how does the value of a 2000 kia sportage compare with other vehicles, and does the automatic feature influence it over a manual transmission

my experience with older kia vehicle's is not good I personally think there junk. Newer models are better, old ones are just very cheaply built. Then again thats why they are fairly inexpensive. Ya get what ya pair for most of the time.

You can check with KBB.com about the Kia value with manual and automatic transmissions. Run it both ways and see.

As kbro stated before, Older Kia's (including the Sportage) were sub- par and although Consumer Reports has no data on the 2000 model, I'd suspect average or below average reliability. However, the newer models are rated as a 'Good Bet" by CR and seem to have no glaring trouble spots from 2005 on.