What are you calling early? The first year the Sportage was sold in the USA was 1995. I've got a 97, 98, and a 99. All with five-speed manual trans, four-door hardtops, and 4WD. All have well over 100K miles on them (that's the way I buy them). The 99 that I'm driving now - cost me $1200 when it had 120K mile on it. Ran perfect and came with four extra rims with brand new studded snows on them. It's the LX version with leather seats, power windows, AC, etc. Now has 190K miles and runs perfect. The original owner had full service records since he bought it new. It has been fixed once under warranty for a broken gear in the Gertrag transmission or transfercase when it had 40K miles on it. Other then that, no problems at all except for a tendency for electrical harness connectors to get corroded when driven in salt. This 99 was driven every day of the winter since new - in New York winter salt. Body held up fine, but the oil pan on the engine got a rust hole in it that I had to fix.
I have a dingy-type front-tow hitch on it and have used it twice to deliver trucks a 1000 miles away. I tow the Kia behind me with the hook-up, deliver the truck, and drive the Kia back. I've had some of it apart just to check it over and I'm impressed. It is built very heavy duty. My only complaint is that it does not have enough overdrive. At 75 MPH highway speeds, the engine turns near 3000 RPM in 5th gear. All my older Subarus are the same way. It could use much steeper axle gears. The Kia has 4.78 ratio axles and my Subarus have 4.33 ratio axles. Worse yet is my 1995 Chevy Trackers. They have 5.12 axle ratios and really spin in 5th gear. I want to put a 1.8 diesel into one of my Tractors, but it's a waste of time if I can't get the RPMs down. In California only, they put 4.30 axles into them instead of the 5.12s.
I guess I'm not sure what you're callling early and what you say was failing. I've heard there were several recalls from Gertrag to fix broken gears - but most of that was done under Kia warranty - so I'm told. I know mine was fixed that way.
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