Compare the2024 Hyundai TucsonVS 2023 Kia Sportage

For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Tucson have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Kia Sportage doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.

The Tucson has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them and moves the vehicle back into its lane. Only the Sportage EX/SX/Prestige/X-Line/X-Pro offers a blind spot warning system.

To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Tucson has standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. Only the Sportage EX/SX/Prestige/X-Line/X-Pro offers Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning.

Both the Tucson and the Sportage have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras, driver alert monitors, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.

For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Tucson its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 128 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Sportage is only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2022.

The Tucson’s corrosion warranty is 2 years and unlimited miles longer than the Sportage’s (7/unlimited vs. 5/100,000).

Hyundai pays for scheduled maintenance on the Tucson for 3 years and 36,000 miles. Hyundai will pay for oil changes, tire rotations, air filter replacements, cabin filter replacement, brake fluid replacement, inspections, and any other required maintenance. Kia doesn’t pay scheduled maintenance for the Sportage.

As tested in Consumer Reports the Hyundai Tucson is faster than the Kia Sportage:

On the EPA test cycle the Tucson AWD gets better fuel mileage than the Sportage AWD (23 city/29 hwy vs. 23 city/28 hwy).

In its Green Vehicle Guide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the Hyundai Tucson higher (7 out of 10) than the Kia Sportage (5). This means the Tucson produces up to 8 pounds less smog-producing pollutants than the Sportage every 15,000 miles.

The Tucson stops much shorter than the Sportage:

The Tucson Limited AWD handles at .82 G’s, while the Sportage X-Pro pulls only .81 G’s of cornering force in a Motor Trend skidpad test.

The Tucson Limited AWD executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver quicker than the Sportage X-Pro (27.4 seconds @ .61 average G’s vs. 27.9 seconds @ .58 average G’s).

The Tucson has .5 inches more front headroom, .1 inches more rear headroom, .5 inches more rear hip room and .4 inches more rear shoulder room than the Sportage.

The Tucson has a larger cargo volume with its rear seat folded than the Sportage with its rear seat folded (74.8 vs. 74.1 cubic feet).

The Tucson Limited’s standard wipers adjust their speed and turn on and off automatically according to the amount of rainfall on the windshield. The Sportage’s manually variable intermittent wipers have to be constantly adjusted.

Consumer Reports rated the Tucson’s headlight performance “Good,” a higher rating than the Sportage’s headlights, which were rated “Fair.”

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducts detailed tests on headlights for their range both straight ahead and in curves and to be certain they don’t exceed acceptable amounts of glare to oncoming drivers. The Tucson’s headlights were rated “Good” to “Acceptable” by the IIHS, while the Sportage’s headlights are rated “Acceptable” to “Poor.”

Both the Tucson and the Sportage offer available heated front seats. The Tucson Limited also has standard heated rear seats to keep those passengers extremely comfortable in the winter. Heated rear seats aren’t available in the Sportage.

The Tucson Limited’s Remote Smart Parking Assist can parallel park or back into a parking spot by itself, starting, stopping and changing direction automatically. Remote Smart Park Assist will park and retrieve your car remotely: press a button and watch it park itself. This is ideal for tight locations. The Sportage doesn’t offer an automated parking system.

Consumer Reports® recommends both the Hyundai Tucson and the Kia Sportage, based on reliability, safety and performance.

The Hyundai Tucson outsold the Kia Sportage by 40% during 2022.