Test drive Kia Sorento 2002 - 2006 SUV

Leisure

Every year, the Korean auto industry bites the next piece of the tasty pie, offering either a representative class or expensive cars for outdoor activities. It is especially difficult to fight in the alternate market - the offer here is almost ahead of demand. And there is nothing to say about expensive cars of this class. Here, not just the struggle of structures or the general level of advancedness is to talk about the struggle of concepts, ideas laid down the basis of the car. Why is it - for asphalt or off -road, large speeds or city crowds? Compromise? Then all the more interesting - as it is understood by those who create modern machines in the East.
What the consumer wants
Acquaintance with an alternate is better to start with suspension and transmission. Immediately tune in to a business way - pretend to be what you can count on.
In terms of Sorento’s suspension, frankly, it is notorigin, and this is rather a plus. Two transverse levers in front (the upper ball supports are integrated into levers) and a dependent beam from the back - there are most of them now. We look closely. Two stabilizers - in front and back; Judging by the location of the buffers, the suspension moves are completely small. In front of compression is generally 25-30 mm. The car is the lower steering rack instead of some worm gearbox. There is no doubt, the designers tried to teach the car to go well. Can it be otherwise if almost a 200-horsepower V-shaped six is \u200b\u200bput in the car. Let's try?
The key to start, other fish. It is customary to at least think that at this moment the salon will be filled with some special pleasant sound. Sorento is not filled. When working in idle in the car, it’s quiet, and this is exactly what we are pleased now.
A feeling of comfort fuel a leather salon, quiet music from a combined audio system - with a receiver, cassette and player of compact disks. By the way, the radio is perhaps the only thing that is not included in the package. Very likely, the owner will want to install music more serious. For God's sake: there is a niche of double heights to the most expensive systems, and in the front doors - a place under 16 -centimeter acoustics, again, not for average requests.
The glasses of all doors and the driver’s chair are electrified, except that the lumbar back and the headrest are adjusted manually. The steering wheel also has manual height adjustment.
The range of driver's seat adjustment is not particularly impressive, but for growth just above the average is enough. People from 190 cm and higher here are unlikely to be spacious. You won’t go far back, and the place for the head is limited. True, to a greater extent, this applies to the modification of EX with a hatch in the roof - in a simpler version 3.5 cm higher.
The salon is quite wide and long. Passengers behind the knees are free, there is air over your head. There was also a trunk - 440 liters for an all -terrestrial. By the way, it provides four rings for securing the cargo.
Of the inexperienced bellows - the ability to open up the glass of the fifth door, the folding button of external mirrors and the twist on the front panel for controlling the undercutal box instead of the good old, but not always conveniently protruding lever. Three car outlets found a place in the car, not counting the cigarette lighter in the front panel. One - in front, one - from behind and one - in the trunk. And yet ... however, it's time to go.

What the car loves
It's nice to put pressure on the gas when potential is felt under the hood. But the car is not light - for two tons of equipped mass. You can’t call overclocking with a staggering, but fast or even swift - at the very day. A machine from freshly projected: it works without unnecessary delays and, like most colleagues, it is especially pleasant when driving in half a man. If you want to immediately be beyond the horizon, you will feel a small pause between the Kick Dawn itself and the reaction of the car to it - after half a second it will switch to a decreased and will actively move the pistons. With the most intense acceleration from the place, the machine is completely pleased. As expected, he spins the engine in each gear to maximum revolutions and quickly, without hesitation, passes to the next. True, when the engine revolutions are approaching the red zone, it is very well heard in the cabin.
There are four programs. There are no stepbronics, sport regime and other modern bells and whistles. However, it is not difficult to choose one or another program yourself. If you click the Overdrive Backing button, the first three will remain. If instead of the drive, leave the selector on number 2 or 1, the car obediently leave as many programs as you need.
On the road, Kia behaves approximately. Short -flowing, but very dense suspension does not allow the car to roll. Hard steering causes a quick and intelligible reaction of the machine to the steering wheel. It would still be added to the alternating gear ratio of the steering rack ... However, it seems, I got carried away. But since I started, I will explain.
You quickly get used to the car: sometimes, under the corresponding mood, you are ready to play a little - say, seeing the snowball, start it with a fan. The only thing that makes you think is the steering wheel. For Sorento, he is ordinary for an all -terrain vehicle - about 3.7 turns from the stop to the stop. In driver cars, the steering wheel is made more sensitive. However, we calculate this for a lyrical digression.
In the transmission, KIA may have one of the two options for the handout - either with a constant rear -wheel drive and the possibility of a rigid connection of the front (equipment LX), or (EX equipment) with the TOD - Torque ON DEMAND system. In the latter case, the front line is connected by an electromagnetic coupling, which is located in the distribution. Both options imply a lowering gear. True, cars with a 3.5-liter engine are offered only in the modification of EX.
Not asphalt one
The ability to ride a highway, the corresponding trunk, good traction, not the most sharp steering wheel. Doesn't it seem to you that we are talking about a kind of travel car? And if so, then sooner or later the question arises of overcoming the very last kilometers, for the sake of which all -terrain vehicles often buy. How will Sorento cope with them?
While under it is just broken asphalt, be sure to cope. For small irregularities and holes, the car can drive quickly, so it creates the illusion of a very energy -intensive suspension. But at a serious crossbar, more rustic professional all -terrain vehicles with their huge moves of suspensions will give Kia Fires. This is the payment for the good control of the Korean on the asphalt. What will happen in more extreme conditions?
To answer this question, we will not force a test car. Just look at the bottom again on the pit.
The frame is powerful, with a few crossbars covering all sorts of things, it is located above the road at a height of 220 mm and above. At the same distance from the road the gearbox of the rear axle. Impressive. Under the levers of the front suspension is slightly smaller - we measured 202 mm (official clearance - 203 mm), which is also very good. But it is worth saying something else.
In the lower overhang, almost under the front bumper, at a distance of 270 mm above the road is an oil radiator covered with a sheet with a thickness of 1.25 mm. So on a country road with a front overhang it is better not to touch the earth. And that's not it. Behind the powerful cross -member of the frame at the same height of 270 mm above the road there is a steering rack. It is impossible to damage it when driving forward, when moving in reverse, it is quite difficult, but it is better not to drown the car in the mud.
SUMMARIZE
Do not count for banality: Kia Sorento is a car for outdoor activities. Maybe he will not satisfy some extremes tourists, but will surely appeal to those who like to break from the place and wave somewhere for the weekend or on vacation. On the highway, it is more pleasant than many more formidable in the appearance of classmates, and on off -road will require caution from the driver, although it also does not save.

Brief data
Kia Sorento
It has been produced in Korea since 2002.
Since October, it has been sold in Russia with a 2.5 liter diesel engine, 103 kW/140 liters. With. It is equipped with a mechanical five -speed gearbox (from $ 30 thousand) or a four -speed automatic (from $ 31 thousand). Since January of this year, all -terrain vehicles appeared with a 3.5 -liter gasoline engine, 143 kW/195 liters. With.
So far, official dealers offer 3.5-liter cars only with an automatic gearbox and a complete set of additional equipment for $ 42 thousand.
The back is chic in the back or well. The driver's workplace is strict, but luxurious. A speedometer with a double scale - km/h/mi/h overloaded with numbers.
The protection of the oil radiator is symbolic. The handout is controlled by a switch. 3.5 liters and six cylinders.
 
 
Alexander Budkin. Photo: George Sadkov

Source: The magazine "Driving"