2023 Kia Sorento

Incredible vehicle

Friday, June 25, 2021

After a ton of research on many mid size SUVs, I went on test drives. After driving the 2021 Sorento SX Prestige, the choice was simple. This SUV has safety, comfort, performance, and convience features of vehicles costing many thousands more. The ride quality is outstanding and a pleasure to drive. The power from the turbo charged engine will totally surprise you. KIA is now a manufacturer of quality and value which others better pay attention to. Namely Toyota, Honda and any domestic vehicle on the road today. I will gladly compare my Sorento to ANY vehicle. KIA nailed it. Please, if you are in the market for a mid size SUV, just head to a KIA dealership and check out this amazing vehicle.

very efficient, very comfortable

Tuesday, August 01, 2023

I've had this vehicle for almost a year now. I was hesitant to buy a Kia based on a number of anecdotal horror stories, but I needed a 3-row hybrid on short notice for a school carpool--I just couldn't bear burning gas while sitting in a carline--and this was about the only one I could find so here we are. Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised. It feels solid the way older Kias decidedly do not, it drives very smoothly, and now that I've figured out how to work with the electric/gas engine transition points I can get well over 40mpg in the city, which is 75% of my driving. Mileage does dip a bit in the winter when the gas engine is required to heat the cabin, but even then I've not had a tank below 37. A couple things I do not love: --The beige faux-leather upholstery is comfy in all weather, but it's not wearing particularly well. It already looks worn and a bit faded. --The fact that Apple CarPlay only works when the phone is physically attached via USB is maddening. My last car was a 2017 and CarPlay worked flawlessly via bluetooth. Kia service says there will be an update for this "in a few months," but that was 11 months ago and still nothing...and it will probably come with a hefty price tag. --There is an unnatural delay every time you touch any "button" on the touchscreen, be it the permanent options to the left and right of the screen or live code-driven buttons, before there is any response. I've gotten used to it, but for the first few weeks it was pretty annoying, especially when driving. Now, when I want to, say, change from radio to navigation I'll just touch "nav", look back at the road, and then it'll be there when I look back. Seems like this is something they can fix in future models, and perhaps even with a firmware update. --I live in a mountainous region, and sometimes the transition from electric to gas at slow speeds going uphill can be very herky-jerky. You basically stop going forward for a beat and then lurch onward when the gas kicks in. It's not a big deal and overall the transitions are VERY smooth, but this does happen regularly in that one particular situation. If you don't have occasion to drive very slowly up steep hills, this will never come up. All in all, it's a better car than I thought I was getting and I feel like the $41K sticker is reasonable (it's the EX trimline with all the cool stuff). I had to pay a little bit above that because this was the only EX hybrid available this side of the Mississippi when I needed to buy it, but I imagine those days are over as it looks like there is plenty of inventory today.

Solid build, great look, amazing safety features

Sunday, October 31, 2021

I got the 2022 Sorento for myself after we bought a 2021 Telluride for my wife. Our Sorento is the SX-Prestige, AWD X-Line version. I love the safety features -active lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, active assist braking, collision monitoring and more- and the 360 degree cameras are a great feature when getting in or out of tight spaces. The 2.5L turbo is very impressive, with lots of power and torque, and the handling is fantastic, especially around corners at fast speed. This feels more solid on cornering than the 2018 Tiguan I had, which was much lower to the ground. The mileage is good for an AWD, at 22 city and 27 highway. The cargo space is great, especially if you drop the third row -very easy- which allows for tons of shopping/grocery bags or luggage. I love the design, as well, which takes many cues from the bigger Telluride. The 100,000 mile limited powertrain warranty gives me comfort, as does the bumper to bumper 60k warranty. My previous Ford Escape was half that for bumper to bumper, and only 60k for powertrain, and the transmissionAND the turbo both went out at 60k. Scary! Kia has been on a great streak with quality and design. Can't wait to see how these perform over the years, but my confidence is high. The 2022 Sorento has memory seats, which was missing from the 2021 model and is a great feature when you have multiple drivers. There are some things the Sorento lacks that the Telluride has, and which are available in other countries but not on a North American Sorento. The most notable is the heads-up display, which I find to be a great safety feature on the Telluride. Blind spot monitoring, distance to the car in front, speed, they're all displayed in the heads-up unit -but not available on North American Sorentos. Also missing are hood struts -you have to use a manual prop to hold the hood open, despite hood struts being on Sorentos in other markets. Who knows, maybe they had to trim weight for mileage regulations.