Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the suv segment and utilize the same 5-door suv body style and the 4 x 4 wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Mazda-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 130hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 87hp engine designed by Daihatsu.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the suv segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. Furthermore, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the Korean car offers a potentially life-saving difference of 40% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Daihatsu as a brand displays somewhat better results, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of KIA, as well as Daihatsu, with the same average rating of 4.2 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Sportage as average reliability-wise, and Terios is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the Korean car rank it on average as 4.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.5 out of 5.

KIA is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.4 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 172 kilometers per hour, 27km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the Japanese car, averaging around 7.2 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (39 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 42% difference compared to the Korean car!

Daihatsu appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Korean car offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. It all continues in the same direction, with KIA outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... At the end, as much as I'd like to give you a winner here, it's simply a pure tie if you ask me. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.