At its core the minivan is basically a family/people hauler that is designed to get as many people from one of those categories and all their stuff from one place to another, be it a busy soccer mom or corporate executives on their way to the airport, the minivan becomes the perfect choice. Therein lies that difficulty any designer has, adding swooping roof lines or an angled rear look takes away from the space made to put the people and their stuff, as it turns out this vehicle is just a box on wheels as that is really all that there is left to work within the end.
So how to make a minivan more exciting and enjoyable to drive is the question that all designers are faced with when trying to come up with something new. Last year Kia came up with the answer to that question with the newly redesigned minivan that should allow it to make the move from a minivan that many rental companies are using, to minivan that shoppers can’t ignore because of a new design and included comfort elements that could not be ignored with the new 2015 version of the Sedona.
Over the past couple of years Kia has redesigned pretty much their complete line-up giving all their vehicles a fresh new look that has catapulted the manufacture into the mainstream of the American automobile world with great new looks, designs and features that will keep their vehicles very completive in the market. Last year it was time for the Sedona to come of age and receive a badly needed facelift from the inside out!
On the exterior the Sedona carries the classic Kia family grill that works very well on the large front end, with athletic lines that sweep rearward from the front, they define the new look of the Sedona. The designers have tried to give the minivan as sporty of a look as possible, with a sweeping roofline that fades slightly to the rear, couple that with some robust molded body panels giving the minivan a somewhat manly look, Craig of course was quick to point this out and it made him feel better about driving around alone in the Sedona!
This all lead to the rear of the Sedona where one of Deanne’s favorite extras was located on the SXL model an automatic Smart Powered Liftgate comes standard, getting the gate up can be accomplished in a few different ways, one by the push of a button on the roof from the driver’s seat, two a push of the key fob or three our personal favorite was by just approaching the rear gate and standing for 3 seconds it would lift automatically, take that Ford no extra foot kicking movements necessary!
On the inside Kia puts it best on their website telling the story that the Sedona is ‘aggressive and refined, your getaway vehicle and lounge on the go’. This is the first time we have heard the word ‘lounge’ used to refer to a vehicle that we have driven, but after a week inside of the Sedona we were more than ready to use words like this to describe the Kia Sedona.
The lounge continued to shine even in the second row seating with what Kia calls First-Class Lounge seating. Quite the name for a second row of seats and we found out why when we Craig’s mom Pat and our friend Laura to Salt Lake on a Trader Joes expedition right before Valentines Day. Our passengers discovered how the seats would slide back and actually recline somewhat like a small Lazy-Boy, this turned out to be a great addition for those in the back for the kids when on a very long trip, they did point out the seats would have to be all the way back for this to work for adults and would limit the rear seating leg room.
Up front for mom and dad the lounge of course had not been forgotten, with two-tone leather seats that were both heated and cooled, a center console that could store most anything and a lower glove box that was actually cooled, what more could a mom ask for but a place to keep the drinks cool on a family vacation.
Standard was also a dual sunroof, or one for the front and one for the rear passengers, the designers once again have thought of everything by adding sunshades to not only the sunroofs but also all the rear side windows once again adding to that lounge appeal of the Sedona.
Tech-centric was how the Sedona is described by Kia and we had to agree, the center cluster was beautiful and easy to understand with a large LED screen in the center that could be changed to display different functions, everything from navigation, SirriusXM, HD Radio and applications like Pandora and Yelp.
The Tech-centric center cluster also included a surround view monitor when backing the vehicle, in other words there was a camera located on every side of the Sedona giving a birds eye view making it much easier to back into or out of a very tight grocery store parking lot. There was also an included function that would allow the owner to Geo-Fence the minivan within a certain driving area, an alert would be sent to the owner if it went out of that area. So much for the kids taking the minivan and going somewhere they were not supposed to, this type of application would have gotten Craig into trouble every time he borrowed his parent’s car!
The Sedona comes with a powerful 3.3 liter gasoline direct injected V6 engine that produces more than enough horsepower at 276 with 248 pd.-ft. of torque. It is also the only minivan on the market that can be had with a trailer hitch and will pull up to 3500 pounds, enough to get a small camping trailer or a pair of water craft, along on the family weekend adventure. We averaged right around 20 mpg for the week with the Sedona, not fantastic but not bad for such a large family hauler.
Our week with the Sedona was very enjoyable, even Craig choose to take the more manly minivan out when he had the chance, there was also an included rear seat entertainment system that would help with keeping the kids entertained on those long family vacations.
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