Ask any Kia enthusiast (and yes, they do exist) which model is the longest running nameplate in the brand’s history, and the easy answer is “the Sportage!”. Sure, the Kia brand has been around since 1944, but didn’t reach U.S. shores until five decades later; 1994. The Sportage arrived a year later and has been a common sight in Kia showrooms ever since. That first Sportage, along with the Suzuki Sidekick/Geo Tracker twins, and the Toyota RAV4 shortly after, helped kick-start the small “cute-ute” SUV craze that continues to this day. That inaugural Sportage was indeed cute, adorable even, and being based on a Mazda truck platform, was a rugged, capable off-roader. A random, useless triva note is that it was also the first production vehicle ever to have a knee airbag, way back in 1997. Despite all of that, a lot has changed with the Sportage and Kia since then. That’s our excuse to look at Kia’s most well-established model.
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