Test Drive: 2011 Kia Sorento EX-V6 Luxury

2011 Kia Sorento EX-V6 Luxury. Click image to enlarge

The cargo hold is large once you fold the third row seats out of sight, and the second row folds to create a nearly flat load floor. The headrests in the second and third rows fold out of the way automatically when the seats are folded flat.

On the road, the Sorento is a major improvement over its predecessor, with surprisingly good steering and braking feel and a firm but comfortable ride. The suspension is easily unsettled by sharp bumps, however, and the resulting noises make the car feel unsophisticated over rough roads.

The six-cylinder engine is more refined, with its smooth revving nature and good power delivery. Another of Kia’s hallmarks is its touchy throttles, and that makes an appearance here: care is needed to make smooth exits from traffic lights. Official fuel consumption estimates for the Sorento with V6 and all-wheel drive are 11.1/7.9 L/100 km (city/highway); my tester, which had nearly 3,000 km on the odometer, averaged an unimpressive 10.5 L/100 km on a highway road trip, and 13.5 in all-city driving.

A six-speed automatic transmission is the only one offered with the V6 engine. It works well, and though you might not guess it from my tester’s so-so fuel economy, is programmed for efficiency and upshifts early and often and can be slow to downshift when you need it to. There’s a manual shift mode, but its responses are lazy and make it best suited to manually holding a lower gear on steep downhill stretches.

2011 Kia Sorento EX-V6 Luxury. Click image to enlarge

The Sorento’s all-wheel drive system is of the slip-and-grip variety found in most of the competitors in this class. Front-wheel power is the default, with torque only being sent to the rear axle when wheelspin is detected; for tough terrain, the centre differential can be locked to split power 50/50 at low speeds. The system would be enough to get you down a mucky cottage trail, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is anything like a true off-roader. The larger Borrego is now the only Kia SUV with a true four-wheel drive system, including low-range gearing.

The Sorento runs in a competitive group of vehicles and its seven-seat option pits it against some of the larger vehicles in the class, like the Honda Pilot, Ford Edge and Toyota Highlander. In five-seat trim, though, it would be more fairly cross-shopped against the Chevrolet Equinox/GMC Terrain, Nissan Murano and Subaru Outback. The Dodge Journey and Hyundai Santa Fe (a mechanical twin to the Sorento) are the only other smallish mid-sizers that offer seating for seven.

For all that this truck is a significant upgrade over what came before it, the changes only put it mid-pack in terms of mechanical sophistication and styling; what really sells it, as with most Kias, is its high feature-to-dollar ratio. The Sorento definitely is new; I just can’t help but think they could have spent more time on the improved part.

Pricing: 2011 Kia Sorento EX-V6 Luxury Base price: $37,995 Options: $1,200 (Seven-passenger seating and third-row climate controls) A/C tax: $100 Freight: $1,650 Price as tested: $40,945 Click here for options, dealer invoice prices and factory incentives Specifications Buyer’s Guide: 2011 Kia Sorento Competitors 2011 Chevrolet Equinox 2011 Dodge Journey 2011 Ford Edge Buyer’s Guide: 2011 GMC Terrain 2011 Honda Pilot 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe 2011 Nissan Murano Buyer’s Guide: 2011 Subaru Outback 2011 Toyota Highlander Crash test results National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)

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