Kia Sorento

The cabin of the Kia Sorento in this third-generation avatar was also a huge step up from its predecessor, for it introduced a whole new range of features never seen before in the SUV. The layout also looks fresh with the combination of faux leather and soft-touch plastics, with the cabin of the Sorento featuring dual-tone black and grey leather upholstery.

Behind the four-spoke multi-functional tilt and telescopic adjustable steering wheel, the Kia Sorento gets a modern 12.3-inch full-TFT instrument console. The centre console, which is just attached to the driver’s cockpit and has a wraparound and symmetric layout, features an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system at the top and vertically-laid AC vents with silver surrounds on its lower edge.

Just below the infotainment screen, the Kia Sorento gets a panel for the buttons of dual-zone automatic climate control between the AC vents. The cabin of the Sorento feels even more premium with additional features like powered and ventilated front seats, memory function for the driver’s seat, rear AC vents, plenty of storage spaces and cup holders all around, 6-speaker audio system Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and wireless charger.

The third-generation Kia Sorento, which was introduced in 2020, still looks fine and upmarket with its edgy design elements. Compared to the previous-generation versions, this particular version of the Sorento also has a more upright stance and higher ground clearance, which makes it more SUV-ish than ever before.

At the front, the Kia Sorento has a hexagonal grille with honeycomb mesh and comes with chrome garnish on its upper and side edges. The chrome garnishes on the side edges of the grille stretch towards the surrounds of the headlamp housings, which feature all-LED illumination with LED projectors and daytime running LEDs. The trapezoidal air dam in the middle of the lower part of the front bumper has LED fog lamps nestled in their outer edges, while there is a satin silver skid plate at the bottom of the bumper.

The upright stance of the Kia Sorento is evident in the heightened bonnet line and high ground clearance, with the stance getting even better with the presence of the 19-inch alloy wheels. Like all modern SUVs, the Kia Sorento is offered with body cladding over the wheel arches and the bottom part of the door panels. To make it look even more premium, Kia has garnished the door body cladding and surrounded the window panels with chrome garnish.

At the back, the Kia Sorento has a stylish appearance with the vertical arrangement of the combination tail lamps on the outer edges of the boot lid, which feature unique and trendy LED inserts. In the middle of the boot lid, the Sorento also gets an integrated spoiler, while there is a trapezoidal housing for the license plate. The bottom of the rear bumper has a silver skid plate which stretches across the width of the bumper while engulfing faux exhaust ports.

The Kia Sorento’s suspension setup, comprising of McPherson struts with stabilizer at the front and multi-link at the rear, has been tuned for a spirited driving experience with a slight amount of stiffness, which can be felt over broken sections of roads. To make the driving dynamics feel more involving, the Kia Sorento features four driving modes – Eco, Comfort, Sport and Smart.

For the Philippines car market, the Kia Sorento was solely offered with the 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine and no petrol engine option with which it is available overseas. Paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission, this engine does its duty under the hoods of other Hyundai and Kia models, and here too, it produces 200 PS of maximum power and 441 Nm of maximum torque.

Besides the essentials like front, side and curtain airbags, ABS with EBD, traction control, electronic stability control, hill start assist, hill descent control, trailer stability assist, blind spot view monitor, front and rear parking sensors and 360-degree parking camera, the Sorento is also bestowed with ADAS features like blind spot detection, lane keep assist, forward collision avoidance assist and rear cross-traffic alert.

As a family-oriented SUV, the Kia Sorento comes across as a nicely equipped, premium SUV which is practical on many fronts, along with an appealing design and tried-and-tested powertrain.