Kia Sorento SUV - Reliability & safety

The previous model of the Kia Sorento came top in our 2020 Driver Power survey, so the new model will need to be good to impress loyal customers. It's certainly loaded with new technology, including some clever safety features designed to reduce the risk of collisions.

Kia Sorento reliability

Kia has a great reputation for building reliable cars, and the flagship Sorento should be especially tough. It's also backed up by Kia's excellent seven-year warranty, if there are any faults. Despite being a great success with customers, the previous Sorento wasn't impervious to faults, with 23.8% reporting one or more faults in the first year of ownership. Luckily, most of these seem to be small electrical gremlins rather than major failures. The new model hasn’t yet featured in our Driver Power survey but Kia as a brand came second out of all the manufacturers ranked.

Safety

Two prior Kia Sorento models have been awarded five stars in Euro NCAP crash tests, in 2009 and 2014. Perhaps it should be little surprise, then, that the latest version managed the same, despite the tests becoming more stringent in 2020.

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The car’s fitted with a raft of safety features, allowing it to detect and automatically brake if a potential collision with a pedestrian, cyclist or vehicle is anticipated. It can also scan for moving traffic as you go to pull out of a junction, and keep an eye on traffic as you cruise along the motorway, alerting the driver of vehicles in their blind-spot.