It’s rare for a new arrival
to spring a surprise on me. Usually, what we get is what I know, from the
Suzuki Celerio through to the Ferrari 488. So I was expecting the Kia Sorento to be big and boring, well priced
and well backed, with most of its ‘stuff’ carried over from the Hyundai Santa
Fe that fills exactly the same slot in the blue team from South Korea.
But it’s not. It’s a
surprise. And a very nice one.
The Sorento is good looking
and refined, very nicely finished, great value, and spun from the Kia Carnival
of the red team instead of the Santa Fe.
In short, it’s a winner. And
that’s something that’s also reflected in the best-yet ANCAP safety score for
an SUV and the third best rating overall.
So, instead of thinking
about what’s happening, I’m asking why it’s happening. And I’m coming back to
the Avis advertising slogan from the 1960s - ‘We try harder’.
Avis sprang the tagline
because it was a perennial number two behind Hertz in the rental company
business, just as Kia
is number two behind Hyundai.
So Kia is trying harder, in
everything from the body design work by Peter Schreyer to the seven-year
warranty that leads the car business in Australia.
Customers are now getting
the benefits, as I discover during a week with the Sorento. For a start,
instead of being developed from Hyundai’s SUV platform under the Santa Fe it is
twinned with the Carnival, so the basic building blocks are more car-like.
I’ve already driven the
Santa Fe, but the Kia
equivalent is considerably better looking - not just in the body shaping but
the layout and finish of the cabin. Even the sweep of the windscreen surround,
and how it frames the road ahead, is a massive change and provides a great
view.
It’s also more plush and
refined than the Santa Fe, as well as a range of rivals including the Nissan
Pathfinder, with great suspension and a nicely isolated cabin. Nothing I
encounter goes remotely close to threatening the suspension tuning developed in
Australia by Graeme Gambold.
It’s a full seven-seater and
the Platinum turbodiesel test car also comes with all-wheel drive, although the
two-tonne towing capacity is nothing special. There is a front-drive petrol
model, but a lot of seven-seater buyers are looking for an SUV with a diesel.
Performance is good, economy
is good, and the car sits quietly and comfortably at any legal speed. It also
stops well enough, something I cannot say about the Hyundai Tucson I’ve also
been driving.
There is a system to lock
the four-wheel drive with a 50:50 power split, not that many will be going off
the bitumen and a lot of owners will only take the front-drive version with
petrol power.
The safety equipment is
top-notch, from six airbags to a rear-traffic alert and smart cruise control as
well as lane-keeping assistance, but it’s little things like a full-sized alloy
spare and standard satnav across the range that show the goodness of the Sorento.
The best thing about the
car, among many good things, is the cabin. It’s a cut above anything that’s
come from Kia in the past and is getting close to an Audi from Korea. That’s
reflected in the design work, but also the choice of materials and the way they
go together.
VERDICT
The Sorento is one of the very best
Korean cars yet and one of the very best SUVs I’ve driven this year. It’s more
than qualified for The Tick.
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