Hard to
believe that we’re only at the beginning of March 2015 and the car industry is
already foisting off on us the wares of 2016. Used to be that this didn’t
happen until the fall, but the car biz has changed – now we’re offered next
year’s car when this year has just begun.
Which
brings us to the 2016 Kia Sorento, a
fairly plush crossover SUV that aims to boost Kia’s image, much like the luxo
barge K900 sedan. The Sorento
is the sister ship, in a way, of the Hyundai Santa Fe (Hyundai owns Kia and the two companies’ cars
are very much alike) and competes in the midlevel crossover/SUV segment beloved
by mall mavens because of its deft combination of comfort, style, interior
space and an ability to hop curbs when the mall parking gets crowded.
The Sorento comes in a number of
different guises, starting at under $25,000 for the plain-Jane
front-wheel-drive model L, with the 2.4-liter, 185-horsepower four-cylinder
engine; its fuel economy is 22/29 mpg, city/highway. Most buyers, however, will
opt upwards, choosing between a turbocharged 240-horse, 2-liter engine or the
top version, a 3.3-lliter V6, with 290 horsepower, and fuel economy figures of
17/23 mpg, city/highway. All Sorentos drive
through a six-speed automatic transmission.
If
you’re hauling things, the turbo car will drag 3,500 pounds and the V6 will tow
5,000 pounds. Not that you buy a car like this for a lot of tow duty, but it’s
there if you need it.
Our
test Sorento,
with a sticker price of $46,695, was the top-of-the-line SXL version, outfitted
with the V6 engine, all-wheel-drive, and the $2,500 tech package, which
includes Xenon HID headlights, and the by-now usual nanny warnings, such as
lane departure, forward collision and adaptive cruise control. There’s also a
$200 charge for “snow white pearl paint,” which raises this question – if I
wanted just plain white, instead of snow white pearl, is the price $200 less?
Is there any logical reason for charging an extra $200 for what is simply
another shade of white? Oh, I forgot…. they charge extra because they can. And
the buyer, dazzled by the prospect of a gleaming new car, after eight or nine
years with a beaten-up sedan that has two dents, fore and aft, just ain’t gonna
notice that wee extra charge.
Now
that we’re in our snow white pearl SXL, with the extra-soft Nappa leather and
the panoramic glass sunroof, what’s it like?
It’s
actually quite comfy. You can get these cars with seating for five or seven. We
had the seven-passenger version and the wayback seats were spacious enough to
hold a couple of adults for that short trip across town. Cargo space, with all
the rear seats down, is 73.5 cubic feet, about average for a car like this (and
not much different from my 16-year-old Lexus RX300, showing how cars don’t
change all that much).
On the
road, the Sorento is very
quiet and settles into the fast lane of any given freeway quite readily. As
you’re gazing at the speedometer needle as it hovers around 70 mph, you might
wonder why a seven-passenger SUV has a 160 mph speedometer. It’s not going to
get anywhere near that, even if you fly the beast over the Germany and take it
on the autobahn (or, more realistically, hop over to Nevada and run it at top
speed on one of that state’s many lonely roads). Car and Driver lists the Sorento’s top speed as 120 mph.
So why 160 mph on the speedo? Chalk it up to the marketing people.
Given
that the Sorento holds a
comfortable place in the niche of midsize SUVs, it’s nonetheless wise to have a
look at some of its competitors – the Nissan Murano, Toyota Highlander (and
Forerunner), Ford Explorer, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Honda Pilot and the Kia’s sister ship, the Hyundai
Santa Fe.
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