Test Drive: 2011 Kia Sorento EX V6
The Korean Ascendancy Continues
Kia's meteoric rise to genuine respectability over the past few years has been something to behold. While GM and Chrysler were going bankrupt, this Korean upstart was busy transforming its value-centric reputation by churning out a series of all-around impressive cars. First came the likable Rondo family vehicle, and then the funky Soul hatchback, and more recently the jaw-droppingly competitive Forte economy sedan. Now Kia has turned its attention to its venerable family SUV, and at this point no one should be surprised to hear that the 2011 Kia Sorento is one of the best affordable crossovers on the planet.
Ostensibly a follow-up to Kia's outgoing body-on-frame SUV of the same name, the new Sorento is really an entirely different product, from its carlike unibody construction to its on-road-biased available all-wheel drive (the old Sorento had off-road-ready 4WD with low-range gearing). It competes in the affordable crossover segment, which has been dominated for years by two models: the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4. Kia has clearly studied these icons closely, because the Sorento shares some of their most notable virtues. To wit, the Sorento's elegantly simple dashboard layout is a nod to the CR-V, and the Sorento's strong V6, third-row seat (standard on EX V6) and ample dimensions are all pages out of the RAV4's playbook.
Indeed, our initial impressions of the Sorento leave us struggling to come up with things that need improvement. There are no obvious foibles here, none of the beginner's mistakes that we'd expect from a company that only started selling cars in the U.S. in 1994. The base four-cylinder engine isn't as impressive as the rest of the vehicle, but even so, its underwhelming performance likely won't be a deal-breaker for those on a tighter budget. Kia is really making moves these days; the 2011 Kia Sorento is just the latest example.
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