Kia Sorento 2005 Review

In the last five years, the Koreans have come on in leaps and bounds, from building cars that were cheap and a bit tinny to producing vehicles that are still cheaper but almost as good in most cases as their Nippon counter- parts.

A case in point is the Kia company which has made significant in-roads into the Aust- ralian market over the past couple of years, with models such as the Carnival people mover and Pregio commercial van.

It is not one of these vehicles that were are looking at today, but the five-seat Sorento offroad wagon.

The Sorento is one of Kia's new generation of cars and it shows in the superior fit and finish.

It not only looks good, but is well built and goes surprising well, thanks in part to a brand new five-speed automatic that was slotted into the car recently.

The Sorento is a much better looker than its Hyundai cousin Terracan and often draws unsolicited compliments.

Although it looks like a softroader, Sorento actually sits on a full ladder chassis and has a low range set of gears, so it can cope with the rough stuff.

There is also a full size spare tucked under the back.

However, ground clearance could be the limiting factor at just 203mm.

Powering the offroader is a 3.5-litre V6 engine that delivers 145kW of power at 5500rpm and 295Nm of torque at 3000rpm.

Coupled with the new auto (a $2000 option), it offers surprisingly brisk performance, with well spaced gears.

The transmission is responsive, changing on queue and the driver also has the option of changing gears manually.

On the downside, fuel consumption seems on the heavy side.

Kia has not supplied figures but we were just shy off 500km when the low fuel light popped on, which puts consumption at about 16.0L/100km.

Ouch!

Fuel concerns aside, our main issue with this car, concerns the ride and handling.

Both myself and Mrs Riley (whose opinion I value greatly) found it "jiggly" and at times uncomfortable. Mrs Riley actually felt unsafe which is not a good thing.

In this respect, some further tuning would work wonders, perhaps with some input from an outside suspension specialist like Lotus.

Inside, the car is roomy with large easy to use controls and rear window that opens separately for quick access.

But we note the lack of a three-point seatbelt for the centre rear passenger.

This is simply unacceptable and sure to become a hanging offence in the near future.

Standard equipment includes aircondition- ing, two airbags, cruise control, power win- dows/mirrors, eight-speaker CD sound system and a roof console that includes temperature, barometer, compass and altimeter readouts.

Kia Sorento automatic is priced from $37,990 before on-road costs.