Kids’ Gear: crack team of experienced passengers roadtest a family favourite

Junior reviewers hit the road in the "Super cool" Kia Sportage


THE TROUBLE with most car reviews is that the people writing them are just a bit too grey around the edges. They bang on about family-friendly motoring but when do you ever hear anything from the people who really know about this stuff – the kids?

So following a tried-and-tested presenting formula loved by petrolheads the world over, we asked ten-year-old Jasper and eight-year-olds Betsy and Che to put the new Kia Sportage through its paces and talk about the important bits.

Like the cool tinted panoramic sunroof, “magic” self-parking system, awesome hand-warming steering wheel, handy USB sockets in the back and how loud the stereo goes. Oh – and whether you can build a toy car out of Lego while being driven at speed around a bumpy test track.

Our backseat critics gave extra points for the vast amount of boot space, which easily swallowed all their clobber.

After a long day of exhaustive testing – three tired presenters but no punches thrown – we got 13 “epics”, 32 “awesomes” and eight “cools”.

We reckon that’s a thumbs up.

At a glance

  • Entertainment ★★★★★
  • Cool factor ★★★★
  • Toy storage ★★★★★
  • Fun factor ★★★
  • Boring grown-up stuff ★★★★★

The verdict

“This car would be good for my dad because it parks by itself. He’s rubbish at it”