By William C Montgomery
January 4, 2008 -
Heavy frost blanketed Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma, where my sons and I bade farewell to 2007. Thirty hearty souls braved the sub-freezing night for a fly fishing adventure. Predawn light revealed our trucks standing sentinel over the smoldering remains of the previous night’s campfires. Through my billowing breath, I examined ice crystals forming a thousand little shrines on the SUVs’ sheet metal. A thought occurred to me: everyone that made the journey to our pine needle-carpeted glade did so in a heavy-bodied American SUV or pickup. In that early morning chill I wondered, is the Kia Sorento ready to join the club?
The Sorento’s wildly inoffensive design remains unchanged since 2003 (and will do until 2010). Given the temper of the times, it’s no bad thing for an Old School solid rear axle trucklet to maintain relatively diminutive proportions and ape a cute ute (albeit one that doesn’t look like a badly packed linen suit). As an off-road appliance, the Sorento doesn’t put a foot wrong, from its handsome, functional lower-body cladding to its deeply generic jewelry.
Even with the EX' $2500 Luxury Package, the Korean cabin doesn’t hold a candle to its more modern competitors. On paper, the option group looks great: leather upholstery, upgraded audio, dual zone A/C, heated front seats and alloy wheels. In practice, the skins pulled tight over Sorento’s seats must be sourced from malnourished thin-skinned North Korean cows. The audio is what it should be and no more. And the rest doesn’t pass the “Hey Martha, get a load of this” test.
Furthermore, there’s no dressing-up the Kia’s drab, downmarket dash. Panels fit together as closely as Dan Aykroyd’s Norge refrigerator repairman character’s buttocks. The retractable rear cargo cover is fabricated from the same tacky and tenuous vinyl used for old white window shades. The Sorento’s Spartan layout works by bargain basement economy car standards, but this $30k Korean has moved up a league. How you gonna keep ‘em in the showroom once they’ve been to Toyondissan, or, for that matter, Detroit?
On the plus side, the Sorento’s seating positions are excellent and the head room’s adequate for occupants up to 6’3” tall. Rear knee room and bench seat bests the comfort of the similarly-sized ’08 Jeep Liberty.
Fortunately for the Sorento, backwoods fly fishermen care little for luxury–– as long as everything works as advertised and can be cleaned without much fuss. To service the “genuine truck” market to which the Sorento (by necessity) aspires, the Kia must reliably transport lifestylers and their gear to their favorite recreation areas. Excluding worrying reports of long-term mechanical reliability, this is where the Sorento shines.
The EX gets a free-breathing 3.8-liter DOHC 24-valve aluminum block six cylinder engine that revs with all the carefree abandon of a Honda. When your foot reaches into the revolutionary penthouse, the mill cranks out 262hp and 260 ft.-lbs. of torque. The Sorento’s five-speed automatic slushbox lacks the quick wit to satisfy anyone with leaden feet. Its virtue is its ability to delicately swap gears with nary a tremor. BUT– there’s enough twist to foil the rear wheel electronic traction control and induce massive oversteer (file under ‘Fun’).
Equally important, Kia found the middle ground (that eluded Jeep Liberty engineers) between harsh and uncontrollably soft rides. The Sorento manages a comfortable and refined ride without completely losing its composure during abrupt maneuvering. It leans predictably in corners but recovers with little rebound.
Kia claims the little mill is sufficient to tow 5000 lbs. While I highly doubt Sorento owners will attempt to pull trailers of that magnitude, it’s enough juice to easily motivate a full load of camping equipment, fishing tackle and humanity over highways and onto the roads less traveled.
Speaking of which, the Sorento is a REAL SUV in a relatively compact package. The Kia’s solid rear axle provides sufficient articulation for seriously uneven trails. The company claims 8.2” minimum ground clearance and rock friendly approach and departure angles (28.4 degrees / 25.8 degrees). This dog will hunt. Also archetypal: this pot bellied pig tips the scales at 4,277 lbs. and feasts on dead dino juice at the rate of 15/21 mpg.
And speaking of expensive, my 2008 Sorento EX 4×2 test rig rang-in at a healthy $28,395. Opt for 4×4, and KIA’s deeply generic SUV tops $30K. Never mind all the cute ute competition that rears their coiffed heads at that price point (CR-V, RAV-4, Escape, Equinox), but that amount of wedge can make you a Ford Explorer, which is, it must be said, a damn fine rig.
The Sorento EX is a competent driver with a zesty engine and off-road cred that’s seriously hampered by a budget car interior and over-ambitious pricing. The cheaper models– staring in the low 20's with a choice of a smaller engine and driven wheels options– make a LOT more sense. But the Sorento EX is not ready to play with the big boys.
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January 4th, 2008 at 10:20 am
At least it has a 10 year 100K warranty. You won’t find that at Toyhonissan or many other places.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:20 am
A coworker just bought one of these (used) about a month ago.
He’s already looking to get rid of it, too many problems with oil leaks and other bits coming unglued. Keep in mind the Sorento was designed before Kia’s buyout by Hyundai and the subsequent quality improvements.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Kia and Hyundai are far more ‘aspirational’ with their pricing than they were two years ago. Surprisingly, both are finding a lot of difficulty and the reasons vary from model to model.
As far as the Sorrento goes, I can’t see this vehicle ever breaking 25k on a driveout. The only way they’re going to be able to move this metal is to roll out the proverbial red carpets of $5,000+ discounts and highly liberal levels of financing (which has been a Kia hallmark even after the Hyundai buyout).
Out of all the brands out there, Kia’s tend to be the rarest to be seen at over 150k at the dealer sales. In fact, I looked at all of Carmax’s trade-in’s a few weeks ago (several thousands per week) and not a single location showed a Kia with over 150k.
Just checked again. 25 Kia trade-in’s so far this week. Not a one with over 150k and only 4 with over 100k. On the flip side, Hyundai registers 13 out of 38 100k+ vehicles with a 2002 Sonata registering at 200k. Toyota already has 15 vehicles registered with over 200k and over 70% of their vehicles are at least 100k+. That should tell you something right there.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:43 am
One more thing… out of the 90 Toyotas with at least 150,000 miles registered, only 5 of them have any noticeable engine or transmission issues. One of those five was a salvaged vehicle with an ownership history that’s more dramatic than a Jimmy Swaggert tent revival.
Three of the first ten ‘higher’ mileage Hyundais have issues with two of the first three with engine AND transmission problems. Only one vehicle older than 2000 in that entire group has a clean bill of health.
I’m starting to figure out why Hyundai and Kia are having so much trouble converting those Toyota buyers.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Fortunately Hyundai quickly replaced most of the Kia drive trains with their own shortly after buying out Kia. I put 115k hard miles on a Hyundai Tiburon and it was still going strong after that - I saw it around town for another 2 years after that before the girl that ended up with it sold it/traded it in.
I suspect people trade out of the Kia before the 100k mark because of perception and because of how cheap they are…if you do it right you can get them pretty darn cheap, and I’d really be surprised if anyone paid more than 22k for an ex as tested.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Steven - Hyundai used to source engines and transmissions from Mitsubishi. Only when they had their own engines and transmissions in place they started the 10yr/100k mile warranty on the drive train, but they still had a small handful of models with Mitsu drive trains in place until 2001. I believe the 99 model year was when the warranty began.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Fly fishing in backwoods Oklahoma while driving a Kia Sorento. 2008 can only get better……..
January 4th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Orian, I can tell you right now. The Kia’s I’ve seen with near that mileage have multiple issues. You can go to some of the owner review sites on the web. Assembly quality, wear issues, electronics and overall durability for Kia products has been far below the average.
I’m actually a fan of Hyundai. When folks ask me what type of vehicle to buy… and they are looking at the lower end of the midsized market, I usually mention the Sonata (and Fusion). Hyundai is literally trying to dump the vehicle right in order to get sales numbers up, and the quality of that model is very good.
Hyundai has a huge cloud over the horizon though with Toyota’s hybrid system. For about 5k more you can get a comparable vehicle that gets nearly 40 miles to the gallon and Toyota’s 20+ year reputation for quality. In the next few years that price margin will most likely narrow considerably as the hybrid system becomes universal among Toyota’s product line.
Hyundai can offer all the V8’s and features they can fathom but unless they can show that their products are a far better deal than the Toyota offerings, they will have a lot of trouble staying profitable in North America. The fact that their exterior styling ranges from bland to just plain terrible for most of their high volume models isn’t going to help matters either.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Kia: For all your disposable car needs.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I had a rental Sorento last year and I wasn’t overly impressed with it. It felt jittery and top heavy to the point of feeling unsafe. Even at deeply discounted prices there is better value to be had elsewhere.