Step inside the 2010 Kia Sportage and you'll find a pleasing interior with seating for up to five passengers. Build quality and materials are also generally good, with the exception of a few cheap-feeling knobs and switches.

Up front, the Sportage offers head- and legroom on par with most of its competitors. The 60/40-split rear seat offers slightly less legroom, however, making it a bit of a tight squeeze for larger adults.

That split-folding rear seat design makes schlepping stuff easy. In passenger mode there are 23.6 cubic feet of cargo room behind the rear seats, while folding them forward creates a nice flat load floor with a total of 66.6 cubic feet of space. While those numbers are respectable enough, both fall a tad short of the category leaders.