Choosing an SUV depends a lot on what you want it to do. Right now, the market offers several compact sport-utilities with tough-truck looks, but hiding beneath their tough exteriors are the hearts and souls of passenger cars. Built on passenger-car platforms, with car-like unit-body construction, they usually feature a full-time four-wheel-drive system that's a real plus on snow-covered roads. But many of them lack real off-road capability. When the tough get going, they're better off staying in the parking lot.

Kia Sportage isn't one of these.

If the Sportage looks like a tough little truck, that's because that's exactly what it is. Kia's Sportage is built like a truck, on a separate ladder frame; and it uses a truck-like four-wheel-drive transfer case that locks the front and rear axles together for serious off-road slogging.