Jake’s Rotten Rental Car Reviews: 2011 Kia Sorento
I literally never thought I’d say these words in my life, but I drove a Kia…and it was a damn good car.
Welcome back to another edition of Jake’s Rotten Rental Car Reviews, where we road test the finest cars that the airport rental lots have to offer. Today’s lucky winner was the Kia Sorento.
After arriving at the National lot in Sacramento, staring down the barrel of a three hour drive to Fresno, comfort was key. Pickings in the lot were pretty slim, though. Had I plumped the extra two hundred bucks, I could have snagged a Lincoln MKZ for the week, and upon scanning the membership line, I almost caved. After all, the line of base Cobalts, Malibus, Impalas and Avengers stretched as far as I could see, and I figured that the day where I’d get saddled with one of those would come soon enough in the future, but it wouldn’t be that day. And then, hiding at the end of the quick pickup line, I spotted the Sorento hiding out. After peeking inside and verifying I could plug in my iPod, I grabbed the keys and hopped in.
The last Kia I had driven was an early 2000s Optima. Not exactly a good car by any stretch, but that example was particularly bad, due to poor maintenance by the owner (spoiled 16 year old kids take shitty care of their cars). I am happy to report that the Sorento managed to just about banish all of the Kia hate out of my system. I was shocked to find that it was actually quite a good car.
Getting it out onto the highway, I was struck by how planted and solid it felt at speed. Doing an indicated 80, the cabin was quiet and calm. In fact, barring a few minor nagging issues, the car felt tight as a drum, despite living the same hard rental life as last episode’s 300. The car’s interior was more functional than the 300′s, with some hard plastic on the dash, and a more convoluted path to getting my iPod to play on the long trip (requiring a stop at Target for some cables).
At speed, the Sorento was planted and relatively stress-free. The suspension was unbelievably good for an SUV, albeit a more car-like one. It was pliant, but still stiff enough to be fun in the turns. The gearbox, a six speed auto, rarely got flustered or stuck in the wrong gear. In addition, the manual mode helped make the most of the strong V6, which had more than enough power to zig-zag past slow semis on California’s Highway 99.
So what’s the catch, you have to be asking yourself? There were a few bones I had to pick with the car, despite how pleased I was with it overall. First, and by far most annoying, was the fact that the car had a tendency to tramline and follow the surface of the road a bit much. In town, this wasn’t overly intrusive, but out on the highway, it became annoying quite quickly, especially given how uneven the surface on 99 is. In the more severely rutted parts of the highway, it felt like the car was threatening to spit me off the road without a quarter turn of lock every 20 seconds.
Second, there was too much play in the steering wheel. When I started to track right, I wanted to wind on a little bitof constant lock to correct for the listing, but in the quarter of steering lock between 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock, steering inputs didn’t seem to actually influence the car’s direction at all, no matter what speed you were going at. This made smooth lane changes a bit of a challenge, so I probably startled some people by swooping into their lane on the freeway.
The offending steering wheel
Third, the driving position slowly became uncomfortable as the hours wore on. At two hours, my right calf started to go numb, and when I finally tumbled into Fresno at 12:30, my knee was shooting spasms all the way down my leg, and my left leg had started getting sore too. Not fun. I had the same problem on the way back, so it wasn’t exactly an isolated incident.
All in all, though, it was a surprisingly pleasant experience. I’d spoken of Hyundai/Kia’s resurgence on the podcast in the past, and I’m pleased to report that they managed to live up to the hype in my eyes. In fact, if I were considering a small, reasonably-priced SUV, the Sorento would definitely make it into the picture, and would likely give some of the more established names in that sector a good run for their money. In top spec, I believe it would be a seriously nice car, and even in the pretty stripped-out iteration I drove, I could see the car’s positives as plain as day.
Rating 1.5 trash cans (1 is best, 5 is worst).
Do you agree with our assessment of the Sorento? Let us know in the comments below!
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I like the multitude of no smoking signs in the car, like they're trying to ensure nobody smokes by trying to plug a loop hole.
"You didn't say I couldn't smoke with the cigarette pointing at the floor!"
No cigarettes pointing down, or to the 1:30 position. Everything else is A-OK.
I had a Kia Forte as a rental back in Feb. That was a hateful little car. Four hours in coach class were better than two hours in the drivers seat. 270* on ramps were an exercise in frustration as the tires wouldn't hold on at much above granny speeds. It was fairly noisy. All this in a car with only a couple thousand miles (don't remember the precise figure anymore).
I had a Hyundai Elentra a few years ago for a weekend. Other than being underpowered and wheezy in base spec, it was a surprisingly nice little car.
Hyundai/Kia surely are coming on strong, and everybody better watch their backs.
It's funny when rental cars exceed our low expectations. Even funnier when the pick we make completely baffles us as to why the car is so bad.
I am fortunate enough to travel frequently enough, but not too often where I am in a number of rental cars, but never bored, or declaring a favorite.
I used to sell Toyotas, so if they are around, I will grab one since I know how the systems work inside and out.
I have had Pontiac Torrents, Jeep Liberties, Dodge Avengers, but I still maintain that one of my worst rentals was a Honda Accord coupe in 2007. It was strange because I thought I had lucked out when I got it. It was an LX, bright Red with beige interior (key for this Memphis/Tupelo trip in late June) It also had a sunroof, which i thought was strange for a rental. 2-doors, sunroof, I thought I had seriously lucked out (after sleeping at the Atlanta Airport the night before). Nope. MPG-bettering tires and Puffs-Plus soft suspension combined with the lightweight 4-cylinder in front had the car walking all over the highway at speeds and squealing tires in hot parking lots at speeds as low as 10 mph. Nothing was 'confidence inspiring' or even remotely fun. It was simply red-beige that was missing two doors. It was fairly quiet, I will give it that. Of course that didn't matter because my Johnny Cash CD and the windows wide open kind of overcomes most road noise.
Oh well.
I worked at a rental place for a while. I can confirm that Fords and GMs fall apart, Nissan has a brake booster issue in Altima's and they get destroyed too. Minivans can take a beatings and Hyundai's/Kia's can take a hell of a beating.
This is the car that theoretically replaced the Kia Rondo that I drive. I love my Rondo and find that it is surprisingly refined for what it is – basically a small box for putting people in. It is a solid car and mimics most of what you said above, with the exception of road noise – it is a pretty loud car. So it's nice to hear that they've addressed that.
All in all, I would recommend Kia as a brand to friends. They really are decent cars, and when you factor in the price you pay for them (and the warranty coverage), really good cars.