Kia Sorento vs Nissan X-TRAIL

What's the difference?

The Kia Sorento S diesel AWD is a solid buy option in the lower-spec realm of the market. This AWD SUV is not spectacular but it manages to be competitive and, as a seven-seater with updated technology and some good features, it does have ample potential as a daily-driving family mover.

However, if you want more safety tech and more premium accoutrements, you’re likely better off forking out the extra $10,000 or so and getting a top-spec Sorento GT-Line instead.

The Nissan X-Trail ST-L 7 Seat is easy to drive, has some great features and fit my family of three just fine. The on-road handling is solid and there’s enough power under the bonnet for longer road trips. On a car this size, I’m not sure those extra two seats are worth losing the boot space but if you occasionally need to ferry your kid's friend to a game or something, it will be worthwhile. There are a few little things that aren’t quite up to a standard I like to see but overall, we like this one and it gets a 7.5/10 from us.

The Sorento’s exterior is stunningly inoffensive. So, for anyone looking for an SUV that won’t make passers-by dry retch that’s all boxes ticked, I reckon.

The cabin feels family-friendly and functional. It's a basic but well designed space, although there’s no getting past the fact this is at the cheaper end of the Sorento line-up as its cloth seats and expanses of hard plastic remind you.

That said, chrome-like touches and faux hand-stitching go some way towards balancing out that impression.

The low-slung dashboard with integrated 12.3-inch touchscreen dominates the front of the cabin in a good way.

There was something robustly charming about the previous X-Trail shape and while the overall size has been maintained, most of the squared edges have been softened in the new model.

It makes it appear far more modern and it should maintain its kerbside appeal for years to come.

There’s quite a lot of chrome on the grille, making it look enormous. However, the black plastic moulding that wraps the car at its base helps it look sportier than it has the right to look. As does the dark privacy glass at the rear.

The interior hosts soft touchpoints, synthetic leather trims and wood-like grey panelling to create an upmarket finish.

I'm not a massive fan of the brown/black two-toned trim on the dashboard and doors; it just doesn't land with me.

But it does create a bit of interest for the cabin space.

This Sorento is 4815mm long (with a 2815mm wheelbase), 1700mm high and 1900mm wide.

As mentioned earlier, the interior is quite basic and simply designed, but with a low-key classiness about it. 

The driver’s seat is six-way manually-adjustable with a pump-action for height, so pin-pointing your preferred position is a welcome minor workout unto itself.

The front seats are adequately comfortable without being too plush – that’s fine with me – and from there driver and passenger have ready access to plenty of storage and cupholders (including two in the front, four in the second row and two in the rear seat) and charging options (including two USB charge points in the front console and one 12V power outlet behind the centre console and one in the cargo area).

My teenagers weren’t impressed at all with the fact they had to plug their smartphones into charge points at the front. Oh, the torture!

The 12.3-inch digital multimedia system has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both wired or wireless, and it’s an easy-to-use set-up with a crisp screen.

Air-con is a manual-controls affair, second-row passengers get air vents only (on the rear of the centre console), and third-row passengers don’t get vents or fan controls.

The second row is reasonably comfortable with room enough for head, shoulders and legs to be on the right side of comfy.

It sports a bottle holder in each of the doors, and there’s a centre armrest in the second row with cupholders for the El Grande cups of whatever almond-infused crappuccino your obnoxious screenagers are currently addicted to. 

The second row is in a 60/40 configuration, which slides, reclines and folds down flat.

The third row is in a 50/50 configuration, a split-fold flat set-up, and it's the realm of mini humans – or you could put adults back there for any trip lasting longer than 10 minutes and you’ll be hated for life.

For those interested in packing potential space, the rear cargo area offers a listed 179 litres of storage capacity; a listed 608 litres in the rear cargo area when the third row is folded away; and 1996 litres when the second and third rows are packed away.

For my little family’s needs this week, I found it to be fairly practical most of the time. The front and middle rows have loads of space and even taller passengers will find comfort with the legroom and headroom in both!

The third row should be considered as ’sometimes’ seats for kids because the legroom is very tight. Besides two cupholders, there are also no amenities back there. Adults will curse you if they get stuck back there for long.

The front row enjoys the most storage options with a deep middle console, a phone/utility tray and glove box. There are also large storage bins in each door and two deep cupholders. The sunglasses holder in the roof is a bonus, too!

The middle row gets a couple of map pockets, drink bottle holders in each door and a couple of cupholders in the fold-down middle seat, which doubles as an armrest. The practical, easy-to-clean trim on the back of the front seats is great, too.

The charging options are good for the first two rows, with each one getting an USB-A and USB-C port, while the front also gets a 12-volt socket.

It is easy enough to connect to the wired Apple CarPlay and the 8.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system is responsive.

I found the digital radio cuts in and out every few seconds, which makes that feature a bit useless. There’s no satellite navigation but with your smart phone attached, it’s easily forgotten.

My six-year old had no trouble getting in and out of the car and really enjoyed the tall seating position. He also liked having directional air vents and a reading light on our little road trip this week.

The boot is 465L and that puts it on the smaller side compared to its rivals, with only the CX-5 being smaller. I like the level load space and retractable cargo blind, but after my big grocery shop the boot was full.

You’d have to get strategic with gear loading on a full-scale road trip.

This has a temporary spare tyre but to access it, you have to remove the third row (after sliding the second row forward) and that would be an pain to access if you had a full car load of gear and child seats.

Being a lower grade this doesn’t have a powered tailgate and I did miss it this week because the boot is heavy to close.  

Our model is the part-time four-wheel drive ST-L with seven seats and it is $46,290, before on-road costs.

That makes it more expensive compared to its key rivals with the Mazda CX-5 AWD Touring costing $43,700 and Kia Sportage SX+ Petrol DCT AWD at $43,850. Only the Toyota RAV4 Edge tops it with a $53,020 price tag.

However, for a model that sits second from the bottom in its own line-up, it’s well-specified.

There are eight paintwork colours to choose from and none of them cost extra. This grade also enjoys an upmarket interior with two-toned synthetic leather trims, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto plus those two extra seats.

The driver also enjoys four-way electric lumbar support and electric seat adjustments. The exterior isn’t forgotten with 18-inch alloy wheels, full LED lights, electric folding side mirrors and an auto dimming rear view mirror.

This Sorento has a 2.2-litre, four-cylinder common-rail diesel engine, producing 148kW at 3800rpm and 440Nm at 1750-2750rpm and that’s matched to an eight-speed dual-clutch auto transmission.

This is a generally clever and effective combination, but there is noticeable lag to acceleration from a standing start, no matter how hard you stomp the right foot.

It has all-wheel drive (part-time with lock mode) and driving modes that include on- and off-road options.

Excluding the ePower hybrid, the X-Trail shares the same 2.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine across its models. It has max outputs of 135kW and 244Nm, which means it’s not super powerful but it doesn’t really whine at you, either.

I’m not a massive fan of continuously variable transmissions and this one can get a little jerky when you put your foot down. It's smooth otherwise.

The part-time 4WD drivetrain is an interesting feature for this size SUV but I didn’t test its capabilities this week. You can choose between five modes - 'Auto', 'Eco', 'Sport', 'Snow' and 'Off-Road' but I kept it in Auto.

Official fuel consumption for the 2.8-litre four-cylinder Sorento S diesel is 6.0L/100km on a combined cycle. 

Actual fuel consumption on this test, from pump to pump, was 6.6L/100km. 

This Sorento has a 67-litre fuel tank so – going by that fuel consumption figure – you should be able to get a driving range of about 1015km from a full tank.

The official combined cycle fuel figure is 7.8L/100km and real-world testing saw my average at 8.1L. That’s pretty good for an SUV of this size and it was after a lot of open road and urban driving (think school and grocery runs).

The X-Trail has a 55L fuel tank and based on the official combined figure, you should be able to get around 705km of driving range. Perfectly respectable for the odd road trip or family vacay.

Nissan recommends a minimum of 91 RON petrol and adds that it is E10 suitable.

As I mentioned earlier, this SUV can feel a tad lardy at times, especially from take-off, but it exhibits slightly livelier characteristics soon enough. Just don’t climb into the driver’s seat expecting a dynamic experience.

Steering has a nice balance to it and the Sorento never feels gargantuan so navigating through busy city and suburban streets is on the correct side of easy.

Ride is a bit firm, but the all-pervasive mindful peace you experience from being in such a hushed cabin tends to mostly negate any minor discomfort you may otherwise feel from clipping every lump and bump on the road.

On-road driving modes are 'Comfort', 'Sport', 'Eco' and 'Smart' and off-road modes are 'Sand', 'Mud' and 'Snow'. All of these adjust engine outputs, throttle control and transmission behaviour to best suit the terrain and driving conditions.

Niggle: The driver-assist tech is a bit abrupt and intrusive. I’ve found this to be the case in Hyundai SUVs, too.

The traffic sign recognition, in particular, is clunky, reacting to signs that don't apply at that time of day, for example school signs, or it reacts to signs that don't actually apply to that section of road. So it's regularly chopping and changing between what speeds you should be at and what speeds you shouldn't. 

This Sorento is an AWD with 176mm of ground clearance so I tested it on muddy grass, firm sand and gravel tracks. Nothing outrageous, but mildly challenging enough to make sure the all-wheel drive system can do what’s expected. And it does, seamlessly.

These off-road drive modes are, of course, no substitute for 4WD, but they are fine for when conditions become a little bit slippery. For example, if there’s been a drizzle of rain on the bitumen or the dirt track becomes a bit muddy.

This Sorento has a maximum towing capacity of 750kg (unbraked trailer) and 2000kg (braked).

The X-Trail ST-L delivered a solid performance in all the situations I put it in this week.

I was just as happy tackling the open-road as I was in stop-start traffic in the city.

It has enough power to get up to speed quickly and keep you there but you don’t feel like you have heaps left in reserve. The engine can sook a little when you get too aggressive with the accelerator but otherwise works without complaint.

The ride comfort is great! I took my dad on a road trip this week and he was singing its praises as a passenger. As a driver, I like how cushioned the suspension feels but it’s not at all floaty on the road.

The cabin space is very quiet, even at higher speeds. However, I wasn’t super impressed with the sound system and reckon it could be better.

Despite, looking like a big car, it doesn’t park like one. It’s actually stupidly easy to park and that’s a winning feature for me. Especially with the crisp 360-degree view camera, too. 

The X-Trail has been fitted with a good list of safety features, with the following being standard: LED daytime running lights, lane departure alert, lane keeping aid, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, 360-degree view reversing camera, dynamic parking guidelines, front and rear parking sensors, rear occupant alert, intelligent seatbelt monitoring and a driver fatigue monitoring system.

It also features adaptive cruise control with lane keeping assist; meaning, so long as you have your hands on the wheel, the car essentially steers itself. It's great to minimise fatigue on longer journeys.

It has AEB and forward collision warning with car, pedestrian and cyclist detection which is operational from 10-80km/h (5.0-130km/h for car detection). It is usual to see it operational from 5.0km/h, though. 

The X-Trail was awarded a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2021 but it is based on its stablemate, the Qashqai. I think it’s worth mentioning that ANCAP’s individual assessment scores were all fairly high (hitting the 90 per cent range for all but one) which is great to see on a family car.

It only has seven airbags but that includes a front centre airbag and curtain airbags covering all three rows. 

There are ISOFIX child seat mounts on the outboard seats in the middle row, along with three top-tethers. You could get lucky in fitting three seats side by side but two will fit best. There's just enough room when a 0-4 rearward facing child seat is installed.

A seven-year/unlimited km warranty applies to the Sorento line-up.

Servicing intervals are scheduled for every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest.

Capped-price servicing covers seven-years/105,000km and at the time of writing ranges between a low of $370 and a high of $817 per service over that period. Total cost is $3787 for an annual average of $541, which isn't particularly cheap.

The X-Trail comes with the market standard five-year/unlimited km warranty term and you can pre-purchase three-, four- or five-year capped-price servicing plans. 

On the five-year pre-paid plan, services average $425 annually which is great for this class.

Servicing intervals are every 12 months or 10,000km, which could get a little annoying if you put a lot of kays on your car every year.