New Skoda Karoq and Vauxhall Grandland vs Kia Sportage: practicality

Households on tight budgets don’t need to compromise to get a great family SUV, as these entry-level models demonstrate. Let’s see which one offers the best value...

Steve Huntingford

Updated20 July 2022

Space and practicality

Front space, rear space, seating flexibility, boot

If you’re sitting in the front, you won’t feel the slightest bit cramped in any of our contenders, with all three having plenty of leg room for six-footers and the Kia Sportage and Skoda Karoq in particular offering masses of clearance between your head and the roof lining. You’re least likely to bang elbows with your passenger in the Sportage, though, because it’s the widest inside. There’s also plenty of storage space in all three, although it’s worth noting that the Vauxhall Grandland has the smallest glovebox and central bin.

In the rear, there’s plenty of space for a pair of six-footers in the Sportage and Karoq, whereas it’s a lot tighter in the Grandland; taller passengers will find their knees rubbing on the front seats.

The Sportage comes with reclining rear seatbacks, giving your passengers the option to lean back and relax on longer journeys. This feature isn’t available on the Grandland, and getting it on the Karoq requires you to fork out £745 for Skoda’s ‘VarioFlex’ seats. We’d recommend doing this, because they can also slide back and forth individually, or you can remove them altogether.

All of our contenders can accommodate three adults in the back, but the Sportage has the most elbow room and (like the Grandland) a relatively flat floor, whereas a middle passenger in the Karoq has to straddle a hump.

The Sportage continues to build its lead in the practicality stakes with rear seatbacks that fold in a handy 40/20/40 split. The Karoq and Grandland have to make do with 60/40 splits, but at least the Karoq comes with a ski hatch, allowing you to accommodate long items while travelling four up. All three benefit from remote levers inside their boots for folding down the rear seats.

The Sportage and Grandland feature height-adjustable boot floors which, when set in their highest positions, raise the base of the load bay to the point where it’s flush with the folded seatbacks. This makes it easy to slide in longer, heavier items, unlike in the Karoq, where the folded seats create a massive step in the floor of the extended load bay.

Even with its rivals’ boot floors in their lowest positions, the Karoq has the deepest boot, though, allowing it to swallow an impressive eight carry-on suitcases below the parcel shelf. The Sportage, with its longer boot, also manages to take eight cases, one more than the Grandland.