Kia Sportage 1998

Sorry,

Forgot one thing,

Kia have been making miltary vehicles for over 60 years. They probably have an idea as to how to make tough vehicles.

Jim

Hi - there is a major problem with the Kia 4wd. I have a 99 Kia Sportage .The sealed hubs have a manufacuring fault at least in the 1999. They become unsealed. The service department only test them on the hoist so do not pick up the 4wd will not hold., only that it will engage. They asked me how I knew it did not work ???? Well, I drive it out there. As mine was new, but 3yrs old at the time they finally admitted to the fault and there is an upgrade modification which they paid for but not sure how that works on a 2nd hand car. It would cost about $4,000 and once the 4wd goes its cactus.
My Kia (yes I am a female driver) has tackled some severe 4wd tracks over the last 4 years - Fraser Island, SA desert and a lot of heavy duty tracks in the High country Vic. Accompanying vehicles were a Nissan Patrol with everything - raised, the works, Land Rover and Toyota Hi Ace. The car performed superbly to their suprise & an automatic too, but this fault appeared aftrer 3 years. All I can do is warn you, bit I LOVE mine.

I agree with this, 100's of over the counter accessories, many second hand if your lookin to save $, many places know how to work on them, manuals available, even Zook clubs... Spares would also be easier to be had...

I think Truckster's confusing the XL-7 with the old Vitara... However - and as an XL-7 owner I would, of course, say that - all Suzukis have good support (clubs), and many Vitara (Grand Vitara that is) accessories and spares also fit the XL-7. I suspect, though, that anyone looking at a second hand Sportage will find the XL-7 out of their price range...
Which is where Truckster's advice goes: any s/h Suzuki model is a good bet. Sportages are capable offroaders but had many reliability issues. No doubt Gary will be along in a minute to denounce Suzukis as softroaders and refer to Kia's experience as builders of South Korean military vehicles, but then again there must be a reason why they would have lost against the North Koreans without US help :-)

A friend of mine has the current shape Kia Sportage. I know that all 4wds have their place etc but his is pretty much no good at all IMHO. It has a very upright seating position and at 6 foot 2in I find it very uncomfortable even on short trips. We have had it on the beach and it drags its guts everywhere. I wouldn't even contemplate taking it off a well formed dirt road. Just my opinion.

The XL-7 is the new LWB so called 7 seater? What out of what I said is confused with the Vitara? heaps in trading post over last few mths (I was thinkin of a cheapy zook for a weekend hack)

Truckster, there aren't (unfortunately) "100s of over the counter accessories for the XL-7", that's the older Vitaras you're talking about. Very hard to get suspension mods, bullbars etc. The XL-7 started to be sold only in 2001/2002, so s/h models much more expensive than 98 Sportages.
On the bright side, you call it a "so-called 7 seater". It has probably the best 7 seat arrangement I've seen: genuine legroom for the size (I'm 1.90 tall and still comfortable), proper footwell, sitting in driving direction, seatbelts, headrests etc. If you don't need the luggage space or have a good roofrack, that is...

I looked at the XL-7 and the 5 door GV before deciding on the Kia. Both failed on a couple of counts.

Guage and size of box section in chassis. Both the XL-7 and GV are still running on basically a Sierra guage and sized chassis. The Kias chassis is larger than a Hilux...

Early Vits are known to have problems with the alloy front third members (bit that carries the differential in the axle housing) breaking, supposedly corrected in the GV's (steel), but possibly under further stress by the added weight/power of the XL-7.

While 5.12 diffs are available for the all Sierra's, Vits, and possibly the GV's and XL-7's The GV/XL-7 come with 4.3 (MT) or 4.88(AT)diff, coupled with a 1.82 (GV) or 1.65 (XL-7) low ratio transfer case,which leaves them a bit short on low range (ca.26-28:1) vs the Kia with 4.77:1 diff and 1.98:1 transfer case (35:1).
There are 5.38 gears available from Korea for the Kia giving a potential 39.4:1low 1st ratio. Equating that back to what it would require for the Suzuki transfer cases ratio, it would correspond to 2.9:1 to equal the Kia on low 1st ratio.

SuzuKi 2.5/2.7 V6 motors have known problems similar to those that plagued GMH with their Gen 111 V8's (excess oil consumption, dud rings, piston slap).

XL-7 has zero modifications, apart from bolt on dressups available.

Both the Kia and the XL-7 are stranded a bit without lockers (Kia has Eaton Positrac LSD rear). ARB has my old front diff (Yes, I broke one...in half!!) which thy are using for sizing up a locker (granted at the advanced feasability point ATM), with the possibility of the same for the rear in the future. in general the market is not here for them, but is definitely in USA/Europe where they are more popular.....then there is Korea....

Springlifts/larger tyres are dead simple on the Kia, a ~$5-600 kit from Ironman and a set of F100, 5 on 5 1/2" rims and you are set for up to 32x11.5, you will however need to fold a bit of the front guard back against the firewall.

I personally have 31x10.5 tyres and find that 5th gear is all but useless in the burbs but great for travelling distances.

Powerchip make a chip for the ECU that ups the power/torque by about 10-12%, still on ULP. and more gains are available when your rear muffler drops off (LOL) and you replace it with something that flows a bit better.

Fuel economy (corrected) 10.5 hwy, 12.5 city before the lift/tyres, and 11/13.5 after.

Feel free to contact me at
c k g 6 1 2 0 0 3 AT y a h o o . c o m . a u

where AT = @, minus all the spaces

or on this board, same name.

Sorry about the lengthy reply.

So Vit accessories wont fit the X7? interesting.

We looked at them when wife got the pathy (she wanted a flammin Xtrail originally!), hated the room in the rear of them, I didnt like the look of it, but she did..

So the obvious choice for a small 4b would be a Vitara, with bolt on everything already available, and much available second hand! and 1000's of places that can work on em.

PS You still in QLd Gary?

Nah, mate, It all fell through. So back in Melbourne doing SSDD

Wedge I forgot to mention that you can do a very easy 1.375" bodylift too (8 x 3" diameter blocks with .75" holes, a slab of beer, a couple of mates and a higlift jack), only bit of clearancing needed is around the 4WD selector in the 4WD H-L plane.

Some guys in the US are looking at getting better gearing for the transfer case in made in Mexico(~3:1), or failing/in addition to that, making a double case (in a similar fashion to Spidertrax "Thorax", using slabs of alloy bolted together to form the missing part of the tcase).

I would expect the Americans to start realistically downsizing their vehicles when the price of their beloved black gold goes up to70-80 bucks a bbl, once Bush buries himself deeper in the ..it intenationally. The rot is setting in already with Arafat's impending demise.

Well Gary it is wonderful to know that you love your Kia. Actually there are accessories for the XL-7. I know of one in Sydney that has just had a Calmini suspension fitted. As for 5.38's for the Kia, well you can get them and 5.83's for the Vits and GV's. Rock crawler gears are available 4:1, 4.24:1 & 4.4:1. I am unaware of of the chassis being a problem on the Suzuki's. The earlier 2.0 V6 as fitted to the Vitara has a couple of weak points but these have been addressed with the 2.5 and 2.7. A wide range of suspension options are available to choose from as well as lockers. There is plenty of tech out there for SAS and dual transfers etc. I think it would hard for you to disagree that there is a lot more support and options for the Suzuki's than the Kia's.

But gary, all thatbleephas been available for yrs for Zooks.... and available over the counter now, not in 12 mths + months time..

And a zook would still sell well with lots o mods compared to a Kia... :P