New Kia Sorento 2024 review: a good car just got even better

Verdict

We were already fans of the Kia Sorento, but the Korean brand has listened to the few criticisms we had about the outgoing car and reacted to most of them. The way the car drives has changed very little, while the upgrade to kit and quality, and the stylish new look – all added to the existing Sorento strengths – make an already good car even better. And that’s before you factor in a lower starting price.

Kia’s all-electric EV9 SUV may be the brand’s pin-up model right now, fresh off the back of its World Car of the Year win, but the Sorento (now in its 21st year) is still a hugely important car for the brand. With these latest tweaks, it could vie for an award itself – that of the best-value SUV on sale.

We got an early first drive of the new Sorento in the US, and although the 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine won’t be sold in the UK, there’s enough commonality between cars sold there and those over here, to see that this facelift has done lots to address the few issues we had with the previous model.

There’s more than a bit of EV9 about the new Sorento’s styling, featuring a new front end with its vertical headlights and striking new ‘star map’ LED running lights – white in the UK rather than amber as on the US model. There’s a reprofiled bonnet that now features the Kia logo, plus a new grille, bumper and air intakes. Tweaks at the back are less substantial, focusing on a similar lighting signature to that found at the front, plus another new bumper.

It all adds up to a more premium look – and that’s carried over inside, too. The highlight is a pair of 12.3-inch screens – again, very similar to those in the EV9. Material quality has had an overhaul, with sustainability at its core, with tech like fingerprint recognition, a wide and customisable head-up display, and multi-colour ambient lighting all available.

Safety kit has been upgraded too, with semi-autonomous cruise control that will change lanes if it’s safe to do so, plus a 3D camera and a host of other driver safety systems.

For once, you get more for less – the starting price for this latest Sorento is actually £3,030 less than before, with UK cars starting from £41,995. That buys you a nicely equipped seven-seat Sorento ‘2’ with a 190bhp 2.2-litre diesel engine; tremendous value and a brilliant car for a large or growing family. 

You might not get the fancy twin screens in 2 trim – the ‘3’ (from £46,195) is where you’ll need to shop for that – but it still comes with alloy wheels, tinted glass, cloth and artificial leather seats, and a six-speaker audio system.

If you want to avoid diesel, a 1.6-litre petrol-electric hybrid with 212bhp will add £1,000 to the list price – still great value in our book – while the same engine boosted with plug-in power costs from £47,295. This version adds a 13.8kWh battery for a claimed all-electric range of up to 35 miles, plus a handy power hike to 249bhp.

Leaving the not-for-UK 2.5-litre turbo engine in our test car to one side, the Sorento remains an easy car to drive with a slick-shifting auto box, excellent all-round visibility with handily large door mirrors, as well as nicely weighted controls. 

We’ve been critical of ride quality in the past, so we’ll be checking that when we get to drive the car at home, but over some ropey US roads the Sorento we drove didn’t feel too lumpy. It’s generally quiet, comfy and stable. Ideal for family life.

Space helps keep the family happy, too, and the Sorento still offers bags of room for seven. Even those in the very back will find they have more space than in some other, large seven-seat SUVs, although boot space is limited when all three rows in place. We found the middle seats particularly spacious, even with our tallest tester behind the wheel.

Fold down the back seats and you’ve got a boot that’ll be plenty big enough for most needs with 616 litres of space in the diesel and 608 litres in the hybrids – it took four peoples’ airport luggage with ease. In full seats-down, van mode, you’ll have a whopping 2,011 litres to play with.

Kia has provided plenty of storage for odds and ends wherever you choose to sit, with cup holders and USB sockets dotted around.

Perhaps most welcome of all, though, is the feeling of quality that you get inside the car. There are still a few harder plastics in places you’re unlikely to touch, but the new Sorento feels like a significantly posher car than before – especially with some of the new sustainable materials on board. It all makes an upgrade for less cash than before seem even more remarkable.