You don’t mention the towing capacity. To judege from Kia’s website, this is reasonable for a vehicle clearly aimed much more at the “soft” jeep market than the old Sorento was. But the TOWBALL DOWNLOAD capacity given by Kia is disappointing at only 80 kg with the auto box and 100 kg with the manual. While this is comparable with other “soft” jeeps, it rules out the new Sorento as a serious towing vehicle in the way that the old one was (which compared well with “serious” jeeps like the Shogun and Land Cruiser). No doubt it has more volumetric load capacity than the old model, and that is a big help when towing a caravan, as these have such poor payload capabilities, but that may not make up for the weight tolerances for a towed caravan.

Another point is that this is, like the Honda CRV and Nissan X-Trail, the normal drive mode is FWD. These tall, chunky vehicles have a strong tendency to understeer and to feel dead and “rubbery” when cornering. Making the front wheels do all the driving (in addition to, as normal, all the steering and around 80% of the braking) seems likely to create an even less reesponsive and involved driving experience than even the old Sorento gave you.

This diesel seems the bees knees to me.

Max power 147 kW @ 3800 rpm and Max torque 435 Nm @ 1800-to-2500 rpm.

That’s seriously good power & torque and can deliver amazing fuel economy too. In my book that’s a sweet motor car.

Kia I’ll be phoning soon for a test drive.

No deisel (Australia) -front wheel drive & no low range

I’ll start looking elseware