The Kia Sorento is a 5-door SUV from Kia, built from 2002, in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. Under the bonnet: Petrol engine.
The story
The Kia Sorento (Korean: 기아 쏘렌토, romanized: Gia Sorento) is a series of two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive family SUVs manufactured by the South Korean manufacturer Kia since 2002 through four generations. Initially a compact SUV built on a body-on-frame chassis, the second-generation Sorento transitioned to a larger car-based platform which placed it into the mid-size crossover SUV class, and has been developed alongside the Hyundai Santa Fe.
It is presumed to be named after the Italian city of Sorrento, though Kia did not confirm this. However, Kia released the cryptic post teasing the launch of Sorento in India featuring the image of Piazza Tasso located in Sorrento, Italy.
What is underneath
Power comes from Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a 5-speed Manual transmission / manual / 4-speed Automatic transmission / automatic / 5-speed automatic. The wheelbase is 2710 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Hwaseong, Gyeonggi. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Mazda Mazda6, the Volvo XC90, the Citroën C3 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Kia catalogue sit the Kia K5 (Optima) and the Kia Magentis.
What it costs now
The money question first: $9,800–$48,200 is the typical asking range today, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $3,304–$8,559 a year. Insurance sits around $1,120–$2,490 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.