The South Korean brothers, Kia and Hyundai are becoming ever bolder in the styling of their cars. Just look at the sensational lines of the all-new Kia Sportage for 2010 we have just reviewed. Sportage is so low it almost looks like a chop-top concept car, not a production SUV.

The styling features with the now ‘Schreyer’ grille provide a strong family resemblance between all Kia models in these early years of the 21st century. Areas below the grille also add a strong presence to the front of the Sportage, with large areas of air intake that widen at the ends to frame foglights. The downside of the spectacular frontal look is that it's likely to be expensive to repair after the tiniest of off-road – or carpark – scrapes.

There are strong styling cutouts on the doors that add to the adventure of the shape. The Sportage's rear features a drop-down slope to the centre of the rear window that ties in neatly with the slim taillights. There’s a real touch of Alfa Romeo in the looks of the back end of this Kia – and we have no problem at all with that.

Inside, the bold styling continues, with a deeply shrouded instrument binnacle sitting alongside a clear central display that works nicely.

As usual in Kia vehicles the blinker stalk is on the correct side of the steering wheel for Australian driving. It's a pity the European marques couldn’t pay attention to the way the South Koreans are happy to tailor cars to suit Aussie needs...

Also suited to our Aussie needs is the Sportage's suspension system. Korean and Australian engineers got together early in the design process and road tested vehicles on a trip involving some 17,000 kilometres encompassing many outback and rough suburban surfaces. They finished up with a suspension largely based on that set up for the UK, but with some minor tweaks for Australia.

Kia invited a large contingent of Australian journalists to Queenstown, New Zealand for the press launch of the Sportage. The plan was for us to test an new all-wheel drive system called Dynamax at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground, often nicknamed the Snow Farm, in the mountains behind the town. Unfortunately, the weather was too warm and rain spoiled the plan to drive on snow...

We did manage to spend some time on very greasy dirt roads on long climb involving numerous hairpin bends. There were many places where running off the road would have involved a long fall down a very steep slope. Yet we always felt confident of the grip on the treacherous surface provided by the fast acting Kia Dynamax system. Indeed the system acts so quickly that there were times when only a flashing light on the dashboard let us know the electronics were providing assistance.

Kia Sportage also has hill-start assist and descent brake control for those who want to venture off the beaten track in the great Australian bush, or perhaps take it to the beach.

We found the ride on normal sealed roads to be a bit on the firm side, but it's more than acceptable for the driver who likes handling and grip that are pretty good for the compact SUV class.

Interior room is good front and rear, though models with a panoramic glass roof are on the tight side for headroom for tall travellers. This is a downside of the spectacular looking chop-top style.

Sportage in its lowest cost format comes with the simplicity of two-wheel drive (the front wheels) for those who don’t want to go off sealed roads. The AWD model normally uses only front drive, but the rear wheels are called into play if the fronts start to slip.

Power comes from a 2.0- or 2.4-litre four-cylinder petrol engine or a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel. The smaller petrol engine is sold only in the front-drive model, the others come with AWD.

All engines are normally mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, the 2.0-litre petrol can also be ordered with a five-speed manual gearbox.

We drove the two larger engines during our initial review of the car and again came away most impressed with this new-design Kia turbo-diesel. With a huge 393 Newton metres of torque stretching from 1800 to 2500 revs it has seemingly endless grunt when climbing hills. There's minimal turbo lag from this diesel and we would probably suggest it to most buyers. But be aware that it adds a significant $3000 to the price.

Prices of the all-new Sportage begin at $25,990 for the two-wheel drive manual Sportage Si, and range up to $38,990 if you go for the Sportage Platinum turbo-diesel it will set you back $38,990.

The complete 2010 Kia Sportage range, with prices (excluding government and dealer charges) is:
Si 2.0-litre petrol 2WD: $25990 (manual), $27,990 (automatic)
SLi 2.4-litre petrol AWD: $31990 (automatic)
SLi 2.0-litre turbo-diesel AWD: $34990 (automatic)
Platinum 2.4-litre petrol AWD: $35990 (automatic)
Platinum 2.0-litre turbo-diesel AWD: $38990 (automatic)