Kia Sorrento Auto

We have ‘66 plate Kia Sorento KX3 auto.  We tow a 1800kg twin axle caravan, never had any issues, it tows very well.  We used this combination down to SE France and it coped very well with the long autoroute hills, for example going from sea level to more than 4000ft, climbing up to the Massif Central (and going down the same!).

We have a 2017 Sorento KX4 and tow a twin axle Hobby Prestige 620CL at 1,900kg.

We bought the car at 1 year old with 5,500 miles on the clock from Kia Used Approved who topped the warranty back up to 7 years for us as part of the deal. It came with a factory fitted removable towbar and side running boards (look good but are not that practical). We have now owned it for 2.5 years with around 25,000 miles now showing and had no trouble from it except the interior alarm sensors sometimes triggering false alarms.

COMFORT
Having come from a 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 SD4 HSE I have to say the Sorento is leagues better in nearly all respects.  The stereo and heated windscreen are about the only things we miss in the creature comforts department. Like the KX3, the KX4 gets the huge opening pano roof which is a delight along with 8" touch screen, adaptive Xenon headlights, speed limit info, audio lane departure, smart powered tailgate, rear reading lights, 10 speakers + amp + subwoofer. The KX4 additionally gets adaptive cruise control, self parking, 360 degree cameras and a handful of other nice to have goodies like cooled seats. The adaptive cruise control does make long journeys soooo much easier. Ours also has the quite rare (and not to everyone's taste) special order white & black leather interior. I have to say we absolutely love the comfort of this car.

If buying a late 2016-2017 Sorento KX3 or KX4 (not sure about the KX1 & 2) with the infotainment system running System Version 7.7.4, you can have a software upgrade which adds Android Auto & Apple CarPlay to the existing infotainment system as it was not included as standard until 2018.  You have to ask and probably argue as some Kia dealers do not realise it can be done.  Go to the Kia Owners Club forum for further details / limitations. There will of course be a charge for this upgrade (I paid £25 in late 2018). It made our Sorento complete but I did have to get Kia UK (very helpful) to talk directly to my supplying dealer to make it happen.

WEIGHTS
The all-important kerbweight is stated at around 1,950kg dependent on your model/spec.  The Sorento doesn't have a particularly good towing capacity at 2,000kg nor noseweight at 100kg, The Freelander 2 offered a more practical 2,000kg and 150kg respectively.  The manual gearbox (not available on KX4 spec) does achieve 2,500kg towing capacity but is frustratingly still limited by the 100kg noseweight. Earlier models of Sorento I believe were all able to pull 2,500kg, even if their kerbweight was still around 2,000kgs.

For me this is the only gripe I have with the Sorento.

POWER & TORQUE
Power and torque are comparable to the larger turbo'd SD4 Freelander 2 (as opposed to the smaller turbo'd TD4) and handles our 1900kgs of caravan without fuss.  I would prefer a bit more power on the steep uphill stretches but I guess you always want more once you are have got used to what you have. Pulling away from junctions is fine with plenty of torque.  

The gearbox we have is the 6 speed which is a delight and vastly superior to the Freelander 2. The 2018 Sorento's get the 8 speed which I am told is just as good plus delivers marginally improved fuel efficiency. 

FUEL EFFICIENCY
Fuel efficiency is nothing to brag about but without the caravan can exceed average 40mpg on a run. Around town and school runs i'd say 27-30mpg is as good as it gets.  Put the caravan on and 3 bikes on the roof and you are into the low 20's.  Without the bikes, i'd say around 23-25mpg. As an overall average of around town and irregular longer runs, we get about 32mpg but the bias is school/town runs.  

STABILITY
Stability is as good if not better than the Freelander 2 which was a very good tow car in its own right. Cross-winds, overtaking or being overtaken by trucks are again handled without fuss although I guess this is helped by the twin axle caravan being inherently more stable than a single axle anyway.  Non-the-less, the Hobby only has a friction pad (Winterhoff) tow hitch, non of the ATC stability systems now often seen with Alko chassis. I've never got myself into a situation requiring emergency avoidance manoeuvres so cannot claim to have got to the edge of the car's limits.

SUMMARY
Never judge a book by its cover! 

Forget the Kia's of old you may once remember.  These are now well designed, well built, excellent value cars that make a Ford or Vauxhall look pathetic and give the German makers some serious competition.

If they could up the towball weight limit and perhaps add a bit more kerbweight and towing capacity, I'd be buying another to replace this one in a heartbeat. As it is, with my caravan up-plated from new to 2,200kg potential MTPLM, I will with heavy regret be looking elsewhere for my next tow car.

Start saving now.

"Looks good? In the eye of the beholder, I suppose. The only practical use that I can see is keeping some of the road dirt off the sides of the car."

The only problem with keeping the mud off the sides of the car is it is just waiting to deposit it on your trousers!

A few days ago on one of the morning dog walkers social distancing conferences (dogs excepted) in this area it was a majority vote that Hibrids is the way forward for many years into the future ,  unless huge amounts of money are invested in being more user friendly in so much as charging  at home for EVs is availble which for this area is at the moment impossible,