Our New Kia Sportage

Last December, just before we left to go back to the boat, Dave got hit by another driver, and our old 1999 Kia Sportage was totalled.

December 2010 - Dave Wrecks the Kia

So one of our first priorities on arriving in Florida was to find a new car.

2006 Kia Sportage LX
We had been thinking in the $5,000 range, but ended up looking for a newer lower-mileage model, and spent about double that in the end.

We looked at about 20 cars in the small SUV range (Ford Escape, Toyota Rav/4, Honda CRV, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage). We used 4-5 websites (Cars.com, Carmax.com, eBay, etc), checked specs, reviews, etc, and talked to a dozen used car salesmen. And we slowly narrowed the field down to a Hyundai Tucson or Kia Sportage 2005-2007, under 75K miles. Though we started out looking at RAV/4's or CRV's, we liked both the design and price of the Hyundai/Kia (essentially the same car).

We finally settled on a 2006 Kia Sportage--it looks brand new, and only 65,000 miles. And it drives like a dream.