Kia Sorento 2.4 EX (A) Review
02 Feb 2010|41,815 views
Before we go any further, let me address the concerns of those furiously wagging their heads and raising eye brows in disapproval about my standing statement above.
Surely I’m not disregarding the fact that the front snout of the brand new Sorento is nothing but an innocent continuation of the brand’s design philosophy that has seen itself successfully featured on the Forte sedan and coupe and the Magentis.
But you can’t deny the similarity in the raised smirk from the upward cutting headlamps and the fairly high stance of the Sorento, especially when the Sorento before this one looked like it had taken the design blueprints from the Lexus RX/ Toyota Harriers two generations ago.
Looks aside though, it’s safe to say that Kia has finally realised what everyone else in the segment has some time back – no one really goes off-road with their SUV. So instead of employing the ladder frame design which equipped the older Sorento with superior off-roading capabilities, they’ve gone with a unibody design.
For those of us lost between both those designs, here’s a simple explanation on the difference between them. With the ladder frame design, basically the body, which is light and not load-bearing, is dropped on a frame stiffened to be load-bearing.
Surely I’m not disregarding the fact that the front snout of the brand new Sorento is nothing but an innocent continuation of the brand’s design philosophy that has seen itself successfully featured on the Forte sedan and coupe and the Magentis.
But you can’t deny the similarity in the raised smirk from the upward cutting headlamps and the fairly high stance of the Sorento, especially when the Sorento before this one looked like it had taken the design blueprints from the Lexus RX/ Toyota Harriers two generations ago.
Looks aside though, it’s safe to say that Kia has finally realised what everyone else in the segment has some time back – no one really goes off-road with their SUV. So instead of employing the ladder frame design which equipped the older Sorento with superior off-roading capabilities, they’ve gone with a unibody design.
For those of us lost between both those designs, here’s a simple explanation on the difference between them. With the ladder frame design, basically the body, which is light and not load-bearing, is dropped on a frame stiffened to be load-bearing.
 |
The unibody design on the other hand, instead of relying solely on the platform to support its own weight and stress, benefit from having its structural members like door frames and metal around the windows stiffened, thus spreading the load evenly.
With benefits running along things like being lighter, stiffer and more importantly, less expensive to manufacture, it’s no mystery why so many manufacturers have made the switch to unibody design.
Representing their last offering of 2009, there’s no need for assumptions when we say that the Koreans are doing exactly what the Japanese did in the past to the Europeans. With their average build quality and superior compact engines, the Japanese came in and swept a good chunk of Conti owners off their feet.
 |
Now, with both Honda and Toyota slowly falling behind particularly in the design and build quality department (click here ) to read about Toyota’s horror story), Kia has upped the ante by hiring a celebrated ang moh designer and have been on the rampage in picking up where the Japanese have left off.
Exterior
The business in the front of Kia’s Sorento is pretty muscular and rugged.
You’ve got the two-tone bumper in the front that skirts around the car and the front mug dominated by the gaping Schreyer grille, accentuated by those aggressive and dramatic fog lamps surrounds on the bumper. Very well designed and put together, giving the medium-sized SUV an up market image that you could almost liken to the Lexus I mentioned earlier.
Run past the high no-nonsense bonnet, black bezel wrap-around headlamps and blistered wheel arches of the front and you’re visually carried onto the smooth rising belt line that’s all too familiar on Kia’s current product range, together with the trademark chiselled treatment at the bottom of the side.
Moving towards the rear, you’ll notice that they’ve rid the car of the older C pillar that cut through the second and third windows from the front, just like in the first RX. Instead they’ve thrown in some deceptively thick C pillars that falls neatly behind the third window, giving the Sorento a rear sloping effect that has been seen on mega people movers like the Audi Q7 (…or on the previous RX).
The Sorento continues to communicate it’s no nonsense and tough persona at the back with a pair of generically shaped tail lamps that I’ll be certain to point out, looks original, and additional reflectors on the bumper.
Overall the Sorento continues the design streak Kia’s been on since the Forte hit the news. This SUV looks the part of a modern day SUV that knows what it is and what it was meant to do, to shuttle its owner and their kids around town while towering over everyone else in a lesser automobile.
Exterior
The business in the front of Kia’s Sorento is pretty muscular and rugged.
You’ve got the two-tone bumper in the front that skirts around the car and the front mug dominated by the gaping Schreyer grille, accentuated by those aggressive and dramatic fog lamps surrounds on the bumper. Very well designed and put together, giving the medium-sized SUV an up market image that you could almost liken to the Lexus I mentioned earlier.
Run past the high no-nonsense bonnet, black bezel wrap-around headlamps and blistered wheel arches of the front and you’re visually carried onto the smooth rising belt line that’s all too familiar on Kia’s current product range, together with the trademark chiselled treatment at the bottom of the side.
Moving towards the rear, you’ll notice that they’ve rid the car of the older C pillar that cut through the second and third windows from the front, just like in the first RX. Instead they’ve thrown in some deceptively thick C pillars that falls neatly behind the third window, giving the Sorento a rear sloping effect that has been seen on mega people movers like the Audi Q7 (…or on the previous RX).
The Sorento continues to communicate it’s no nonsense and tough persona at the back with a pair of generically shaped tail lamps that I’ll be certain to point out, looks original, and additional reflectors on the bumper.
Overall the Sorento continues the design streak Kia’s been on since the Forte hit the news. This SUV looks the part of a modern day SUV that knows what it is and what it was meant to do, to shuttle its owner and their kids around town while towering over everyone else in a lesser automobile.
Interior
And that’s the overall feeling you get while driving, but I’ll get to that later.
Inside, Kia has come a long way from the last Sorento. Our test car came with a light brown leather option that took the expensive impressions of the car to the next level, with the leather finding its way on all the seats and the side panels of the SUV.
The centre stack has an all-new design to it that strangely, seems more apt in the Koup instead. Illuminated jagged outlines flank the centre screen and the radio controls on the sides while the rest of the buttons for audio control like volume and track have been neatly arranged just below that. In the second half of the stack large obvious buttons have been installed with a slimmer screen informing of the current chosen set of settings for the air-conditioning temperature and speed.
They’ve even thrown in dual climate control.
To the touch, the buttons on the dash aren’t anything to write home about as they move around when your fingers get itchy and start prodding the available options. The ‘three-cylinder’ instrument cluster, as Kia would call it, although looks good right now, will be some cause for concern in the future as the plastic starts to yellow and forms an ugly ring around the red illuminated readings.
Things only get better as you move to the back. The Sorento now sits 95 mm longer than the one it replaces so although there is enough space for people in the second and third rows, it’s almost impossible trying to squeeze two people in the third for long periods of time with the lack of an elevated seating position. I’m talking about ruling out 2 hour drives if you had any trace of sympathy in your heart for the life forms sitting unnaturally at the back.
Getting to fold the seats down is a challenge in itself. The levers were really hard to pull and forcing them in any direction other than dead centre contorts the plastic housing and gets you releasing it immediately in fear of snapping it. Not a good sign of quality and practicality.
Then, just like in the Sante Fe, only the curb side of the second row folds down and forward to allow passengers to load up the third. Inconvenient to those who actually use the rearmost row but shouldn’t be an issue to the rest of its customers.
And that’s the overall feeling you get while driving, but I’ll get to that later.
Inside, Kia has come a long way from the last Sorento. Our test car came with a light brown leather option that took the expensive impressions of the car to the next level, with the leather finding its way on all the seats and the side panels of the SUV.
The centre stack has an all-new design to it that strangely, seems more apt in the Koup instead. Illuminated jagged outlines flank the centre screen and the radio controls on the sides while the rest of the buttons for audio control like volume and track have been neatly arranged just below that. In the second half of the stack large obvious buttons have been installed with a slimmer screen informing of the current chosen set of settings for the air-conditioning temperature and speed.
They’ve even thrown in dual climate control.
To the touch, the buttons on the dash aren’t anything to write home about as they move around when your fingers get itchy and start prodding the available options. The ‘three-cylinder’ instrument cluster, as Kia would call it, although looks good right now, will be some cause for concern in the future as the plastic starts to yellow and forms an ugly ring around the red illuminated readings.
Things only get better as you move to the back. The Sorento now sits 95 mm longer than the one it replaces so although there is enough space for people in the second and third rows, it’s almost impossible trying to squeeze two people in the third for long periods of time with the lack of an elevated seating position. I’m talking about ruling out 2 hour drives if you had any trace of sympathy in your heart for the life forms sitting unnaturally at the back.
Getting to fold the seats down is a challenge in itself. The levers were really hard to pull and forcing them in any direction other than dead centre contorts the plastic housing and gets you releasing it immediately in fear of snapping it. Not a good sign of quality and practicality.
Then, just like in the Sante Fe, only the curb side of the second row folds down and forward to allow passengers to load up the third. Inconvenient to those who actually use the rearmost row but shouldn’t be an issue to the rest of its customers.
 |
Besides that though, the Sorento reaps the benefits of sitting on the Sante Fe’s chassis with its impressive cargo capacity of 1,047 litres with the third row folded down and 2,052 litres with both rows folded. However with the SUV at full-board, you’ll need to be content with 258 litres.
Driving impressions
First, the seats. Surprisingly supportive, the brown leather wasn’t as taut as I would have liked it to be but was good enough to keep me and my passenger in relative comfort from driving around for the whole day.
Driving most SUV’s in this segment is pretty much like driving a log on wheels.
And it’s no different in the Sorento. Although there is some existing steering feedback, it’s not enough to say it’s ‘involving’, ranking alongside the Chevrolet Captiva I took out some months back.
Acceleration from standstill is a bit of a burden on the 2.4-litre unit that produces its maximum 172 horses at a high 6,000 rpm and with torque peaking at 226 Nm at 3,750 rpm. Paired up to a 6-speed automatic with a very tall first gear ratio, directing all of that power to the front two wheels, the Sorento feels more spritely that it would if power was regulated to all four sides.
Cruising on the expressway is probably where the Sorento is truly home as the engine keeps things to a minimal hum just above 2,000 rpm. When it comes to shove and the Sorento finds the need to overtake, the engine does inform the driver of how hard its working but the sound insulation was still good enough to keep most of the complains out.
Driving impressions
First, the seats. Surprisingly supportive, the brown leather wasn’t as taut as I would have liked it to be but was good enough to keep me and my passenger in relative comfort from driving around for the whole day.
Driving most SUV’s in this segment is pretty much like driving a log on wheels.
And it’s no different in the Sorento. Although there is some existing steering feedback, it’s not enough to say it’s ‘involving’, ranking alongside the Chevrolet Captiva I took out some months back.
Acceleration from standstill is a bit of a burden on the 2.4-litre unit that produces its maximum 172 horses at a high 6,000 rpm and with torque peaking at 226 Nm at 3,750 rpm. Paired up to a 6-speed automatic with a very tall first gear ratio, directing all of that power to the front two wheels, the Sorento feels more spritely that it would if power was regulated to all four sides.
Cruising on the expressway is probably where the Sorento is truly home as the engine keeps things to a minimal hum just above 2,000 rpm. When it comes to shove and the Sorento finds the need to overtake, the engine does inform the driver of how hard its working but the sound insulation was still good enough to keep most of the complains out.
MacPherson Strut’s on the front and the multi-link with coil spring setup on the rear does a much better job of cushioning occupants over the changing driving textures on our roads today. Comparatively, the Sante Fe feels like a cork bobbing around in open waters with its soft suspension.
Should you even consider this?
I love what Kia’s doing these days. They’re parading the best looking everyday cars I’ve seen in a long while and the fact that their fit and finish is average and they throw in a whole lot of goodies (iPod connector, telescopic steering wheel, start/stop button, air-con vents for the rear rows, cruise control, auto headlights etc) into their cars at a competitive price explains the queues and the ballooning sales figured they’ve been seeing.
You should consider this if you’re in the market for a practical people mover that gives you that towering position from the inside and the ability to swallow up two cows and a calf, all while returning gas figures of 6.25 km per litre. Not overly impressive fuel figures when the Suzuki Grand Vitara boasts of 9.9 km per litre.
At $83,999, the front-wheel drive Sorento sits well below the the 2.4 Chevy Captiva ($89,499), 2.4 four-wheel drive Grand Vitara ($97,788), 2.4 Toyota Rav4 ($102,988) and the 2.4 Honda CRV ($110,500).
Agreed, that the car does come with its kinks, like the painfully useless mechanism to fold the seats down and the uncomfortable third row seats. But it’s hard to deny how this, like the rest of the Kia range, is really worth the moolah you’re going to be committing once signed on the dotted lines.
Should you even consider this?
I love what Kia’s doing these days. They’re parading the best looking everyday cars I’ve seen in a long while and the fact that their fit and finish is average and they throw in a whole lot of goodies (iPod connector, telescopic steering wheel, start/stop button, air-con vents for the rear rows, cruise control, auto headlights etc) into their cars at a competitive price explains the queues and the ballooning sales figured they’ve been seeing.
You should consider this if you’re in the market for a practical people mover that gives you that towering position from the inside and the ability to swallow up two cows and a calf, all while returning gas figures of 6.25 km per litre. Not overly impressive fuel figures when the Suzuki Grand Vitara boasts of 9.9 km per litre.
At $83,999, the front-wheel drive Sorento sits well below the the 2.4 Chevy Captiva ($89,499), 2.4 four-wheel drive Grand Vitara ($97,788), 2.4 Toyota Rav4 ($102,988) and the 2.4 Honda CRV ($110,500).
Agreed, that the car does come with its kinks, like the painfully useless mechanism to fold the seats down and the uncomfortable third row seats. But it’s hard to deny how this, like the rest of the Kia range, is really worth the moolah you’re going to be committing once signed on the dotted lines.
Before we go any further, let me address the concerns of those furiously wagging their heads and raising eye brows in disapproval about my standing statement above.
Surely I’m not disregarding the fact that the front snout of the brand new Sorento is nothing but an innocent continuation of the brand’s design philosophy that has seen itself successfully featured on the Forte sedan and coupe and the Magentis.
But you can’t deny the similarity in the raised smirk from the upward cutting headlamps and the fairly high stance of the Sorento, especially when the Sorento before this one looked like it had taken the design blueprints from the Lexus RX/ Toyota Harriers two generations ago.
Looks aside though, it’s safe to say that Kia has finally realised what everyone else in the segment has some time back – no one really goes off-road with their SUV. So instead of employing the ladder frame design which equipped the older Sorento with superior off-roading capabilities, they’ve gone with a unibody design.
For those of us lost between both those designs, here’s a simple explanation on the difference between them. With the ladder frame design, basically the body, which is light and not load-bearing, is dropped on a frame stiffened to be load-bearing.
Surely I’m not disregarding the fact that the front snout of the brand new Sorento is nothing but an innocent continuation of the brand’s design philosophy that has seen itself successfully featured on the Forte sedan and coupe and the Magentis.
But you can’t deny the similarity in the raised smirk from the upward cutting headlamps and the fairly high stance of the Sorento, especially when the Sorento before this one looked like it had taken the design blueprints from the Lexus RX/ Toyota Harriers two generations ago.
Looks aside though, it’s safe to say that Kia has finally realised what everyone else in the segment has some time back – no one really goes off-road with their SUV. So instead of employing the ladder frame design which equipped the older Sorento with superior off-roading capabilities, they’ve gone with a unibody design.
For those of us lost between both those designs, here’s a simple explanation on the difference between them. With the ladder frame design, basically the body, which is light and not load-bearing, is dropped on a frame stiffened to be load-bearing.
|
The unibody design on the other hand, instead of relying solely on the platform to support its own weight and stress, benefit from having its structural members like door frames and metal around the windows stiffened, thus spreading the load evenly.
With benefits running along things like being lighter, stiffer and more importantly, less expensive to manufacture, it’s no mystery why so many manufacturers have made the switch to unibody design.
Representing their last offering of 2009, there’s no need for assumptions when we say that the Koreans are doing exactly what the Japanese did in the past to the Europeans. With their average build quality and superior compact engines, the Japanese came in and swept a good chunk of Conti owners off their feet.
|
Now, with both Honda and Toyota slowly falling behind particularly in the design and build quality department (click here ) to read about Toyota’s horror story), Kia has upped the ante by hiring a celebrated ang moh designer and have been on the rampage in picking up where the Japanese have left off.
Exterior
The business in the front of Kia’s Sorento is pretty muscular and rugged.
You’ve got the two-tone bumper in the front that skirts around the car and the front mug dominated by the gaping Schreyer grille, accentuated by those aggressive and dramatic fog lamps surrounds on the bumper. Very well designed and put together, giving the medium-sized SUV an up market image that you could almost liken to the Lexus I mentioned earlier.
Run past the high no-nonsense bonnet, black bezel wrap-around headlamps and blistered wheel arches of the front and you’re visually carried onto the smooth rising belt line that’s all too familiar on Kia’s current product range, together with the trademark chiselled treatment at the bottom of the side.
Moving towards the rear, you’ll notice that they’ve rid the car of the older C pillar that cut through the second and third windows from the front, just like in the first RX. Instead they’ve thrown in some deceptively thick C pillars that falls neatly behind the third window, giving the Sorento a rear sloping effect that has been seen on mega people movers like the Audi Q7 (…or on the previous RX).
The Sorento continues to communicate it’s no nonsense and tough persona at the back with a pair of generically shaped tail lamps that I’ll be certain to point out, looks original, and additional reflectors on the bumper.
Overall the Sorento continues the design streak Kia’s been on since the Forte hit the news. This SUV looks the part of a modern day SUV that knows what it is and what it was meant to do, to shuttle its owner and their kids around town while towering over everyone else in a lesser automobile.
Exterior
The business in the front of Kia’s Sorento is pretty muscular and rugged.
You’ve got the two-tone bumper in the front that skirts around the car and the front mug dominated by the gaping Schreyer grille, accentuated by those aggressive and dramatic fog lamps surrounds on the bumper. Very well designed and put together, giving the medium-sized SUV an up market image that you could almost liken to the Lexus I mentioned earlier.
Run past the high no-nonsense bonnet, black bezel wrap-around headlamps and blistered wheel arches of the front and you’re visually carried onto the smooth rising belt line that’s all too familiar on Kia’s current product range, together with the trademark chiselled treatment at the bottom of the side.
Moving towards the rear, you’ll notice that they’ve rid the car of the older C pillar that cut through the second and third windows from the front, just like in the first RX. Instead they’ve thrown in some deceptively thick C pillars that falls neatly behind the third window, giving the Sorento a rear sloping effect that has been seen on mega people movers like the Audi Q7 (…or on the previous RX).
The Sorento continues to communicate it’s no nonsense and tough persona at the back with a pair of generically shaped tail lamps that I’ll be certain to point out, looks original, and additional reflectors on the bumper.
Overall the Sorento continues the design streak Kia’s been on since the Forte hit the news. This SUV looks the part of a modern day SUV that knows what it is and what it was meant to do, to shuttle its owner and their kids around town while towering over everyone else in a lesser automobile.
Interior
And that’s the overall feeling you get while driving, but I’ll get to that later.
Inside, Kia has come a long way from the last Sorento. Our test car came with a light brown leather option that took the expensive impressions of the car to the next level, with the leather finding its way on all the seats and the side panels of the SUV.
The centre stack has an all-new design to it that strangely, seems more apt in the Koup instead. Illuminated jagged outlines flank the centre screen and the radio controls on the sides while the rest of the buttons for audio control like volume and track have been neatly arranged just below that. In the second half of the stack large obvious buttons have been installed with a slimmer screen informing of the current chosen set of settings for the air-conditioning temperature and speed.
They’ve even thrown in dual climate control.
To the touch, the buttons on the dash aren’t anything to write home about as they move around when your fingers get itchy and start prodding the available options. The ‘three-cylinder’ instrument cluster, as Kia would call it, although looks good right now, will be some cause for concern in the future as the plastic starts to yellow and forms an ugly ring around the red illuminated readings.
Things only get better as you move to the back. The Sorento now sits 95 mm longer than the one it replaces so although there is enough space for people in the second and third rows, it’s almost impossible trying to squeeze two people in the third for long periods of time with the lack of an elevated seating position. I’m talking about ruling out 2 hour drives if you had any trace of sympathy in your heart for the life forms sitting unnaturally at the back.
Getting to fold the seats down is a challenge in itself. The levers were really hard to pull and forcing them in any direction other than dead centre contorts the plastic housing and gets you releasing it immediately in fear of snapping it. Not a good sign of quality and practicality.
Then, just like in the Sante Fe, only the curb side of the second row folds down and forward to allow passengers to load up the third. Inconvenient to those who actually use the rearmost row but shouldn’t be an issue to the rest of its customers.
And that’s the overall feeling you get while driving, but I’ll get to that later.
Inside, Kia has come a long way from the last Sorento. Our test car came with a light brown leather option that took the expensive impressions of the car to the next level, with the leather finding its way on all the seats and the side panels of the SUV.
The centre stack has an all-new design to it that strangely, seems more apt in the Koup instead. Illuminated jagged outlines flank the centre screen and the radio controls on the sides while the rest of the buttons for audio control like volume and track have been neatly arranged just below that. In the second half of the stack large obvious buttons have been installed with a slimmer screen informing of the current chosen set of settings for the air-conditioning temperature and speed.
They’ve even thrown in dual climate control.
To the touch, the buttons on the dash aren’t anything to write home about as they move around when your fingers get itchy and start prodding the available options. The ‘three-cylinder’ instrument cluster, as Kia would call it, although looks good right now, will be some cause for concern in the future as the plastic starts to yellow and forms an ugly ring around the red illuminated readings.
Things only get better as you move to the back. The Sorento now sits 95 mm longer than the one it replaces so although there is enough space for people in the second and third rows, it’s almost impossible trying to squeeze two people in the third for long periods of time with the lack of an elevated seating position. I’m talking about ruling out 2 hour drives if you had any trace of sympathy in your heart for the life forms sitting unnaturally at the back.
Getting to fold the seats down is a challenge in itself. The levers were really hard to pull and forcing them in any direction other than dead centre contorts the plastic housing and gets you releasing it immediately in fear of snapping it. Not a good sign of quality and practicality.
Then, just like in the Sante Fe, only the curb side of the second row folds down and forward to allow passengers to load up the third. Inconvenient to those who actually use the rearmost row but shouldn’t be an issue to the rest of its customers.
|
Besides that though, the Sorento reaps the benefits of sitting on the Sante Fe’s chassis with its impressive cargo capacity of 1,047 litres with the third row folded down and 2,052 litres with both rows folded. However with the SUV at full-board, you’ll need to be content with 258 litres.
Driving impressions
First, the seats. Surprisingly supportive, the brown leather wasn’t as taut as I would have liked it to be but was good enough to keep me and my passenger in relative comfort from driving around for the whole day.
Driving most SUV’s in this segment is pretty much like driving a log on wheels.
And it’s no different in the Sorento. Although there is some existing steering feedback, it’s not enough to say it’s ‘involving’, ranking alongside the Chevrolet Captiva I took out some months back.
Acceleration from standstill is a bit of a burden on the 2.4-litre unit that produces its maximum 172 horses at a high 6,000 rpm and with torque peaking at 226 Nm at 3,750 rpm. Paired up to a 6-speed automatic with a very tall first gear ratio, directing all of that power to the front two wheels, the Sorento feels more spritely that it would if power was regulated to all four sides.
Cruising on the expressway is probably where the Sorento is truly home as the engine keeps things to a minimal hum just above 2,000 rpm. When it comes to shove and the Sorento finds the need to overtake, the engine does inform the driver of how hard its working but the sound insulation was still good enough to keep most of the complains out.
Driving impressions
First, the seats. Surprisingly supportive, the brown leather wasn’t as taut as I would have liked it to be but was good enough to keep me and my passenger in relative comfort from driving around for the whole day.
Driving most SUV’s in this segment is pretty much like driving a log on wheels.
And it’s no different in the Sorento. Although there is some existing steering feedback, it’s not enough to say it’s ‘involving’, ranking alongside the Chevrolet Captiva I took out some months back.
Acceleration from standstill is a bit of a burden on the 2.4-litre unit that produces its maximum 172 horses at a high 6,000 rpm and with torque peaking at 226 Nm at 3,750 rpm. Paired up to a 6-speed automatic with a very tall first gear ratio, directing all of that power to the front two wheels, the Sorento feels more spritely that it would if power was regulated to all four sides.
Cruising on the expressway is probably where the Sorento is truly home as the engine keeps things to a minimal hum just above 2,000 rpm. When it comes to shove and the Sorento finds the need to overtake, the engine does inform the driver of how hard its working but the sound insulation was still good enough to keep most of the complains out.
MacPherson Strut’s on the front and the multi-link with coil spring setup on the rear does a much better job of cushioning occupants over the changing driving textures on our roads today. Comparatively, the Sante Fe feels like a cork bobbing around in open waters with its soft suspension.
Should you even consider this?
I love what Kia’s doing these days. They’re parading the best looking everyday cars I’ve seen in a long while and the fact that their fit and finish is average and they throw in a whole lot of goodies (iPod connector, telescopic steering wheel, start/stop button, air-con vents for the rear rows, cruise control, auto headlights etc) into their cars at a competitive price explains the queues and the ballooning sales figured they’ve been seeing.
You should consider this if you’re in the market for a practical people mover that gives you that towering position from the inside and the ability to swallow up two cows and a calf, all while returning gas figures of 6.25 km per litre. Not overly impressive fuel figures when the Suzuki Grand Vitara boasts of 9.9 km per litre.
At $83,999, the front-wheel drive Sorento sits well below the the 2.4 Chevy Captiva ($89,499), 2.4 four-wheel drive Grand Vitara ($97,788), 2.4 Toyota Rav4 ($102,988) and the 2.4 Honda CRV ($110,500).
Agreed, that the car does come with its kinks, like the painfully useless mechanism to fold the seats down and the uncomfortable third row seats. But it’s hard to deny how this, like the rest of the Kia range, is really worth the moolah you’re going to be committing once signed on the dotted lines.
Should you even consider this?
I love what Kia’s doing these days. They’re parading the best looking everyday cars I’ve seen in a long while and the fact that their fit and finish is average and they throw in a whole lot of goodies (iPod connector, telescopic steering wheel, start/stop button, air-con vents for the rear rows, cruise control, auto headlights etc) into their cars at a competitive price explains the queues and the ballooning sales figured they’ve been seeing.
You should consider this if you’re in the market for a practical people mover that gives you that towering position from the inside and the ability to swallow up two cows and a calf, all while returning gas figures of 6.25 km per litre. Not overly impressive fuel figures when the Suzuki Grand Vitara boasts of 9.9 km per litre.
At $83,999, the front-wheel drive Sorento sits well below the the 2.4 Chevy Captiva ($89,499), 2.4 four-wheel drive Grand Vitara ($97,788), 2.4 Toyota Rav4 ($102,988) and the 2.4 Honda CRV ($110,500).
Agreed, that the car does come with its kinks, like the painfully useless mechanism to fold the seats down and the uncomfortable third row seats. But it’s hard to deny how this, like the rest of the Kia range, is really worth the moolah you’re going to be committing once signed on the dotted lines.
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Car Information
Kia Sorento 2.4 EX (A)
CAT B|Petrol|11.1km/L
Horsepower
130kW (174 bhp)
Torque
226 Nm
Acceleration
11.1sec (0-100km /hr)
This model is no longer being sold by local distributor
All Used Kia Sorento
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