2021 Kia Sorento first drive review: Another home run

Kia builds good automobiles these days, a thing I was reminded of by the Telluride I reviewed not long back. That 3-row SUV is one particular of the finest in its phase, although it may possibly be extra motor vehicle than some men and women want. If this appears like you, I have great news: You can drive house in a 3-row utility motor vehicle which is a minimal scaled-down and a bit extra economical than the Telluride, all with out at any time leaving your neighborhood Kia vendor. The 2021 Sorento SUV distills much of its significant brother’s goodness down into a trimmer, and some may possibly say even extra elegant, package.

A handsome hauler

The fourth-generation Sorento is much extra rugged-looking than its rounded predecessor, resembling a cross amongst the pint-sized Seltos and much much larger Telluride. Common LED headlights punctuate its entrance end, whilst the coarsely textured grille is extra sculptural than what you can come across on other Kias. This vehicle’s entrance and sides are beautifully carried out, although its rear is a bit active, with much too many creases and some Audi-inspired fake exhaust outlets in the bumper. At least this Sorento’s Sapphire Blue paint is breathtaking, even on a drab Michigan day.

The Sorento is available in five different trim levels, with either entrance- or all-wheel drive readily available across the vary. Accentuating this SUV’s flanks, six independent wheel types are readily available, ranging amongst 17 and twenty inches in diameter. The design found below is equipped with the premier rollers available, which also have a gloss-black complete.

A spacious, thoughtfully intended cabin

In maintaining with its desirable human body, the Sorento’s inside is very great, at least in higher-end SX Prestige trim. You can find a great deal of smooth plastic, the quilted leather-based seating surfaces look good, and its textured trim pieces include some visual interest with out getting extremely active. A lot of Telluride influence is obvious as properly, from the placement of the seat-heater switches to the style of the doorway pulls to the slick-emotion mechanical shifter. In general, this inside is relaxed, spacious and properly crafted, but it can be not very perfect.

Unusually, Kia resolved to go with both actual physical switches and contact-sensitive buttons for the weather-regulate program. All of these are evidently labeled and quick to use, getting mounted relatively higher on the dashboard, but it can be odd owning both kinds of controls correct upcoming to every single other. Just choose one particular style and go with that (ideally the actual physical types, Okay?).

An additional odd aspect in this Kia’s cabin is the arrangement of its air vents. The trapezoid-formed principal HVAC outlets are large and quick to alter for movement and way, but you can find a little supplemental vent below every single of all those which is of questionable usefulness. They swivel slightly from facet to facet, but you should not offer much air and are not in a especially valuable location.

In the same way, you can find a thing odd about the dashboard structure. Like so many automobiles these days, the Sorento is readily available with a digital instrument cluster, one particular spanning twelve.three inches. Interesting and extremely legible, this panel will make it a cinch to continue to keep observe of essential stats like speed, mileage and fuel usage. The challenge, however, is the housing that surrounds this exhibit. Off to the still left, you can find a tab-like section that extends over and above the meter-cluster housing. It appears to be thoroughly out of put, like it can be supposed to have buttons or a thing on it. Alternatively, it can be just a vacant extension of shiny black plastic, seemingly with no goal.

Talking of displays, two sizes are available in the new Sorento. Lesser types aspect an eight-inch touchscreen, but increased-end variants come with a vivid and colorful ten.two-incher. This panel is house to an great infotainment program which is snappy and intuitive. For included versatility, Apple CarPlay and Android Car are common across the design lineup.

Contrary to some of its rivals, such as the Nissan Murano, Honda Passport and Jeep Cherokee, this new Sorento presents 3 rows of seats, in both six- and 7-passenger configurations. As for comfort, you may possibly be astonished just how accommodating this Kia is. Its entrance buckets are great, and so are the second-row chairs, getting a great deal spacious for grownup passengers. This SUV’s rear-most bench is hospitable, much too, even if the bottom cushion is essentially on the ground, which places your knees at chin-level when seated. Still, you can find more than enough headroom and legroom for grownup passengers to survive.

Powertrain options

The new Sorento will be readily available with a whopping 4 different powertrains. This includes a foundation, the natural way aspirated motor, a conventional hybrid drivetrain, a plug-in hybrid powertrain (which will be readily available sometime upcoming 12 months) and the featuring in my tester: a two.five-liter turbo-4, offering 281 horsepower and 311 pound-toes of torque. That twist, which is readily available during a wide vary, hits with Blitzkrieg speed, taking pictures the Sorento forward when you give it the spurs. These types of antics can end result in a bit of torque steer, from time to time triggering my entrance-drive tester’s tiller to squirm. That motor, in spite of pulling like a mule, is impressively easy and tranquil, if a contact grumbly when working tricky.

An eight-speed computerized transmission is common with that two.five-liter turbocharged motor. Somewhat than owning a conventional torque converter, it attributes a twin moist-clutch style. Even though this configuration delivers blazingly brief gear modifications, its swiftness comes at the expenditure of refinement. Sad to say, this transmission does not answer the natural way at low speeds, emotion disconnected as you implement throttle to commence accelerating from a prevent. It also judders faintly when using off. I am not positive why Kia engineers resolved to go this route because many conventional automatics are a great deal brief, but the motor vehicle would have in all probability been far better served by a thing with a torque converter.

The real-planet fuel financial system this Sorento deliveries is very outstanding, specially when you look at its solid overall performance. In my fingers, it averaged 27.two miles per gallon in accordance to the onboard laptop or computer. That’s far better than its advertised combined score of twenty five mpg. In metropolis driving, this motor vehicle is rated at 22 mpg, and on the highway it really should return 29 mpg.

Dynamically decent

The Sorento’s powertrain is a bit of a blended bag, but the driving dynamics are strong. Its steering is easy but unremarkable, like just about any other crossover readily available these days. The trip top quality, however, is great — supple still properly managed at the exact same time.

Of study course, a vary of different driving modes is available, with Sport altering the vehicle’s truly feel most drastically. It sharpens the throttle reaction, just about to the stage it gets to be jumpy, quickens the shifts, holds onto decrease gears and alters the digital instrument cluster’s visual appearance.

A quantity of innovative driver aids are common, such as matters like computerized crisis braking and pedestrian detection. Obtainable goodies contain blind-spot checking, rear cross-website traffic alert and lane-maintaining help, which can help the Sorento observe like a locomotive. This aspect is severely efficient, under no circumstances sawing at the steering wheel or wigging out when lane markers vanish. In point, the Sorento’s lane-centering program is top-quality to the one particular in the Telluride I reviewed not long back. My Sorento tester also attributes adaptive cruise regulate with prevent-and-co capability and a crisp surround-watch digital camera program that will make parking in tight areas a breeze.

An great choice

Apart from a handful of questionable style possibilities and a fewer-than-best transmission, the 2021 Kia Sorento SX Prestige is an great all-all around SUV. Sweetening the offer, this motor vehicle is also a solid price. Such as $one,one hundred seventy in desired destination rates, a entrance-wheel-drive LX design commences at $30,560. That’s $one,300 extra than its entry-level predecessor, but added common equipment really should aid offset that value hike. Of study course, if you want all-wheel drive, prepare on budgeting $one,800 extra. In comparison, the just about leading-of-the-line model analyzed below checks out for a still-sensible $forty two,205. But honestly, the Sorento feels like it really should charge at least a handful of grand extra than that many thanks to its relaxed and spacious inside, nice dynamics and desirable style.