The all-new Kia Sorento will get its European debut at the
Frankfurt Motor Show in September, having already made its proper debut in Seoul. As you can see, it looks a whole lot better than the
current car, and thanks to an entirely new chassis it should behave better too.
The old body-on-frame chassis has been replaced with a lovely monocoque design to shave loads of weight off (over 200kg), thus making this SUV handle better and consume less. At the same time it uses higher quality materials inside and has more tech than the old car. The
Kia Soul's reversing camera - with its display in the rear view mirror - makes an appearance, as does a starter button for the engine, just so owners can feel temporarily like racing car drivers.
There's little information about the UK-spec car at the time of writing, but we do know that the top seller will be the 2.2-litre diesel, which has 194bhp and 311lb.ft, and can be had with either a six-speed manual or an auto with the same number of ratios. We're
driving it a couple of weeks before Frankfurt, so we'll shortly tell you whether it lives up to the hype.
Mark Nichol - 10 Aug 2009