Kia Sorento

There are many reasons to buy an SUV. Rationalists like the "commanding view" over traffic, for one.
Although the best that can happen these days is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone else,
what with everyone else driving around in SUVs and AUVs already. Others see an SUV as the multipurpose, all-weather, second vehicle to have in the garage for weekend outings. Yet others just like that empowering feeling of driving around in an off-road truck, seemingly invulnerable to potholes, crazed jeepney drivers, and the worst that Mother Nature can muster. Never mind that most trips in an SUV consist of epic journeys to the office and hair-raising adventures at the supermarket parking lot.

But we like SUVs. They’re spacious, they’re (usually) comfortable, and they can carry a lot of stuff. Oh, and not a few owners would rather have an expensive and fuel-thirsty SUV than be caught dead in a more practical — but much more humble — AUV. Image counts for a lot, and it’s no secret that in the SUV hierarchy, brands are also of some value. A blue-and-white propeller badge on the grille, for example, has more cachet than an "H" or a stylized "T".

And now we have the Sorento, a medium-sized SUV with a list of standard goodies longer than most in its price bracket, endorsed by no less than Andre Agassi. The tennis player, not the actor. Big-time endorsements, of course, are nothing new, except they’ve worked rather well for companies that need an image model to spice up otherwise mainstream products. Like Brad Pitt for the Toyota Altis (ooh!), Brittney Spears (aahh!) for the Vios, and Bon Jovi (eh?) for Mitsubishi.

Kidding aside, endorsements and high-profile sports marketing are doing much to improve Kia’s image on the international scene. Best known for getting started as a maker of low-priced automobiles, Kia wants to erase that image. It wants to be known as a "young and exciting" brand where competitive pricing isn’t the only selling point anymore. Well, okay, the ads are exciting and make us want to ditch our badminton racquets for some manly graphite in our hands, but is the Sorento the real deal? Would the average SUV buyer be caught dead in this one? Will this Kia bring to mind images of youth and excitement, instead of simply being "affordable" (okay, cheap). This is important to consider, because right after friends asked me "Wow, is that a Kia?", the follow-up question was "But is it good?".

Price-wise, the Sorento isn’t cheap. P1.380 million for a "KIA" badge on the grille? A Toyota RAV4 or a Honda CR-V, staples of the local SUV market, can be had for less. But that’s an incorrect comparison because it’s not in the same category as those small, car-based sport-utes. The Sorento is a medium-sized SUV built on a ladder-frame chassis and utilizing real, part-time, off-road hardware.

A closer apples-to-apples competitor would be the Jeep Grand Cherokee, except it costs a lot more than a Sorento. Or maybe the Mercedes-Benz ML320, which it so closely resembles — except the angular Sorento actually looks (to my eye) more attractive than the Benz’s soccer mom-ish sheetmetal. It’s all a matter of perspective, and now P1.380 doesn’t seem like too much at all.

Visually, the Sorento has more impact than your average small-SUV with its bulging fenders, truck tires, two-tone body cladding, prominent grille, and expansive glass area. Not unlike a Mitsubishi Pajero’s, actually. The cabin is luxurious in the conventional premium-SUV way: lots of plush leather, cozy seats, warm dashboard and center console hues, that sort of thing. Too bad about the fake wood and silver accents; they just look cheesy. But start ’er up and any notions of plastic cheapness are gone within a few miles. Riding on a ladder-frame chassis and an expensive, independent suspension (double wishbones in front and a 5-link setup at the back), the Sorento is softly sprung yet has an unmistakable aura of mass and substance.

The steering effort is a little too light at any speed and delivers minimal road feedback, but it tracks accurately on uneven pavement. Body rigidity is on par with the Pajero or Ford Expedition. Not exactly vault-like, but solid nonetheless. Wind and tire noise at speed is low, even on rutted pavement. Body roll, pitch, and yaw is predictable; neither wallowy nor overly rigid.

Our test unit had the 3.5-liter V6 with its 192 horses of gratifying power. Matched to a smooth-shifting 4-speed automatic, it pulled us along with a melodious, multivalve melody only a V6 can deliver. Unfortunately, gas prices are rising at a painful rate, and so Kia will only offer the Sorento these days with a turbodiesel. That’s not a bad deal at all since it’s a nice one they’re putting under the hood. A new design, the 2.5-liter engine uses common rail technology to more efficiently burn fuel at a rate of 140PS at 3,800 rpm and a stump-pulling 31.4 kg-m or torque at 2,000 rpm. Owners of common-rail Isuzu Troopers and BMW X5s already know that the performance and lower fuel costs of this diesel technology make it worth considering over a conventional gas engine.

In any case, driving the Sorento is a pleasurable, and yes, empowering experience. It’s got a brawny feel to it that makes nincompoop taxi drivers think twice about crowding into your lane. You also get all the normal accouterments and then some, like steering wheel-mounted radio controls, auxiliary power points, multi-info overhead LCD, and a retractable cargo cover. Bonus points for the silky movement of the cupholder tray and ashtray, the plush feel of the leather, and a profusion of storage bins and cubbyholes everywhere.

And being a real Sport Utility Vehicle, it’s just nice to know that the Sorento can actually go places where the road ends. The sturdy ladder-frame chassis uses no less than nine crossmembers, uses stainless steel scuff plates, and it rides on 16-inch truck tires. The part-time, lever-actuated four-wheel drive also won’t cause guffaws and sneers if you join a four-wheel drive club for a jaunt in the boonies. Not that many owners will actually subject their Sorentos to more than their fair share of off-road abuse, of course.

On the safety side, all-wheel disk brakes complemented with ABS and EBD do a very good job of bringing things to a screeching halt. A full array of crash-safety features back you up in case you still hit something: dual airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, side impact beams — the works. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration even gave the Sorento a 5-star rating in the side-impact test. Not that we’re being colonial or anything, it’s just that we understand the NHTSA to have one of the strictest safety standards in the whole world. Not just the Western world, either!

Apart from some cheap plastic bits and pieces inside, the Sorento delivers an impressive SUV experience that should surprise many non-Kia fans. It’s fully loaded, it’s solid, it’s really well built, and because it’s only available with diesel, it won’t hurt too much every time you have to fill up the 80-liter fuel tank. No wonder Agassi wouldnít mind being caught dead in one. We’ll bet even the actor wouldn’t!

The Good: Sturdy engineering, precise assembly, good looks in and out, comprehensive list of performance, safety, and luxury features.

The Bad: Unconvincing fake wood and silver trim, no flexible seating/cargo arrangement beyond 60:40 split rear seatback, ambiguous horn button placement (it’s somewhere near the hub)

The Verdict: A ton of value and premium feel, but without the premium price tag.