Which came first? Sorento or Sorrento? That’s easy. The Italian city was founded in the 7th Century BC, while the
first Sorento rolled off the line in 2002 AD. Yeah, I’ll use BCE if you explain to me what happened in Year Zero of the Common Era.
Actually we’re not even certain if the Kia is named after the city, but it seems likely even if it’s spelt differently. But, since we’re on the biblical subject, ‘Kia’ in the Bible means ‘a follower of Christ’, although it probably leans more towards the Korean ‘The rise of Asia’. And not, as some might surmise ‘Killed in Action’. Glad we’ve cleared that up.
So we know it’s called the Kia Sorento, and we know it’s been around for over 20 years in one form or another. And if we’ve been reading this magazine long-term, we know that it’s a multiple class winner over several generations of 4×4 of the Year. And here it is yet again in yet another form. This is an updated version of the fourth generation, so not completely new.
And yet it looks it. The bodywork now follows the style set by the wildly successful EV9. A style which, depending on your state of mind, looks like a rugged off-roader or an armoured personnel carrier.
Read the full article in the October issue of Overlander 4×4 –
