By Ian Strachan.
The fourth generation Kia Sorento is an award-winning ground-up redesign of this popular SUV. It’s bigger, more powerful and better equipped than its predecessor, and hybrid technology ensures it is also more fuel-efficient while giving out lower emissions.
The new Sorento picked up a Car of the Year award for large SUVs, and deservedly so. Kia’s flagship SUV is a pleasure to drive, and combines off-road competence with on-road good manners.
Four wheel drive and seven seats are standard across the range, making this a practical alternative to European 4x4s. Plus you get Kia’s industry leading seven year warranty, making this a serious contender in the Sports Utility Vehicle market.
The latest Sorento has a distinguished, quality feel to it inside and out, with sharper lines and a more elongated appearance. Long gone is the slightly tin can feel to the bodywork of the newly launched Sorento’s of 18 years ago. This is much more solid and substantial.
The latest Sorento is undoubtedly a good looker – much more sophisticated. It has a pleasant profile and sits close to the ground, which gives it a strong side-on presence, helped by the smart 17 inch alloys fitted to my 1.6 T-GDi HEV test car.
Inside the car has a lot more class about it. My test car had attractive black cloth upholstery of a surprisingly high quality. The dash is simple and attractive, with sensibly placed, easily accessible controls and paddle gearshifts.
Interior space is very good, and can be further improved with the 60/40 folding split rear seat which can be folded completely flat. A third row of seats – lifted into place with a simple pull of a toggle – turns it into a true seven-seater. Obviously luggage space is compromised with the extra row of seats in place, but they split 50-50 if required.
A 1.6 direct injection turbocharged petrol engine powers this derivative, delivering a healthy 226 bhp, when combined with the 44.2 kw electric motor. Linked to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, this is a good unit, offering plenty of power. Acceleration, with a 0-60 time of just 8.7 seconds, is surprisingly brisk for a vehicle of this size.
Kia claims fuel consumption of 40.9 mpg in mixed driving, which is impressive for such a big vehicle. And in fact I managed a mile or two more than that to the gallon in a week’s testing.
Specification as standard at this trim level includes LED headlights and daytime driving lights, front and rear fog lights, roof rails, heated front seats and steering wheel, USB ports for all three seat rows, dual-zone climate control, electric, heated door mirrors, a DAB radio with Bluetooth and voice recognition and reversing camera. Surprisingly, the trim level “2” which I tested comes without satellite navigation. In 2021, in a car costing almost £40,000 this certainly should be standard.
Another minor niggle is the lane-keeping safety aid. Like lane keeping systems on most cars, it can’t tell the difference between a white line and a tarmac seam in the road, so you can spend much of the journey fighting the steering wheel. You can switch this feature off, but annoyingly it has to be done for every single journey, rather than as a default.
The Kia Sorento “2” 1.6 T-GDi HEV auto comes on the road at £38,845.
This offering from Kia is a significant improvement on previous models, and with a keen price it will keep other manufacturers on their toes.
