2018 Kia Sorento vs Mazda CX-9

What's the difference?

Big Kias are good Kias. From the Sportage to the Carnival, there isn't a dud in the range, an idea that for some reason still raises eyebrows. Between those two machines, of course, is a third; the Sorento. 

Quite why Kia is missing an R I'm not sure (the place name is definitely Sorrento, I've checked), but every time I've driven the big fella, I've come away wondering why more of these don't make their way onto Australia driveways. 

In 2017, Kia added a new top-of-the-range spec above the Platinum called the GT-Line, perhaps hoping that a bit of sporting flair will help move a few more.

And so, with a mildly surprising price tag clanging around in my head, I spent a week in what I've always thought to be one of the best-priced seven-seaters in the market.

The Christmas holidays aren’t a holiday – it’s hard work with the shopping, the families, the food, the ‘festiveness’ and the heat. You come out the other side more exhausted than you did going in.

Which is why my wife and I (well, it was really her) decided to be smart for once and take a week off with our toddler before Santa Day. We headed down to Jervis Bay from Sydney. I had an ulterior motive as well – to test the new Mazda CX-9. The largest SUV from Mazda underwent an update this year which brought new safety tech and practicality features.

I was looking forward to this – road testing a CX-9 packed to the brim with holiday gear. See, although we make the test vehicles part of our daily lives, often it’s just myself in the car - apart from the weekend and the daycare run. So how would the CX-9 handle, ride, steering and brake packed full of suitcases, a week’s shopping, eskies, beer, toys and people – well, the three of us?

Sure I was working on a holiday, but car journos are like cops, we’re never really off-duty.