Usually when I test drive a vehicle I already know a great deal about it. With the Kia Sorento I did not. I had some assumptions. For example, I assumed that the Sorento was related to Kia’s minivan, the Sedona, much like the Honda Pilot is related to the Honda Odyssey. (Click on the hyperlinks to read my reviews of related vehicles.) After all, the Sorento and Sedona share the same 3.5 liter V6. Car-based SUVs are the hot thing right now because of how they combine the feel of a car with the looks and utility of an SUV, so I assumed that the Sorento was one. After all, Kia is owned by Hyundai, and Hyundai’s Santa Fe SUV is car-based. Finally, the Sorento has the curvy styling that car-based SUVs often have but truck-based ones rarely do.

But there I was on my test drive, immediately after test driving the Santa Fe, and the Sorento drove nothing like the Hyundai SUV. The Santa Fe had a smooth ride and, for an SUV, tight steering. The Sorento had a slightly jittery ride and loose steering. It didn’t feel like a car-based SUV. It felt like a conventional truck-based SUV. I remarked to the salesman that the Sorento rode as if it had a live rear axle (a heavy, solid axle with integral differential connecting the two wheels), like a truck. He said he didn’t think so. But then he was a Hyundai salesman. The dealership sold both brands, but he didn’t deal much with Kias. So he wasn't sure.

Back at the dealership, I peeked under the rear end of the Sorento. Sure enough, live rear axle. No car-like independent rear suspension here. Under the hood the engine points north-south, not east-west like in most car-based SUVs and all minivans. The Sorento’s chassis, it turns out, has nothing in common with those of the Sante Fe and Sedona. It’s its own thing.

This is important to know because car-based SUVs and truck-based SUVs offer significantly different mixes of strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, the Sorento isn’t directly comparable to car-based SUVs like the Hyundai Santa Fe, Ford Escape, Toyota Highlander, and Honda Pilot. It’s much more comparable to other truck-based SUVs like the Jeep Liberty, Chevrolet TrailBlazer/GMC Envoy, Ford Explorer, Nissan Pathfinder, and Toyota 4Runner. Should you be looking at car-based or truck-based SUVs? If the latter, is the Kia the way to go?

Kia Sorento Reliability

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Styling

In base LX trim, this isn’t a pretty truck. The blame goes to the standard steel wheels. They look like something off a Soviet Lada, and clash with the fancy bodywork. This isn’t hard to fix: spend $450 for the optional alloy wheels. Or buy the EX model.

Once the wheels are taken care of, this is a very good-looking truck. It manages to look stylish and sophisticated, even elegant, while still looking rugged, as an SUV should. Credit the combination of Lexus RX 300-like curves with a strong stance. With the EX, the cladding is a different color. The Sorento looks sharp either way—as long as it has the alloys. (I think I’ve gotten that point across now.)

Inside the Sorento is equally stylish, especially in EX form with leather. In the LX the center of the dash and the center console are covered with a vast expanse of black plastic. This makes the interior look sparse, even cheap. (The Ford Escape similarly suffered until this year.) In the EX fake wood takes the place of this black plastic. While I’m no fan of fake wood—and the stuff in the Sorento could be more convincing—I do prefer it here. It makes for a warmer interior. I like how the “wood” runs vertically down each side of the center stack into the center console. The metallic trim that is currently fashionable might be better than either the black plastic or the “wood,” especially with dark leather, but it’s not (yet) an option here (except for a couple strips on the steering wheel hub).

With the EX’s optional Luxury Package, some plastic wood covers the top portion of the steering wheel rim. I’ve driven cars with real wood in this area in the past, and have always hated it. It tends to be slippery all the time and finger-burning hot in the summer. I don’t know how hot the plastic wood will get, but at least I did not find it too slippery.

Aside from the black plastic and fake wood, the interior materials generally look and feel nicer than those in a GM or Ford product. I’d even say they’re about up to those in the Acura MDX. Any Toyota or Lexus SUV, though, does better. But you pay for the nicer materials in those SUVs, and then some.

Accommodations

The front seats are quite nice, especially in leather. They have the moderately firm feel typically found in Japanese luxury vehicles. They are large enough to look and feel substantial. Many seats these days, even in fairly large vehicles, strike me as designed for ¾ scale people. Not these.

The driving position is SUV-high. From the driver’s seat the hood is not even visible, unlike in most SUVs. (In the Hyundai Santa Fe, for instance, the hood bulges very noticeably over each wheel.) People who like an expansive forward view will be happy here. Those who like to see the forward edge of the hood, on the other hand…

The Sorento is not quite 180 inches long. This makes it roughly ten inches shorter than the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, Ford Explorer, or recently redesigned 4Runner, Even the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Nissan Pathfinder are a couple of inches longer. The Sorento’s relatively compact exterior is bound to have consequences inside. These consequences can be found in rear seat legroom and cargo area, where the Sorento is more compact than midsize despite the truck’s positioning.

The rear seat is just adequate for average-sized men. Kneeroom is a bit tight. The cushion is too low to the floor for good thigh support—a common problem in truck-based body-on-frame SUVs because the separate frame forces the floor to be higher. Finally, unlike in many SUVs, the Sorento’s rear seatbacks do not recline. On the plus side, shoulder room is good enough for three people. All in all, most compact car-based SUVs, such as the Ford Escape, the Honda CR-V, and Hyundai Santa Fe, offer a larger, more comfortable rear seat for two adults. Most truck-based SUVs also do better, though not by as large a margin.

The cargo area in the Sorento is similarly compact. Though the Santa Fe is a couple inches shorter in length, it can carry more stuff. So can any mid-sized SUV. In cargo capacity, the Sorento roughly matches the typical compact SUV, such as the Ford Escape or Jeep Liberty. It’s enough for many people, but clearly some people need more or larger SUVs would not sell as well as they do.

As in all SUVs, the rear seat folds in two sections for more cargo room. This is not easily done with the Sorento. Folding the seats requires three steps: remove the headrest, tip the cushion, then fold the seatback. The salesman and I had a hard time getting the catches on the cushions to release. After playing with them a little while I could generally get them to release, but I never figured out what made the difference. A nice touch: holes are provided in the cushions to store the removed headrests.

On the Road

For a 3.5 liter 24-valve V6, the Sorento’s engine is pretty weak. Power peaks at 192 horsepower, about what you’d expect from a 2.7 liter these days. Mid-range power, represented by the torque peak, is roughly equivalent to a decent 3.2 liter engine. I don’t know why Korean engines lag the best in power per liter, but they do. The 3.5 liter sixes in the Honda Pilot and Nissan Pathfinder produce nearly fifty more horses, and are also considerably stronger in the midrange.

Clearly, acceleration is affected. Though power feels pretty good off the line, passing on the highway will leave you wishing for more oomph. This is also not the smoothest, most refined-sounding six to be found. This engine must work pretty hard to move the Sorento’s 4,250 pounds, and it lets you know this. It’s nothing so bad as the strained racket emanating from under the hood of a Mitsubishi Outlander, but it can’t compare to the sixes in the Pathfinder or TrailBlazer/Envoy. The six in the Jeep Liberty is a fairly close match.

Many people who prefer a truck-based SUV do so because they can tow heavier loads. However, the Sorento’s towing capacity of 3,500 pounds is about equal that of car-based SUVs, and well short of the typical truck-based SUV. I have been told by planecrazy that the hitch is the limiting factor, and that with a better hitch the Sorento’s towing capacity increases to 5,500 pounds.

I’ve already spoken a bit about ride and handling. The Sorento rides and handles like a good but not great truck-based SUV. The variable steering effort is too light at anything below highway speeds. The fingertip-light effort at parking lot speeds might be helpful, but the steering does not firm up nearly quickly enough as speed builds. Steering effort is similarly light in the TrailBlazer and Grand Cherokee, but not in some other truck-based SUVs, and certainly not in most car-based SUVs. I guess it’s a truck thing.

Lean in turns is definitely not car-like. The compact dimensions make the Sorento a bit more nimble than most truck-based SUVs, but that’s not saying a whole lot. Overall, the Sorento has a good stable feel to it, safe but hardly sporting. In general, most car-based SUVs are considerably more fun to drive. They respond more quickly to steering inputs and provide a much more direct connection to the road. Some truck-based SUVs are also more fun to drive: the Pathfinder and Liberty spring to mind.

The ride was trucky enough to tip me off that this was no car-based SUV. I could feel the rear axle dancing a bit over minor road imperfections. Nothing uncomfortable, but definitely there. The TrailBlazer and Envoy suppress the live axle jitters considerably better, but most other SUVs with a live rear axle do no better or worse than the Kia. Larger bumps and potholes are absorbed pretty well. Aside from the live axle effect the Sorento felt much like the luxury vehicle it aspires to be, substantial and composed. Low noise levels help create an impression of luxury and refinement. Road and wind noise are especially well suppressed for this type of vehicle. In general, the Sorento rides better than it handles. People who care more about luxury than sporty handling will likely be happy with it.

I did not take the Sorento off-road. Rear-wheel-drive is the standard setup. Two four-wheel-drive systems are available. With the basic system four-wheel-drive must be engaged by turning a rotary switch. This is a part-time system, not for use on dry pavement. The Luxury Package available on the EX includes a full-time automatic all-wheel-drive system. This package costs $500 more than the same package with the two-wheel-drive EX, suggesting that this is the price of the more sophisticated system. With either system, low-range can be engaged with the rotary switch. The presence of this low-range distinguishes the Sorento from all car-based SUVs as well as those from BMW and Mercedes. It should enhance the capability of the Sorento off-road. But I’m not clear how this fits with the Sorento’s luxury positioning. I guess as well as it does with all the other luxurious truck-based SUVs out there.

Pricing

For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

The following is from when the review was originally written:

Kia stresses that the Sorento starts under $20,000. It does, but that’s rear-wheel-drive with those ugly steel wheels. Add the alloys, and you’re at $20,500, still not bad. Add the $520 anti-lock brakes and the $1,830 Luxury Package (heated leather, automatic climate control, in-dash CD changer, full-time all-wheel-drive) to a four-wheel-drive EX, as with the truck I drove, and the sticker gets to $26,945. The typical dealer discount brings this to about $26,500. (A couple of other options can add an additional grand.) A far cry from $20,000, so I was shocked at first. But then so equipped the Sorento is a premium SUV. Most comparable SUVs are considerably more expensive. And when you consider what the Luxury Package included, it seems very reasonably priced.

Update:

The Sorento's closest competitors are the Jeep Liberty and 2006 Suzuki Grand Vitara. The former is about the same price as the Kia, while the latter is about $4,000 less than either.

Last Words

In terms of performance and interior space, the Sorento is merely acceptable. It is not as good as the best truck-based SUVs in any functional area I can think of. But it’s not too much worse either, except maybe in terms of engine power. So acceptable will likely be acceptable enough for many people.

Especially since the Sorento looks more upscale in and out than any other SUV for under $35,000, while undercutting most competitors by thousands of dollars. The major exception is the Jeep Liberty, which is worth a look, especially for people who will be going off-road or like firmer steering.

Then there is the whole matter of car- vs. truck-based. I personally prefer how car-based SUVs drive, with their sharper steering, tighter handling, smoother rides, and better rear seats. But for those who desire the off-road abilities of a real truck, especially if it is an awfully pretty leather-lined truck, then the Sorento is an amazingly good value.

Update: The new 2006 Grand Vitara is much less expensive and well worth a look.

To learn more about my reliability research and sign up to participate in it, or to perform thorough up-to-date new car price comparisons, visit www.truedelta.com. A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.

My reviews of related vehicles:
Jeep Liberty
Kia Sportage
Suzuki Grand Vitara
Amount Paid (US$): 28000
Model and Options: EX with Lux Pkg and ABS