In movies of self-discovery, the hero usually goes on a long journey to seek the answers they’re looking for. So, what better way than to discover this 2024 Kia Sorento X-Line Limited than a long journey?
I spent our time with the Sorento driving from Toronto to Pittsburgh and back, with five adults, a baby, and all their stuff for a long weekend getaway. Being a midsize crossover with a third-row-in-a-pinch, we really stretched the Sorento’s capacity to its limits. We were only gone for the weekend, but each adult had their own bag, and of course the baby comes with approximately 1.7 billion other items you need to bring along.
We stuffed the five adult bags, baby bag, the pack-and-play, and a couple of small gifts and knick-knacks into every crevice we could find, including between the captain’s chairs in the second row. You can barely fit a standard backpack laying flat with the third row up, but we managed and proceeded to stack more stuff on top of it all. And because we had to make good time, bathroom breaks weren’t encouraged. All in all, I’m not about to knock the Sorento — five adults and a baby would bring any of its competitors to its knees, and we made it work.
The cabin itself is a pretty good place to be, but there’s definitely a hierarchy starting with the Sorento’s business class accommodations upfront, economy in the second row, and then Ryan Air all the way in the back. The third row has two very flat seats merely inches off the floor, meaning a typical adult is sitting with their knees near their chest — probably not ideal for a six-hour drive, in retrospect.
Getting back there isn’t bad, though. The second-row captain’s chairs are powered and can be moved out of the way at the touch of a button. The second row is actually quite pleasant, with decent adjustability for those captain’s chairs, ample headroom and legroom, and the leather upholstery throughout makes kid spills easy to clean. The front of the cabin isn’t the roomiest out there, with less leg room than you’d expect, but it doesn’t feel claustrophobic.
The dashboard has a nice mix of textures that although may not feel overly premium, still look good. There’s a nice 12.3-inch touchscreen running Kia’s clean infotainment, and they even kept some physical controls for drive modes, the heated and cooled seats, and other key functions. Now, generally speaking, Hyundai and Kia do a pretty good job of toeing the line between making everything touch and/or integrated into the screen, and retaining physical buttons and controls. I appreciate the Sorento’s real buttons on the steering wheels, and even the physical controls for the infotainment and climate controls, but there’s a catch.
In a clever but perhaps ill-conceived move, Kia uses a dynamic layout where you can toggle between infotainment and climate on the same row of controls. This means the left rotary knob acts as a volume knob in infotainment mode, and the driver’s temperature in climate mode. This gets confusing fast; I found myself cranking the heat up instead of the volume, and vice versa. I’m sure owners would eventually get used to it, and I appreciate the effort because Kia could have very well omitted physical controls altogether. For what it’s worth, my wife thought it was very clever.
I’m a fan of Kia’s styling in general; they’re different enough to look unique but not overstyled. This Sorento, finished in an attractive cappuccino-esque colour unfortunately named Road Rider Brown looks good, especially with its chunky 20-inch wheels and some minor body cladding. There’s some attractive lighting elements inspired by the EV9 — itself quite a looker, too. Our X-Line Limited trim adds a 33-millimetre lift to the Sorento, as well as a number of bells and whistles, like navigation, a panoramic sunroof, adaptive cruise control, and a lot more.
Power comes from a turbocharged 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine mated to an eight-speed automatic. I certainly appreciate the higher displacement in this unit compared to more common 2.0L engines; the extra size helps fill in for turbo lag until it fully spools up. The 281-horsepower and 311 pound-feet of torque on tap feels a little overtaxed when it’s loaded up with six people and their gear, but driving solo, the Sorento feels plenty peppy. Road manners are appropriate for this type of vehicle, feeling neither sporty nor sloppy. There’s not much excitement to the experience, but there shouldn’t be any to begin with.
At $51,225 as-tested, the 2024 Kia Sorento X-Line Limited offers up a lot of value for the price, as Kias often do. The Sorento has grown up from prior generations, feeling matured in all the right ways and vanquishing this long-weekend journey successfully. I wouldn’t call it our hero, but in all fairness, cramming five adults, a baby, and their stuff into a midsize crossover is no easy feat. The Sorento would be a hero for a family of four.
