Which crossover to choose: Kia Sorento or Kia Sportage

Competition in the SUV segment is now more intense than ever. The primacy of Asian automakers no longer surprises anyone, but Korean auto giants are competing with traditionally strong Japanese today on equal terms. Among them - Kia, which has been paying maximum attention to crossovers lately. Not surprisingly, there are not only many compact urban SUVs in its lineup - they are already actively competing for a place in the sun among themselves. The Kia Sorento and Sportage are good examples. Today we will try to find out which of them is more worthy of your money.

Specifications

As subjects, we took four-wheel drive cars with approximately the same engines and transmissions - the third-generation Kia Sorento with a 2.4-liter engine and automatic transmission, as well as the Kia Sportage with the same volume, but slightly less powerful (185 hp). against 188) power unit and automatic transmission.

On most indicators, the Sorento is ahead - it is larger, more powerful, heavier, but based on these data alone, it is difficult to make a choice between the Sorento or the Sportage.

Exterior

The Sorento's appearance is by no means ordinary. A profile that is memorable the first time, a beautiful front end, a pleasant stern - the car looks great no matter how you look at it. We can say that the Korean designers managed to make a "candy" from a typical nondescript crossover. It successfully combines the aggressiveness and muscularity characteristic of SUVs, and modern standards in relation to appearance, which rarely and not everyone succeeds.

Powerful eyebrow arches of wheel arches, a flat and wide hood, deep niches of large foglights, as well as dynamic lines of head optics in combination with the shine of a pretty false radiator grille just form the image of a muscular but graceful car.

The rear part looks very original, in many respects - thanks to the irregular shape of the third side window and the spoiler hanging over the rear window. The panoramic roof completes the image of a modern, comfortable car. Sorento clearly does not belong to the "middling", which is abundant in this segment, so its appearance is an obvious plus to the overall assessment.

What about Sportage? The age of this SUV is younger, which, in general, is reflected in the appearance and character of the car. If you compare the Sorento with a fashionista in a classic three, then the Sportage look is associated with traditionalism and boldness in clothing lines, as if appealing to the spirit of romanticism and inviting on long journeys with obligatory adventures.

But, despite his youth, this handsome man does not look immature against the background of competitors from the Old World and Japan. The hood here is multi-volume, a chrome strip divides the front of the car into an air intake and a radiator grille, niches for foglights have an original shape and are divided in half.

Well, the rear spoiler is even larger than the Sorento. A thin strip of navigation lights extending from wing to wing also gives originality to the stern. Comparing Kia Sorento and Kia Sportage with each other, at a subconscious level you imagine their owners - serious and respectable in the first case, and active and young - in the second.

Of course, this view can be called subjective, since the target audience for these crossovers is, by and large, motley. In any case, both small-class SUVs have a bright, strong and memorable appearance, as if inviting their owners into the world of real drive and excitement.

Summing up, it can be argued that both crossovers skillfully combine individuality and versatility, power and grace, breaking to pieces the stereotype that does not allow such a combination in the SUV class.

Interior

But once you look inside the cars - and you begin to understand that they are really different. Sorento, due to its age and reputation, looks a little better than its blood brother. But the Sportage cannot be said that it looks like a poor relative - it is just that it is completely different.

Let's start by getting into the car. As for crossovers, it is quite comfortable for both competitors. We know that getting into a car of this class is not very enjoyable, since the seats are much higher here than in sedans or hatchbacks. But our defendants clearly do not suffer from this drawback.

The quality of plastic and trim materials is just as important for evaluating the interior as the appearance of the fascia. Here, the Sorento is all right - you can't call the plastic soft, and you can forget about the squeaks that often appear in more expensive cars. The fit of different materials is made at a high level, there are no gaps, the leather is of very high quality - all this makes it impossible to doubt that you are inside a high-quality parkentik.

The informativeness of the SUV's dashboard and the ergonomics of the location of the scales do not raise questions. The steering wheel is comfortable and does not interfere from time to time to glance at the readings of the instruments and instantly read and interpret them.

The adjustments of the driver's seat are carried out by means of an electric drive, so there will be no special problems with this. In the basic configuration, climate control is carried out by air conditioning, but in more expensive versions, climate control takes over this function. Unfortunately, the electric sunroof is only available as an option. But even without it, the Sorento is good, since by default there is heated seats in the front, steering wheel trim with high-quality leather, leather inserts on the door panels, active head restraints, heated windshield and other options related to the interior.

Inside the Sportage is no worse - the quality of the plastic is high, the build level is about the same, the colors of the finishing materials are skillfully selected. An interesting look is the mesh fabric material with which the Koreans have refined the door inserts and upholstery of the front seats. This is not only beautiful, but also practical: if the kids accidentally stain them, it will be easy to get rid of the pollution using ordinary household chemicals.

As for the driver's seating position, the Sportage has nothing in common with the Sorento: it is also comfortable, but, as the model name suggests, sporty and youthful, if I may say so in relation to a compact SUV.

Whose trunk is bigger, Kia Sportage or Sorento, we already know, and this is the only, but very powerful argument in favor of Sorento. Well, in general, the interior of the Sportage, although not entirely, is associated with the name, while the Sorento has it, one might say, classic.

Engines and transmissions

It would seem that within the framework of one brand it would be logical to use the same engines - if not completely, then at least partially. But this is not observed in relation to our participants in the review.

The more compact Kia Sportage is equipped with a four-cylinder two-liter 150-horsepower engine, as well as a 2.4-liter power unit with a capacity of 184 liters. from.

Since the Sorento is larger, its engines are more impressive - a 2.4-liter gasoline engine for 175 "horses" and a 2.2-liter 197-horsepower turbodiesel.

Now let's compare the Kia Sorento and Sportage in terms of consumption:

• Sportage with a two-liter engine and a manual transmission consumes 10.9 liters of AI-95 in the city, 6.1 liters on the highway, and on average 7.9 liters.
• For a 2.4-liter unit, the figures are as follows: 12.0 / 6.6 / 8.6 liters per 100 kilometers.
• Sorento with 2.4-liter engine (manual transmission): 11.3 / 7.1 / 8.6.
• Sorento with 2.4-liter engine (automatic transmission): 11.9 / 6.8 / 8.6.
• The Sorento with a 2.2-liter diesel engine consumes an average of 6.7 liters per 100 kilometers.

Controllability and cross-country ability

The Sorento's steering will take some getting used to. It is far from easy to determine the exact angle for the "correct" entry into a high-speed turn. At first you have to steer constantly.Some experts blame the new power steering for this, but this is unlikely to be true. The fact is that its settings can be changed, but even in this case, when choosing a sport mode, the information content of the steering wheel does not change, although it becomes noticeably harder to turn the steering wheel. In the "Comfort" mode, the steering wheel becomes wadded.

But there is also a positive point - this crossover has very good sound insulation. At least. In the cabin, you can not hear the roar of the power unit, or the rustling of tires, much less urban sounds of medium intensity.

By default, the Sorento is front-wheel drive. But as soon as the computer detects that the front wheels begin to slip, the rear axle enters the battle, to which exactly half of the maximum torque is transmitted. If necessary, the four-wheel drive can be manually activated by activating the Lock mode. But in any case, you need to understand that this is not an SUV with a frame structure, and if the SUV can still cope with going out into nature, then serious off-road is not up to it.

Sportage designers have worked hard to improve the handling of this crossover, which was facilitated by the modernization of the platform. The suspension geometry was also changed, the stiffness of the rear silent blocks was increased, and the springs with shock absorbers were made slightly softer.

As a result, a rather energy-intensive suspension copes remarkably well with large irregularities, however, as the size of road surface defects decreases, the situation worsens.

Here the steering wheel is also equipped with an electric booster, and to improve the information content it is artificially “weighted”. Compared to its predecessor, it has become slightly (2.7 degrees) sharper.

The sport mode allows you to revive the SUV's behavior, especially in the city, where frequent and abrupt starts and jerks are required, which also makes you feel calmer on the track when overtaking. As for noise isolation, it is worse than that of the Sorento, but not bad either. At least, the hum of the engine in the cabin is not audible even at maximum speeds, and the main source of noise is the exterior mirrors and wheel arches - the wind will be heard, but not enough to interfere with the conversation.

Options and prices

The number of modifications for the Sorento-2019 is relatively small:

• Classic (engine - 2.4, transmission - automatic transmission) - 1,789,900 rubles;
• Classic 4WD (engine - 2.4, transmission - manual transmission) - 1 839 900;
• Classic 4WD (engine - 2.4, transmission - automatic transmission) - 1 889 900;
• Comfort 4WD (2.4 engine, transmission - automatic transmission) - 1 944 900;
• Luxe 4WD (2.4 engine, transmission - automatic) - 2,024,900;
• Luxe 4WD / DIESEL (engine - 2.2, gearbox - AT) - 2,154,900;
• Prestige 4WD (2.4 engine, automatic transmission) - 2 179 900;
• Prestige 4WD / DIESEL (engine - diesel 2.2, automatic transmission) - 2 309 900.

Compared to the Sorento Prime, the Sportage has more trim levels (we will only provide data on cars in 2019, last year's are also on sale and are slightly cheaper):

• Classic (2.0 / manual transmission) - 1,389,900 rubles;
• Classic "Warm Options" (2.0 / MT) - 1 489 900;
• Classic "Warm Options" (2.0 / automatic transmission) - 1 549 900;
• Classic "Warm Options" 4WD (2.0 / manual transmission) - 1 569 900;
• Comfort (2.0 / manual transmission) - 1 554 900;
• Comfort (2.0 / automatic) - 1,614,900;
• Comfort 4WD (2.0 / manual transmission) - 1 634 900;
• Comfort 4WD (2.0 / automatic transmission) - 1 694 900;
• Luxe (2.0 / automatic) - 1,664,900;
• Luxe 4WD (2.0 / manual transmission) - 1 684 900;
• Luxe 4WD (2.0 / automatic transmission) - 1,744,900;
• Luxe 4WD (2.4 / automatic transmission) - 1 854 900;
• Prestige (2.0 / automatic transmission) - 1 829 900);
• Prestige 4WD (2.0 / automatic transmission) - 1 909 900;
• Prestige 4WD (2.4 / automatic) - 2,019,900;
• GT-Line 4WD (2.4 / automatic transmission) - 2 149 900;
• Premium 4WD (2.4 / automatic transmission) - 2 274 900;
• Premium 4WD DIESEL (2,0 / automatic transmission) - 2 304

Basic versions of the Sportage crossover are much cheaper. But as we move towards top-end configurations, the difference in price and equipment is smoothed out and disappears.

At the same time, already in the initial version, the Sorento is equipped with climate control, while its companion is only equipped with air conditioning. In other words, it's worth considering, is it really that profitable to buy the base Sportage?

Brief conclusion

So, what to choose, Kia Sorento or Sportage? First you need to understand that although both cars are crossovers, they belong to different classes. The Sportage is a compact five-seater SUV that is essentially a slightly larger version of the all-wheel drive hatchback. In other words, it is the perfect car for singles / bachelors or married couples without children, which feels equally well in the stone jungle and out of town. It looks more modern and is equipped with more powerful power units, including a turbocharged aspirated engine with a capacity of 240 "horses" (currently not supplied to Russia), an excellent multimedia system and some rare and attractive features (panoramic roof, heated rear sofa, front seat ventilation).

Sorento is a classic family SUV, spacious, with a large trunk and considerable interior transformation possibilities. If you wish, you can become the owner of a seven-seater option. Here, the quality of the interior is better and the set of active safety systems is richer. If you love luxury, then you will be provided with fashionable perforated nappa leather and other options not available in the Sportage, but for which you have to pay extra, and a lot.