Glenn Brooks tries the latest Sorento and considers the arrival of the era of the GBP35,000 Kia.
The claim of ‘an all-new platform’ by Kia Motors was something I challenged when the company first made this statement last year. To the credit of Kia Motors’ UK importer, the facts did indeed seem to stack up: the floor was lowered and there are additional front, side and rear structures as well as a more rigid monocoque (torsional stiffness is said to be improved by 18%).
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Ultra high-strength steel produced by the hot stamping method is applied to the car’s front energy dispersal points, the dashboard’s cross members, the reinforced front side members, sills, rear energy absorption beams and ful tank surround, according to Kia. Added crash worthiness and general rigidity have also been improved by strengthening or reinforcing all major joints, as well as my interconnecting the front and rear suspension strut towers.
A new steering system also features, as does an H-shaped subframe for the redesigned front suspension, while there are additional reinforcement and longer trailing arms for the rear suspension.
One of the main reasons to make such extensive changes to the Sorento is for ease of manufacture. Since the current shape model first appeared at the Seoul motor show in April 2009, it has gone on to become a major hit. This is especially true in the US, where it is built at Kia’s own KMMG plant at West Point in Georgia, alongside the Optima sedan.
Hyundai has its own US plant but this one began getting close to capacity a few years back so KMMG was called upon to take over production of the Hyundai Santa Fe. The parent company then decided it would make sense to give these two SUVs as many shared parts as possible, thus the re-engineering of the Sorento.
KMMG isn’t the only manufacturing facility to build the Sorento; it is also made in South Korea, at Hwasung. This complex in Asan Bay, which builds Europe’s Sorentos, is also Kia’s major petrol and diesel engine production plant. Hwasung, which has been in operation since 1989, is Kia’s largest factory, manufacturing some 600,000 vehicles a year.
I spent a week with the new Sorento and it certainly does feel a lot better to drive than the previous one which was launched in Europe just three years ago. You still get the same roomy interior but the lowered floor is used to give all occupants more legroom. What’s more, even though all UK market model variants are seven-seaters, there is also a full-sized spare. Maybe Land Rover should talk to Kia engineers to find out how to accomplish that trick. In the new Range Rover Sport it’s a choice between full sized spare or 5+2 seating – you can’t have both.
Of course RRS and Sorento buyers are different people, though not as far from one another as you might imagine. In the UK, Kia sells a large percentage of its big SUVs in top-spec KX-3 trim, which can mean as much as GBP35,000. The importer is presently offering a £2,000 discount on all model grades, so prices range from £24,500 to £33,105, with £525 metallic paint the only optional extra. The price cut is for retail sales only, with this promotion due to run until 30th June.
Whether you spend ten thousand or thirty thousand, you do get a lot for your money with a Kia, and that seven-year warranty is no doubt one of the reasons why the brand’s resale values are light years ahead of where they were, say, a decade back. The mid-range car I was lent is listed at GBP26,900 (KX-2 trim) and for that you get 17-inch alloy rims, dark glass, an automatic de-icing system for the wipers, heated front seats, leather upholstery, reversing sensors, AWD, and dual-zone A/C, but no SatNav (it’s an extra £1,100).
I’d even be happy to have the manual gearbox as it’s so precise, while the clutch pedal is far lighter than in many German so-called luxury cars. That was a pleasant discovery, so save yourself the steep £1,505 that’s needed for the automatic option unless you do almost all your driving in cities.
KX-3 trim brings a 7-inch TFT LCD multi-function display instead of the cheaper variants’ three-dial instrument cluster, metal trim on the doors and dashboard, illuminated front footwells, adaptive Xenon headlights, a panoramic roof, LED tail-lights, ventilated electric front seats, a heated steering wheel, a ten-speaker audio system plus multiple other small touches.
All UK market vehicles are powered by the same 194bhp version of Hyundai-Kia’s R Series 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine. Choose from manual or Hyundai-Kia automatic gearboxes, each of which has six speeds. Torque output varies: 422Nm for manuals and 436Nm for autos.
Top speeds are identical for all model grades: 118mph, and 0-60mph takes either 9.4 or 9.5 seconds. Not overly great numbers, but they’re at least class competitive. The Sorento isn’t too heavy either, weighing in at a claimed 1,891kg (KX-2). That helps the fuel consumption, which can be as much as 56.5mpg on the Extra Urban cycle but in reality, will be somewhere between the 38.2 and 47.9 Urban and Combined official averages.
Rising brand image and pricing for Kias in the UK hasn’t yet reached buyers in the D segment as the Optima sells in only small numbers here, though Kia should be applauded for at least trying to tackle the likes of the segment leading Insignia. That explains why we don’t get the K7/Cadenza, a Chrysler 300 sized sedan that has been available in South Korea for three years now, and which is also being launched in the US.
It will be worth watching how the Cadenza does in North America, the big and pricey Borrego/Mohave SUV having been withdrawn from the US and Canadian markets – that model probably was ahead of its time in terms of how high the brand’s pricing and vehicle sizes could go. Undeterred, Kia Motors America is said to be planning to add its K9/Quoris flagship sedan to its 2015 model year range and next year’s second generation Borrego, a Honda Pilot rival, might also reach America.
I can’t imagine a giant 4×4 in Kia’s UK showrooms – witness how few Land Cruisers are sold here, as worthy as that vehicle is. I tend to believe the local importer’s claim that it is pressing the Koreans to consider a special high-spec version of the Sorento for this market.
Jumping out of an X5 or an M-Class you’ll notice instantly that the Kia feels like the cheaper vehicle that it is, and if you’re going to use your 4×4 off-road, then you’d be better off with something like a Discovery or Touareg but not everyone wants a vehicle as big as those two. The Sorento could easily tempt people who have had an XC90 or two – Volvo owners being famously loyal – as the big Swede is looking pretty old inside now and most have had to step down to an XC60 to stay with the brand.
Will we eventually see a GBP40,000 Sorento? Almost certainly. But what will set it apart? Lots of high-tech features, no doubt, but how about the powertrain? Here’s another question: am I the only one to have wondered what happened to the diesel-electric model we saw as a prototype at the 2009 Frankfurt show? We’ve heard no more about hybrids or PHEVs from Kia since then but don’t be surprised if we see such a powertrain offered in the third generation model due in 2016.
By the time European buyers see Sorento gen 3, not just existing owners but others new to the brand might well consider Kia in the same way as people think of Volkswagen now. That would have been laughable a decade ago, but not these days: this brand has sold more than twice as many vehicles in the EU in the first four months of 2013 as JLR, Honda, Suzuki or Mazda. In raw numbers, it’s 110,337, according to ACEA data, or 2.7% of the total market, versus just 2.4% a year ago. In that context, premium pricing for even a small percentage of Kia models is going to keep on adding up to impressive profits and an ever improving brand image.
