On the eve of the Paris Motor Show, Kia Motors France is offering you the chance to win 5×2 tickets to the show. The third-generation Kia Sorento will be making its European debut at the show, a model with a luxurious look and meticulous design.
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The all-new Kia Sorento, unveiled in Korea on August 28 and on display at the Mondial de l’auto, combines style, practicality and high-tech, while building on the success of its predecessor. With its sleeker, more aerodynamic profile and highly sculpted surfaces, the third generation of this premium SUV boasts a higher level of sophistication, while offering an upscale character, coupled with greater habitability and a host of innovative features.
In their imagination, its designers have described this new vehicle as a “wolf of the streets”. Its styling evolutions, while not radical, subtly modify the character of the new Kia Sorento, highlighting its resolutely slender and sinuous profile, while giving it a sophisticated silhouette and a much more assertive presence on the road.
The bow of the new Kia Sorento is distinguished by elongated, wrap-around headlamps, larger fog lamps and an oversized, straighter “Tiger Nose” grille, featuring a stunning three-dimensional diamond pattern first seen on the 2013 Kia Cross GT concept.
In profile, the new model retains the Kia Sorento’s emblematic elongated hood and characteristic wide D-pillar, although its lowered roofline, raised beltline and more stretched silhouette give it a more imposing, athletic appearance.
The stern features more prominent shoulders and a particularly sculpted number-plate surround. The latter feature is the result of the use of new laser welding techniques – a first for a Kia model – which have made the weld seams completely invisible, thus enabling the Kia Sorento to do away with the traditional tailgate trim (which acts as a joint cover).
The new Kia Sorento owes its particularly slender design to its more generous dimensions in length (+95 mm to 4,780 mm) and width (+5 mm to 1,890 mm), as well as its reduced height (-15 mm to 1,685 mm).
The exterior styling of the new Kia Sorento was primarily imagined by Kia’s design team based in Namyang, Korea, but worked closely with the brand’s design offices in Frankfurt, Germany and Irvine, California.
A modern, roomy interior
It is within the interior of the new Kia Sorento that the most significant changes have been made. Its interior styling was imagined by the brand’s European design team, based in Frankfurt. Kia’s designers have created a more sophisticated and luxurious cabin, using even higher-quality materials.
The interior is designed to be wide and modern, with a layout and layout that combine stability and horizontality. The impression of width can be seen, for example, in the slimmer instrument cluster, the interior trim and the flowing dashboard, which extends all the way to the door panels. The significantly higher proportion of leather and soft-touch materials creates a more exclusive and modern interior ambience, while giving the new Kia Sorento genuine luxury status.
A key styling element of the interior is the Swiss watch-inspired user interface, which incorporates the latest HMI (human-machine interface) technologies, enhanced by a new silver-finish trim.
The flowing dashboard features enveloping contours. Its rising profile integrates the instrument cluster on the driver’s side. The regular curvature of the door line, which extends from the speakers to the interior handles typical of an SUV, gives the interior a more sophisticated and luxurious character.
In Europe and key markets, customers can opt for a single-tone (Saturn Black) or two-tone (Saturn Black + Stone) interior with fabric or leather upholstery. Brown or light grey leather upholstery is also available as an option.
Comfort, convenience and new technologies
Compared to its predecessor, the new Kia Sorento boasts more generous exterior dimensions and a longer wheelbase (+80 mm to 2,780 mm), providing greater habitability.
Despite its 15 mm lower roofline, the repositioned seat cushions ensure greater headroom for occupants in all three rows. They also benefit from improved legroom. The new Kia Sorento also offers greater load space, with the boot floor 87 mm longer, and a 17.5% increase in capacity with the seats folded flat, from 515 to 605 liters (VDA standard). It also features an all-new storage compartment integrated into the trunk floor.
Available in 5- and 7-seat versions, this third-generation Kia Sorento adopts a 40/20/40 split second row for greater modularity, and a raised folding central armrest. On the 7-seater version, the second-row seats are equipped with a “remote folding” system controlled by two levers located in one of the sides of the cargo area.
The new Kia Sorento introduces a number of new, cutting-edge on-board technologies designed to ensure greater convenience and a more rewarding user experience. Depending on the market, new equipment options include a panoramic monitor with four cameras to facilitate parking maneuvers, and an intelligent electric tailgate. This system opens the tailgate automatically when the ignition key is detected in the immediate vicinity of the trunk. This allows the driver to load shopping bags or bulky items directly into the vehicle.
Greater refinement
Throughout the development of the new Kia Sorento, Kia engineers focused on strengthening its body structure and reducing its noise and vibration levels to create a quieter interior environment.
The increased torsional rigidity of the new body (up 14% on the previous model) guarantees both greater sophistication and improved safety.
Measures to reduce noise and vibration levels on the new Kia Sorento include the installation of new soundproofing materials in the transmission tunnel, a 29% increase in the thickness of the dashboard soundproofing panel (up from 0,7 mm to 0.9 mm), the fitting of larger engine and transmission mounts for greater powertrain refinement and, for diesel models, the adoption of a new particulate filter cover and the integration of acoustic protection in the engine timing chain cover. The result is a 3-6% reduction in cabin noise levels, depending on driving conditions.
Optimized powertrains, driving comfort and handling
In response to ever-increasing customer expectations, Kia engineers have worked to improve every aspect of the new Kia Sorento’s driving experience, from powertrains to steering and suspension.
The new Kia Sorento offers a range of five powertrains (depending on country), ranging from 172 to 270 hp. These include a 2.4 l gasoline direct injection (GDI) unit, two 2.4 l and 3.3 l multi-point injection (MPI) engines, and two optimized 2.0 l and 2.2 l ‘R’ turbodiesels.
In developing the new Kia Sorento, Kia’s team of chassis engineers focused on improving ride comfort, high-speed stability and steering responsiveness to match the remarkable progress made in terms of interior finish and noise and vibration reduction.
The fully independent suspension retains the configuration of its predecessor (MacPherson struts at the front and Kia-designed multi-link system at the rear), albeit with a series of modifications. At the rear, the subframe supporting the suspension is fitted with larger bushes to isolate it from the passenger compartment, and oversized shock absorbers are now mounted vertically behind the axle axis, for better control of body movements.
These developments, combined with the extended wheelbase, ensure a smoother ride, combined with a more gradual absorption of road imperfections, enabling occupants of the new Kia Sorento to enjoy excellent comfort, particularly on long journeys.
At the front, the all-new electric power steering system (R-MDPS), available as standard or as an option depending on the country, is mounted directly on the steering rack – rather than on the steering column as on the previous generation. The steering thus provides better feel and greater responsiveness, enabling the new Sorento to rank among the most agile and sporty vehicles in its segment, without sacrificing the driving quality that customers have a right to expect from a top-of-the-range SUV.
Improved active and passive safety
The structure of the new Kia Sorento has been significantly strengthened, thanks in particular to the use of a higher proportion of ultra-high-tensile steel (UHTS). From 24.4% on the previous generation, this has risen to 52.7% on the body of the new Kia Sorento, helping to improve the integrity of its central structure in the event of impact, as well as its torsional rigidity. This higher-strength steel has been used to reinforce the wheel arches and tailgate surround.
The new Kia Sorento features more than twice the proportion of ultra-high-strength hot-tempered steel than its predecessor (10.1% vs. 4.1% for the former model), which has enabled the A and B-pillars to be significantly strengthened.
So, are you ready for an exclusive preview of the new-generation Kia Sorento?
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