Compare the2025 Hyundai TucsonVS 2025 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.

With its standard Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, the Hyundai Tucson is better at preventing collisions with pedestrians than the Kia Sportage, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

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 and rear 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.

The Hyundai Tucson has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) highest rating of “Top Safety Pick Plus” for the 2024 model year. This distinction is based on its exceptional performance in IIHS’ rigorous battery of safety tests. Specifically, it earned a “Good” rating in the latest, more stringent moderate overlap front crash test, a “Good” result in the updated side impact test, and a “Good” score in the revised pedestrian crash prevention test. The Sportage is only a standard “Top Safety Pick” for 2024, though it hasn’t yet been rated in the updated moderate overlap frontal test, a requirement for the “Top Safety Pick Plus” award.

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.

J.D. Power and Associates rated the Tucson third among compact suvs in their 2024 Initial Quality Study. The Sportage isn’t in the top three.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2024 Initial Quality Study of new car owners surveyed provide the statistics that show that Hyundai vehicles are better in initial quality than Kia vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Hyundai third in initial quality, above the industry average. With 1 more problems per 100 vehicles, Kia is ranked fourth.

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

On the EPA test cycle the Tucson gets better mileage than the Sportage:

For better stopping power the Tucson’s brake rotors are larger than those on the Sportage:

The Tucson stops much shorter than the Sportage:

For better traction, the Tucson SEL/XRT’s tires are larger than the largest tires available on the Sportage (245/60R18 vs. 235/65R17).

The Tucson’s drift compensation steering can automatically compensate for road conditions which would cause the vehicle to drift from side to side, helping the driver to keep the vehicle straight more easily. The Sportage doesn’t offer drift compensation steering.

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 6.2 cubic feet more passenger volume than the Sportage (108.2 vs. 102).

The Tucson has .5 inches more front headroom, .1 inches more front shoulder room, .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 has a standard heads-up display that projects speed in front of the driver’s line of sight, allowing drivers to view information without diverting their eyes from the road. The Sportage doesn’t offer a heads-up display.

The Tucson’s standard driver’s power window opens or closes with one touch of the window control, making it more convenient at drive-up windows and toll booths. The Sportage’s standard driver’s power window switch has to be held the entire time to close it fully.

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.”

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 49% during 2023.