FIRST Which? announced that the Kia Picanto was the UK’s most reliable new car.

Then German motoring magazine AutoBild’s respected Quality Report for 2010 awarded Hyundai the top manufacturer spot based on analysis of reliability, long-term quality and customer satisfaction.

And then Autocar hailed the new Kia Sportage – which is launched at this weekend’s Lions Club of Guernsey Motor Fair – the best Korean yet.

From all that you can safely deduce that it’s pretty damned good.

If you want to find out more, read on or – and let’s hope the weather’s fine – pop along to Saumarez Park on Saturday.

Kia’s compact SUV has always been pretty popular here, with the first generation racking up more than 150 sales between 1995 and 2005 and the second selling 200 in just five years.

That’s pretty impressive considering the strong competition in the sector, so how will the new baby fare?

If outward appearances count for anything, it should do well.

And having driven Sportages Mark II and Mark III back to back, the future looks pretty bright to me.

And orange. Kia has chosen a Techno Orange Sportage for all its publicity shots, although thanks to a kind customer, my test drive was done in her black one – which saved me waiting for the arrival of Forest Road’s demonstrator.

Black was, incidentally, overwhelmingly the most popular colour for Mk II Sportages, chosen by around 90% of customers.

The first Kia to be designed from scratch by Peter Schreyer, who penned the original Audi TT, the new Sportage looks pretty good in Phantom Black too, although I agree with the owner that, given the extra metalwork that results from the rising waistline, a bit more brightwork on the flanks would not go amiss. I drove it before it got accessorised with chrome side trims and front and rear scuff plates but can imagine it looking pretty desirable.

And driving current and next-generation cars back to back showed that Kia has come a long way in five years, but it also highlighted a vital similarity.

Although the spec sheet tells you that the new model is a couple of inches wider, it doesn’t feel any bigger. Door mirrors that manage to be entirely adequate without being too big help.

The other thing you notice about the spec sheet is that it is extensive – surprisingly so for an £18.5k car.

Outside, the big alloys impress and getting into the First Edition  – the only model currently available, the full range should be available from mid-October – the upmarket impression is sustained.

Front and rear leather seats are heated, there’s dual zone climate control, cruise control, multi-function steering wheel, Bluetooth and iPod connectivity.

And while it remains satisfyingly functional, the fascia is a giant leap forward both in terms of design and feel.

Settling in behind the wheel is easy with the height-adjustable driver’s seat  – it’s manual, but you can’t have everything – and tilt and telescoping steering wheel adjustment.

The good news is that while it’s a bit less of a climb up into it now, Sportage retains the high-ish driving position of the SUV, although with its looks and the imminent arrival of two-wheel-drive versions it is plainly tilting at the Qashqai-led crossover market.

It retains real off-road ability, though. Reduced ground clearance might call a halt to cross-country adventures a little earlier than with the outgoing model, but with hill descent control and diff lock, Sportage should still get your horse box moving on a wet grassy slope.

Not that even I would dream of chucking a bale of hay in the back of the lux First Edition, but that market will still be catered for when the rest of the model line-up arrives in a few weeks’ time.

Like the fronts, the rear seat – a bench with a drop-down armrest – offers decent head and legroom and folds easily enough to offer a handy 1,353 litres of load bay.

In five-seat mode the Sportage offers a highly-respectable, certainly compared with some rivals, 564 litres of sensibly shaped load bay – and that’s despite a full-size alloy spare wheel taking up a serious amount of space beneath the boot floor.

A flick of the key brings to life the 2.0-litre diesel that is the First Edition’s sole powerplant – smaller diesel and petrol units are on the way.

The engine, a smaller version of the impressive Hyundai-Kia 2.2 litre motor, pumps out 134bhp and 236lb/ft of torque at 1,800 to 2,500rpm.

It can be specified with a six-speed auto box, but the test car came with the six-speed manual.

It is commendably slick and precise and obeying the gearchange indicator that pops up in the trip computer display when a higher or lower cog would improve economy was no hardship at all.

There’s a useful amount of grunt even below 1,800rpm, with upward changes being indicated surprisingly early, well below the torque peak, with even a sedate climb up Pleinmont hill being done in fourth and fifth for much of the way.

And while sixth gear does not come into play at 35mph, its use is indicated at a speed that won’t get you into serious trouble – so long as you’re not in a 25 zone at least.

Ignore the gearshift indicator and progress can be satisfyingly rapid.

Even occasional readers will know that modern diesels feel quicker than the performance figures suggest and a Brownie point to Kia, whose performance claims are so honest that UK road testers ducked well under the claimed 10.9 seconds quoted for the sprint to 60mph.

On the road, the new Sportage is an undemanding companion: not too wide, remember, nor too long and it’s easy to position.

The rising waistline and small rear window do, as in some rivals, impact rearward visibility.

But the door mirrors and Kia’s clever reversing camera – the image is displayed in the left-hand third of the rear-view mirror, an excellent system first seen in the Soul – sort that out.

The electric power steering is said to be a bit light and numb for some tastes, but in our island it seemed fine.

And a chassis that has been fettled to cope with the worst surfaces that Britain’s roads can throw at it is just fine for us.

In fact, given the recent pronouncements from the cash-strapped Public Services Department, that ride comfort over broken tarmac could be as much a selling point here as the svelte styling, commanding driving position, towing and off-road capability, high specification, strong value and seven-year fully transferable warranty.

Yes, the future does seem bright.

And with the First Edition also available in Clyde Blue, Silver Storm and Sirius Silver, as well as Phantom Black, that future doesn’t really have to be orange.