst stretch in this era was with the 2012 and 2013 models. For the vehicle's entire history, these two model years are responsible for the second-most and third-most submitted problems on CarComplaints, respectively. 

The 2012 model was particularly prone to engine failure, and CarComplaints estimates that the average price to fix this would be over $5,600. That is nearly as much as the SUV itself goes for on the used market. This is why the site names this the worst Sportage year of all time and how it ends up on SlashGear's list of all Kia models you should steer clear of.

The number of issues submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are similarly exorbitant. The 2012 model has over 380 complaints levied against it, and the 2013 model is not too far behind at 360. Both model years are part of four separate investigations, two of which involve fires. One of those fire investigations, which is also affecting some Hyundai vehicles, was opened in 2023 and is still ongoing as of writing. The whole third generation of the Kia Sportage is an iffy proposition for a used vehicle, but the 2012 and 2013 models are particularly riddled with red flags.

Just because the third generation of the Kia Sportage ended with the 2016 model, that does not mean that everything was immediately fixed with the 2017 model that kicked off the fourth generation. You see this quite a bit when an automaker decides to remodel one of its vehicles. The first model year often brings with it a lot of kinks that need to be ironed out as it progresses, which is what happened here with the previously recommended 2020 model. 

The 2017 Sportage has the most overall reported problems on CarComplaints of any model year for the SUV, and the biggest reason for this was drivers finding that their engines would consume oil at an incredibly fast rate, leading to repairs that averaged around $6,000. Nobody wants to be paying those prices on a vehicle they just bought. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also filed a tremendous number of complaints for the 2017 Sportage as well. 

Over 300 in total have been made, ranging from engine failure to electrical system problems to windows not properly working. There is not a single problem that overshadows the rest of these complaints, and having a wide variety of issues makes the prospect of 2017 Sportage even more unpredictable. Not helping matters is the 27 out of 100 reliability score given to it by drivers surveyed by Consumer Reports, right alongside a 2 out of 5 owner satisfaction rating. The fourth generation eventually earned two spots among the recommendations, but 2017 was not a good way to start this Kia Sportage generation.

For the final model year on this list that you should probably steer clear of, we look to one of the most recent models, the 2023 Kia Sportage. Like with the previously mentioned 2017 model, this is the start of a new generation for the SUV, being the fifth and current generation. After three straight years of finally receiving the "CR Recommended" seal of approval from Consumer Reports, the 2023 model goes back to not earning that distinction, though it regains it for 2024. We see quite a drop in customer ratings across the board. Drivers on Cars.com is the most generous at 4.1 stars, but that is the lowest star rating given to a Sportage model since 2001. Edmunds customers are even lower at 3.7 stars, with nearly 20 percent of the reviews earning just one star.

In just two years of being on the market, the 2023 Kia Sportage has already been the subject of over 160 complaints made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That is a startling amount of complaints in such a short amount of time, as it is around half the number that models made a decade prior have in their lifespans. There have also been six different recalls issued for the vehicle. Again, that is a lot to have in only two years. For any vehicle, you would hope that it would show the effects of wear and tear or poor design after many years of use. With the 2023 Kia Sportage, which SlashGear initially gave a positive review, it may have been a touch too early to make a judgment for everyday drivers

Making this list, the decision was made to come at this from the perspective of a potential buyer of a used Kia Sportage. While the initial reviews from publications for these model years are good, they do not necessarily reflect the real, lived experience that drivers who use them every day have. Because of that, the ratings and reviews used to inform this list needed to come from actual customers. For reviews that drivers are able to go online and post themselves, websites like Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book, and Cars.com were key sources. Along with those, publications like Consumer Reports and J.D. Power were also used. With these, the publications themselves survey actual owners of these vehicles to get their honest opinion of their experience.

While overall owner satisfaction was, of course, important, reliability was probably the most important determining factor in both positive and negative ways. Not only were these taken from the aforementioned sources, but the amount of documented problems drivers faced — along with how many recalls they were subject to — were substantial determining factors. These were from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and CarComplaints, both of which field complaints from drivers. Once all of these sources were taken into account, these eight or so model years were able to be selected as recommendations for your consideration and as warnings.