New Kia Sorento priced and specced

The new Kia Sorento is being touted as one of the most advanced vehicles in its class, festooned with sensors, cameras and digital screens, and it can even park itself without anyone inside the vehicle.

Despite its high-tech pursuit, Kia hasn’t forgotten the basics for its all-new flagship SUV, which will be the most serious challenge yet seen from the Korean car-maker for popular large seven-seat SUVs like the Toyota Kluger.

The 2021 Kia Sorento is now quieter, roomier, has a larger boot, and comes with loads of cup-holders, USB ports and storage cubbies, plus a full-size spare wheel across the model range.

Like all Kia models, the new Sorento’s ride and handling package has been calibrated in Australia to better suit local conditions and the seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty is standard.

Four model grades are offered – S, Sport, Sport+ and GT-Line – priced from $45,850 (plus on-road costs) for the entry-level front-wheel drive V6 petrol Sorento S and topping out at $63,070 for the Sorento GT-Line AWD turbo-diesel.

Kia will also offer two different hybrid versions of the new Sorento in 2021: a plug-in hybrid early next year and cheaper plug-less petrol-electric model later in the year. Both will give the upcoming next-gen Toyota Kluger (also a with hybrid power) a run for its money.

Boot space has increased from 605 to 616 litres in five-seat configuration, extending to a maximum of 2011 litres (up from 1662) with both rear seat rows folded flat. With seven seats in place there is 187 litres of space – an increase of 45 litres. It also gets a wider boot opening.

Despite price increases of up to almost $4000 on some models and Victoria’s lockdown slowing new car sales, Kia Motors Australia chief operating officer Damien Meredith says he expects the Sorento will find around 4800 buyers per annum – up from 3777 in 2019 and 4385 in 2018.

“We’re expecting to do 400 [sales] per month for new Sorento. We believe we’ve got vehicle to do that and we believe the segment will continue to be quite robust.”

The Kia Australia chief predicts that premium GT-Line diesel variants will be strong sellers initially, before the sales mix settles down to an even spread across the four grades.

Entry-level Kia Sorento S models (from $45,850) are fitted with a good amount of standard equipment, including 17-inch alloy wheels, an 8.0-inch touch-screen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a premium steering wheel and gear shifter along with embossed cloth trimmed seats.

All models come with seven seats and an advanced autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system that can detect vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists and brake autonomically to avoid them. It also gets a junction assist function to help when pulling into multi-lane roads.

There are loads of other self-driving safety features fitted as standard as well, such as blind spot collision avoidance assist and rear cross traffic collision avoidance assist, the latter automatically braking the car if it detects vehicles behind it when reversing. Semi-autonomous steering (lane following assist) is part of the base-grade Sorento package along with adaptive cruise control.

The adaptive cruise control is always on, however, and cannot be set to a non-radar system.

LED headlights and LED fog lights are also gratis, along with front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, rain-sensing wipers, a driver attention alert system and seven airbags including a centre front airbag that stops front seat occupants heads from colliding.

Kia Sorento Sport models start at $48,470 and get everything listed above plus 18-inch alloy wheels, a much larger 10.2-inch touch-screen infotainment system multi-device Bluetooth connections, sat-nav, dual-zone climate control and a 10-way power-adjustable driver-seat.

Step up to the Kia Sorento Sport+, starting at $52,850, and you can add bigger 19-inch alloy wheels, LED tail-lights, leather-appointed seats, a smart key (keyless entry) and push button engine start, heated front seats and steering wheel, a powered tailgate and two extra USB ports for the second row.

Top-spec Kia Sorento GT-Line variants (from $60,070) are the Rolls-Royce model-grades, riding on 20-inch dark chrome wheels and adding what Kia says are several first-in-class features, including a blind spot view monitor that delivers a live video stream of the left and right blind spots into the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster when the indicator stalk is triggered.

The GT-Line also gets the much-vaunted self-parking system, or remote smart parking assist in Kia-speak. This system is only offered on high-end machinery from Tesla and BMW at present, and allows owners to start the engine and drive the vehicle (slowly) with the key fob.

It “allows the driver to control forward and backward movement of the vehicle” reads the Kia PR material, which is designed for people with tight garages or while exiting/entering narrow parking spaces.

It will apply autonomous emergency braking if it detects an obstacle and regulations in West Australia means it will not be offered in that state.

There’s also an 8.0-inch colour head-up display with loads of telemetry, a premium 12-speaker Bose sound system, LED mood lights that can be adjusted for colour and brightness, a dial-type gear shifter, high-end quilted Nappa leather-appointed seats, a wireless smartphone charger, in-car intercom system and a panoramic sunroof.

The traffic sign (speed limit) recognition system offered overseas is also not offered in Australia because the software technicians couldn’t be flown to Australia to fine-tune the system due to COVID-19.

There are seven colour choices, all of which except white are metallic and cost an extra $695.

The new Kia Sorento launches in Australia exclusively with the more expensive 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (148kW/440Nm), which adds $3000 to the price of the new model. Petrol models will follow from late October.

Diesel models are exclusively all-wheel drive and fitted with an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Kia Australia’s first eight-speed wet-type dual-clutch auto is claimed to offer “faster, smoother acceleration” while improving fuel economy by 15 per cent compared to the regular eight-speed auto. Fuel consumption is now 6.1L/100km – down from 7.2L/100km.

The 3.5-litre petrol V6 (200kW/332Nm) is front-drive only and gets a conventional (torque converter) eight-speed automatic transmission. It delivers claimed fuel consumption of 9.7L/100km.

Both vehicles have 67-litre fuel tanks and tip the scales at 1835kg (FWD petrol) and 1908kg (AWD diesel). Towing capacity is unchanged at 2000kg but Kia has doubled the downball weight from 100 to 200kg.

Kia has also confirmed a pair of hybrid models will arrive in 2021, starting with a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) variant early in the year. The Korean brand’s first hybrid in Australia mates a 1.6-litre petrol engine (132kW/265Nm) with a 67kW electric motor to deliver a combined 169kW/350Nm.

The Kia Sorento PHEV makes use of a water-cooled 13.8kWh lithium-ion battery. The plug-less hybrid model coming later in 2021 gets the same powertrain albeit with a smaller 1.5kWh battery.

Rivals for the Kia Sorento include a number of seven-seat large SUVs, such as the Hyundai Santa Fe, Ford Everest, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mazda CX-9 and the top-selling Toyota Kluger and Prado.

Diesel
Sorento S – $48,850 ($49,990 drive-away)
Sorento Sport – $51,470 ($52,990 drive-away)
Sorento Sport+ – $55,850 ($57,390 drive-away)
Sorento GT-Line – $63,070 ($64,990 drive-away)

Sorento S:
17-inch alloy wheels with full size spare
8.0-inch touch-screen (Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Multi Connection Bluetooth)
AEB (Car, Pedestrian, Cyclist and Junction Assist)
Multi Collision Brake
Seven airbags (2x Front, 2x Curtain, 2x Front Side and Front Centre Side)
Blind Spot Collision Avoidance Assist
Rear Cross Traffic Collision Avoidance Assist
Lane Following Assist
Rain Sensing Wipers
LED Headlights and Fog Lights
Front and Rear Parking Sensors
Driver Attention Alert+
Advanced Smart Cruise Control with Manual Speed Limiter
Rear View Camera with Dynamic Guidelines
Drive Mode Select with Terrain Mode (diesel only)
Premium Steering Wheel and Shift Knob
Embossed Cloth Trimmed Seats
Safe Exit Assist

Sorento Sport (in addition to S):
18-inch alloy wheels, machine finish with full size spare
10.25-inch touch-screen (Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Multi Connection)
Satellite Navigation with 10-year traffic and map update
Dual Zone Climate Control (3-stage)
Auto Window Defogger
10-way Driver’s Power Adjustable Seat (including 2-way Lumbar Support)
Tyre Pressure Monitoring System

Sorento Sport + (in addition to Sport):
19-inch alloy wheels with full size spare
Leather Appointed Seats
Smart Key with Push Button Start
Smart Power Tailgate with Height Adjustment
Remote Engine Start
Heated 1st Row Seats
Heated Steering Wheel
Electro-chromic Rear View Mirror (Auto Dimming)
Privacy Glass (2nd Row, 3rd Row and Rear Windscreen)
LED Rear lights
Aero Blade Wipers
Heated Side Mirrors
2x USB Back Seat Charging Ports

Sorento GT-Line (in addition to Sport+):
20-inch dark chrome wheels with full size spare
12.3-inch Digital Instrument Cluster
Blind Spot View Monitor
Switch By Wire shift knob (Dial-type)
Quilted Nappa Leather Appointed Seats
Interior Mood Lighting
BOSE Premium Sound System
8-inch Colour Head Up Display
360° Camera View
Remote Smart Parking Assist with Remote Engine-Start Function
Parking Collision Avoidance Assist
Panoramic Sunroof
Fast Wireless Smartphone Charger
Heated 2nd Row Seats
Ventilated 1st Row Seats
14-way Driver’s Power Adjustable (including 4-way Lumbar Support) with Integrated Memory Seat
10-way Front Passenger’s Power Adjustable Seat (including 2-way Lumbar Support)
Rear Occupant Alert
Sunshade Blinds (2nd Row)
Driver Talk In-Car Intercom