- Kia has released a 30th Anniversary version of the Sportage for Korea.
- It has special wheels, green quilted leather upholstery, and 30th Anniversary badging.
- We don’t have U.S.-specific info on this model year, but we think it will come to our shores.
The Sportage SUV wasn’t the first Kia model sold in the U.S.—that would be the long-forgotten Sephia sedan—but it is the Korean brand’s longest-running nameplate. Kia is now celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Sportage with a special-edition model for the Korean market. The package includes unique badging, interior trim, and a few other exterior tweaks, and we think it will eventually make its way to the U.S. market, possibly for the 2024 Sportage.
Our favorite addition is the green quilted leather upholstery found inside, which looks great contrasted with black suede trim. The headrests also have embroidered “30 Sportage” logos. On the outside, the main changes are different 19-inch wheels and extra black trim for the front fascia. The pictured model is finished in matte-gray paint that looks similar to the Shadow Matte Gray currently available on the 2023 Sportage Hybrid for $595 extra.
Kia has also placed a pristine-looking example of the original first-generation Sportage in the lobby of its Kia 360 showroom in Korea to commemorate the occasion. This generation was sold in the U.S. starting for the 1995 model year, and we compared it against several other small SUVs in a 1998 comparison test.
We haven’t yet received confirmation whether or not the Sportage 30th Anniversary Edition model will come to the U.S. market, but we expect a similar package to be available here eventually. Stay tuned for more details to come on the 2024 Sportage.
Senior Editor
Despite being raised on a steady diet of base-model Hondas and Toyotas—or perhaps because of it—Joey Capparella nonetheless cultivated an obsession for the automotive industry throughout his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee. He found a way to write about cars for the school newspaper during his college years at Rice University, which eventually led him to move to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for his first professional auto-writing gig at Automobile Magazine. He has been part of the Car and Driver team since 2016 and now lives in New York City.