Ford Kuga vs Kia Sportage
Take the Ford Kuga for lower age-adjusted MOT risk: its index is 91.3 versus 107.8 for the Kia Sportage, and the 95% confidence intervals do not overlap.
Lower is better. The index adjusts for each fleet's exact age profile; the raw failure rate below does not. The index gap is 16.5 points. Data release dvsa-2024-v1.
Side-by-side evidence
| Measure | Ford Kuga | Kia Sportage |
|---|---|---|
| Age-adjusted MOT Risk Index | 91.3 (90.8–91.9) | 107.8 (107.2–108.4) |
| Raw initial failure rate | 20.40% | 22.55% |
| Dangerous defects per 100 tests | 11.38 | 14.27 |
| Initial tests | 396,566 | 396,816 |
Where their MOT failures diverge
These are component groups present in both models' published top-six failure lists, sorted by the absolute gap. A positive difference means the Ford Kuga records more failure items; a negative one means the Kia Sportage does.
| Component group | Ford Kuga | Kia Sportage | Difference | Lower rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 8.9 | 16.7 | -7.8 pp | Ford Kuga |
| Suspension | 5.9 | 10.1 | -4.2 pp | Ford Kuga |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 13.0 | 9.8 | +3.2 pp | Kia Sportage |
| Tyres | 9.2 | 9.8 | -0.6 pp | Ford Kuga |
| Visibility | 9.8 | 10.1 | -0.3 pp | Ford Kuga |
Counts are defect items, not the share of cars: one failed test can contain several items. A group absent from a model's top six is not treated as zero.
What the six-year test history says
The longitudinal layer follows the same vehicles between MOTs from 2019 to 2024. It separates a one-day retest from the harder question of what returns next year, and puts failures against miles actually driven.
| Component | Ford Kuga | Kia Sportage | Difference | Tracked advisories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 10.3% | 19.2% | -9.0 pp | 64,222 / 67,698 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 10.0% | 15.6% | -5.6 pp | 8,599 / 9,282 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 13.3% | 18.8% | -5.6 pp | 3,840 / 9,676 |
| Steering | 10.4% | 15.7% | -5.3 pp | 4,916 / 8,437 |
| Brakes | 8.0% | 12.7% | -4.7 pp | 186,528 / 200,041 |
| Visibility | 7.7% | 10.3% | -2.6 pp | 1,030 / 1,001 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 3.0% | 5.0% | -2.0 pp | 3,011 / 3,000 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2.0% | 3.2% | -1.2 pp | 11,295 / 8,633 |
| Tyres | 7.7% | 8.3% | -0.6 pp | 249,538 / 250,004 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5.1% | 5.1% | -0.0 pp | 19,777 / 15,475 |
| Measure | Ford Kuga | Kia Sportage |
|---|---|---|
| Repaired and passed the same day | 50.7% | 46.2% |
| Passed 1–10 days later | 47.6% | 51.4% |
| Median retest delay | 0.0 days | 1.0 days |
| Failures per 10,000 miles | 0.282 | 0.319 |
| Three-test clean streak | 40.4% | 35.9% |
| Same advisory repeated 3+ times | 22.0% | 26.0% |
Care proxy is descriptive, not a claim about an owner's character: a clean streak means three or more consecutive tests with nothing recorded; the repeat measure means the same advisory appeared at least three times.
Safety recalls
| Model | Campaigns listed | Per 10,000 licensed |
|---|---|---|
| Ford Kuga | 132 | 3.59 |
| Kia Sportage | 20 | 0.48 |
More campaigns do not by themselves mean a less reliable car: recalls are manufacturer remedies, and the licensed-fleet denominator is unavailable for some families. Check a registration for outstanding work before buying.
Do other countries see the same thing?
Both models appear in the same independent national inspection datasets below. Compare each model with that country's own average; absolute pass rates are not portable between rulebooks.
| Country / test | Model | Model fails | National average | Position | Inspections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finland · Katsastus | Ford Kuga | 14.5% | 26.3% | -11.8 pp | 4,188 |
| Finland · Katsastus | Kia Sportage | 34.0% | 26.3% | +7.7 pp | 7,630 |
| Netherlands · APK | Ford Kuga | 34.5% | 50.9% | -16.4 pp | 11,718 |
| Netherlands · APK | Kia Sportage | 50.6% | 50.9% | -0.3 pp | 23,948 |
| Norway · PKK | Ford Kuga | 29.4% | 33.5% | -4.1 pp | 2,725 |
| Norway · PKK | Kia Sportage | 35.8% | 33.5% | +2.3 pp | 2,029 |
Sources are the national PKK, Katsastus and APK datasets recorded in each family artifact. Position is model failure rate minus that country's national rate.
Quick answers
- Is the Ford Kuga or the Kia Sportage more reliable?
- The Ford Kuga has the stronger age-adjusted MOT result: index 91.3 against 107.8 for the Kia Sportage, with non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals.
- Does the Ford Kuga or the Kia Sportage fail more MOTs?
- 20.40% of Ford Kuga initial tests and 22.55% of Kia Sportage initial tests found a failing defect in 2024. The lower raw rate belongs to the Ford Kuga, but the age-adjusted index is the fairer model comparison because the fleets can be different ages.
- What are the main MOT problem areas on the Ford Kuga and Kia Sportage?
- The leading published failure group for the Ford Kuga is lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 13.0 items per 100 tests; for the Kia Sportage it is brakes at 16.7 per 100.
- Should I buy a Ford Kuga or a Kia Sportage?
- If MOT reliability is the deciding factor, the Ford Kuga is the evidence-led choice. Still check the individual car's MOT history and condition: these figures describe whole model populations, not a particular vehicle.
Model pages and nearby comparisons
See the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf comparisonSee the Ford Kuga and Nissan Qashqai comparisonSee the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra comparison
Browse all car reliability comparisons.
How to read and cite this comparison
Scope: class-4 vehicles, initial tests only, Great Britain 2024. PRS fixed-on-the-spot results count as failures because a defect was present on arrival. Index = observed initial failures ÷ age-profile-expected failures × 100; intervals are 95% confidence intervals. Every model family combines all generations and engines. Full method: methodology.
Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Ford Kuga vs Kia Sportage: MOT reliability comparison, 2024 (dvsa-2024-v1). https://motriskindex.co.uk/compare/ford-kuga-vs-kia-sportage/