MOTORING: Kia Sorento 2.2 CRDi LX: Making sense of sensible By Deon Schoeman Deon_Schoeman
To be frank, the Kia Sorento hasn’t ever been on my radar screen. Despite its not inconsiderable bulk, the Korean SUV isn’t strong on charisma, which means it can get lost in the motoring crowd all too easily.
A bolder, filigreed grille emphasises its membership of the Kia family, while the slanted headlights deliver a brighter-eyed look. Also new is the deeper front bumper, with fog lamps neatly tucked into recessed apertures on either side. The second seating row will easily accommodate three occupants, with leg, head and shoulder room to spare. But wait, there’s more: a third seating row can be popped out from under the cargo bay floor, bringing the total seat count to seven.
It offers six-speaker audio, connectivity via Bluetooth, front and rear USBs and an auxiliary jack, hands-free telephony, wireless audio streaming, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and satnav. The touchscreen is neatly integrated into the expansive dashboard, with the climate control switchgear below.
The latter statistic it the important one here, endowing the engine with sufficient lugging power to get the big Sorento off the mark with fair enthusiasm, and ensuring responsive in-gear tractability. However, the Sorento still feels uncharacteristically lazy off the mark, and there’s a distinct lag in reaction to throttle input when overtaking, too.
On the road, the Sorento feels nimbler and more boisterous than expected. There is a measure of lag when pulling off, but it’s easily managed, and is likely to be less noticeable at coastal altitudes.
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