Supposedly, the 1st gen. Sorento had it's share of fans in Europe due to the many things that conspired to make it (seem?) old fashioned feeeling, like the RWD and it's solid/body on frame construction. It was seen as a budget alternative to a Land Rover Defender.
I like the new one, and was very close to driving to my closest dealer (less than 2 or 3 miles) to check out the FWD manual transmissioned versions their website "claimed" they had in inventory. What stopped me? Kia, and to a lesser extent Hyundai dealers (at least in my area of north Fl.) have "patchy" sales / service reps.
thats alot of car for those hp & torque numbers
The original Kia Sorentos were a kind of bland-looking, mid-sized SUVs. In fact, we can't remember ever driving one. For 2011, the Sorento got a total do over. The look follows Kia's current design DNA and, we should add, it's built here in the States.
Our test vehicle was a midlevel EX fitted with just one major option, the Premium Package 1. For $3800, it added leather seat trim, heated seats, power front seats, auto-dimming mirror, navigation system and an Infinity surround-sound system.
We should note that the photo comes from Kia's media site; it's not the exact vehicle that we drove.
