Kia Sorento review

In a word: competent. But if that sounds like damning with faint praise, it really isn’t. Because in this sector, competence is king. What you want is a car that will cope with everything in an agreeable manner, compromise where it needs to and not make anyone throw up or suffer deep-vein thrombosis on a long journey. And yes, that includes the dog.

More specifically the Sorento, in whichever drivetrain guise, is a happy companion as long as you’re being normal. Chuck it about and you’ll find gentle understeer and a very safe handling balance. But it never feels happy when someone’s trying to drive it on the doorhandles, so the solution is not to. The Skoda Kodiaq is more dynamic, but that too has its limits. 

At a cruise the suspension is slightly firm but not hard, the brakes are strong and regular and the steering accurate without being particularly quick. All the sorts of things that make the Sorento pleasant for all passengers. You’ll find the hybrid versions do feel heavier than the basic diesel, but not in a way that compromises the handling much. They trade off against smoother starts and by being quieter generally. But don’t go thinking that the diesel doesn’t have any tricks up its dirty sleeves… read on to find out why.

Speed, speed and more speed! Which one’s the fastest?

Not the point, but if you’re looking at the stats, the 190bhp 2.2 diesel and 1.6 226bhp hybrid get to 62mph from rest in 9.7 seconds, and the 261bhp 1.6-litre plug-in with heftier e-motor in 8.8 seconds. So none of them are fast. But that’s enough to cope with traffic and they’ve all got enough poke to safely overtake. Even if they might need a bit of a run-up.

And how about that important efficiency? 

The amount of fuel economy you get from a Sorento depends on the drivetrain, how you drive and how much you plug the PHEV in. In terms of official figures, the PHEV will manage 176mpg with 38g/km CO2, but that’s laboratory nonsense. We got nearly 70mpg though, albeit with some longer journeys when the 35-mile claimed EV range was hoovered up completely. The real-world EV range (in hot weather) was about 28. So a useful amount, but when the Kodiaq PHEV is promising 75 miles... that'll be five seats only, mind.

The HEV should manage around 40mpg combined (160g/km) depending on which trim you go for, and with gentle mixed driving (but mostly on motorways) we managed mid-40s mpg, which is respectable for a car this size.

The diesel is rated at around 42mpg, and if you mostly do motorway miles then that's still the better option to go for out of the three powertrains. Provided the city at the other end of your journey will still let you in, of course.

So it’s not quite a quarter-mile hero then?

No, but what were you expecting from a seven-seat family SUV? What’s interesting here is that while the PHEV offers some absolute advantages in terms of electric-only motivation and topping off (at home) with a cheaper energy source, the diesel is efficient enough to give the HEV a headache.

Unless you’re on a work scheme where the CO2 is putting you into some sort of tax advantage band (which it doesn’t), we’d be looking at the diesel at the lower cost end of the Sorento list.