My week with the Kia Sorento couldn’t have come at a better time.
I had a lot of long drives to do and the weather forecast was awful, with sheeting rain for days and flood warnings all over the place.
If you do have to drive in those conditions you want to be in a large, comfortable SUV with four-wheel drive and plenty of ground clearance.
The Sorento is the biggest car Kia makes (though not for long – the upcoming EV9 will be even bigger still).
It’s a versatile and capable seven seat SUV that’s perfect for large families. Buyers can choose from a diesel engine, the 1.6 litre mild hybrid petrol I drove, or a plug-in petrol/electric hybrid.
Well equipped
All versions get four-wheel drive, are seven seaters, and come loaded with standard kit. Prices start at around £43,000. Some people might think that’s expensive for a Kia, but those people won’t have driven a Kia for some time and don’t know how good they are these days.
It’s terrific value for such a big, capable, well equipped SUV – especially when you factor in the company’s standard seven-year, 100,000 mile warranty.
The Sorento’s a good looking car as well. It has sharp lines, sleek headlights, and lots of road presence.
Despite the weather warnings, my other half wanted to spend the bank holiday weekend walking on the west coast. I followed her and our dog in the Sorento so she could drop our car at the finish point.
The weather could not have been more diabolical. Tayside was just very, very wet, but beyond Stirling most of Scotland appeared to be submerged.
Flooding
Every few hundred metres I had to slow to a crawl to wade through another expanse of wheel-arch-deep water.
The big Sorento could not have handled it more capably. Its ground clearance meant water was never in danger of flooding the interior. And its four-wheel drive provided excellent traction, even when water was sluicing off a hillside and trying to push us sideways.
It might not have the off-road prowess of a Land Rover Defender but it can handle the worst on-road weather Scotland’s climate can throw at it. And if you do need to venture off the trail there are mud, snow and sand settings to help.
Even in a storm the interior is a comfortable place to be. Its big leather seats are cosseting on long journeys. A large, clear touchscreen is easy to operate and heated seats and a heated steering wheel keep you warm. Â Glancing upwards, I could see the gloomy sky through the panoramic sunroof.
Spacious
There’s loads of room in the middle row of seats. Meanwhile, the rearmost two seats fold flat to the floor when not in use and pop up easily when needed.
Cleverly, the middle row of seats can be slid forward to give the rearmost occupants more room, making the Sorento one of the few seven-seaters that can actually fit adults in the rear. Used as a five-seater there’s an absolutely massive boot. Depending on whether you slide the middle seats forward or back, you can have between 693 and 705 litres of space.
The Sorento is good to drive too. Its automatic gearbox goes about its business seamlessly. The soft suspension is superb, soaking up bumps and potholes beautifully.
It doesn’t handle nearly as well as a (much more expensive) BMW X5, for example, but few people buy this sort of car to fling round bends at high speed, so that’s hardly relevant.
The 1.6 litre mild hybrid unit gets from 0-62mph in nine seconds. If you’re pootling across a carpark or driving downhill it will operate in fully electric mode, but for the most part the battery just helps with efficiency.
Officially the Sorento’s fuel economy is 38.2mpg, but after 800 miles in it my trip computer showed 40mpg. That makes the Sorento one of the rare cars where I managed to improve on the official economy figures.
I really liked the Sorento. It’s roomy, comfortable, well equipped, has enough off-road prowess for 99% of users, and should be very reliable.
Of course it’s probably too big for most people –  in which case the smaller Sportage is also well worth checking out. But if you have a large family the Sorento is an incredibly capable choice.
Facts
Price: £51,055
0-62mph: 9 seconds
Top speed: 120mph
Economy: 38.2mpg
CO2 emissions: 168g/km
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