4x2 doesn’t add up to 4x4

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Friday, July 02, 2010

Somewhat amusingly, the PR man from Kia emailed me recently, following my rant about faux 4x4 machines, wondering if there was any point in his sending the 4x2 Kia Sorento to me for testing.

I asked him how brave he felt and, in fairness, the Sorento duly arrived for me to give it the once over.

My main problem with 4x2 machines is that, by and large, the buying public is only fooling itself by buying into this delusion they’ll look good in a machine that resembles a real 4x4, but would actually be as comfortable off-road as an elephant on ice skates.

Sure, it is true to say that Companies have made a lot of money from selling such cars, with the Nissan Qashqai, Toyota Rav4 and the Hyundai Santa Fe particularly popular in Ireland. But that does not necessarily mean 4x2s are any good.

As driving propositions, many 4x2s are grim, but that does not matter much to those spending their very hard-earned gelt on them. But then, there’s nowt as strange as folk, as they say in the north of England.

Coming to this Kia, I have to admit that I was not expecting that much, but I actually came away from the car reasonably impressed — a lot more impressed than I expected to be.

The Sorento does not see itself as a ‘crossover’ contender in the mould — or size — of the Qashqai or the RAV4; rather, it would contend that it is competing against such as the Land Rover Discovery, which is why it costs so much more than the Nissan or Toyota.

There is a seven-seat capability and the specification sheet also shows why Kia has been doing such relatively good business in recent times, as even the baseline EX model is terribly well kitted out, while the top-of-the-range GSE version lacks for little.

A good-looking and decently apportioned machine, the Sorento is also fitted out with the new and very solid 2.2 CRDi turbodiesel, which outputs just shy of 200 bhp and is capable of a top speed of 190 kph, and a 0-100 kph time of 9.7 seconds, which is a lot quicker than many of its rivals.

Despite this decent performance, economy is not bad, either, and the Sorento will only use 6.6 litres of diesel for every 100 km, which is well over 40 mpg.

So far so good, then.

But, like many rivals, this car is not the best driving proposition you are likely to find. It must be said that it is better than many, but, even so, the ride is not great on anything other than billiard table surfaces, the handling is crimped by excessive body lean, and grip levels are only OK.

It is a comfortable car in general, and quite refined, too. The diesel is not terribly intrusive and wind noise is generally subdued. The seating, too, is very comfortable — even if the adjustment for back angle of the driver’s seat is very fiddly.

It has a very roomy interior, as you might expect, and the space available when the rear seats are folded away is huge.

The spec level, as I say, is decent, and remote control central locking, electric windows and mirrors, air con., and very much more, are all standard.

If history tells us anything it indicates the probability that residual values will not be strong with the Sorento, but owners can console themselves on this point by having the benefit of the company’s seven-year warranty, and, undoubtedly, this is a good selling point for the car.

On this point, it is worth mentioning that the mechanical components are generally of a hardy nature, and, in reality, you’ll probably not need the comfort of the warranty.

This is an OK car, but, as regular readers will know, I am not in love with the ‘crossover’ segment, as a whole, and thus it is definitely not my cup of tea.

It does have many good points, but there are down sides, as well, and in that regard it is no different from many of its contemporaries.

It is a decent enough contender from Kia, but I don’t think it’s going to frighten the gizzard out of Land Rover anytime soon.

Theoretically, it will represent, for many buyers, the bargain basement entry into Land Rover territory, but that’s only theory.