The first generation of the Kia Sorento is still clearly in our minds, because that car started Kia’s success in the Netherlands. This is much less true for the second generation. Yet today we focus specifically on that car, because in 2012 this Sorento received a striking facelift.
The first-generation Kia Sorento offered what we Dutch people love like no other: a lot for little. At the time, you could still score by parking an inefficient, but hefty and good-looking SUV on the price list for a reasonable amount. That combination is now impossible thanks to the CO2-based bpm, a project that started in 2010. Bad news for the second generation of the Sorento, which had just been presented a year earlier.
In the years that followed, many Dutch buyers opted for the second generation of the smaller Sportage, while the Sorento slowly sank into the role of a wallflower, which it only slightly leaves behind with the current generation, thanks to plug-in hybrid powertrains.
Still, the second Sorento was certainly not a bad car. The sturdy, unyielding appearance has also been preserved, albeit in a completely new and clearly more modern form. Straight lines, flat surfaces and large, sleek light units determined the image in 2009. There was also the then new ‘Tiger Nose’ grille, with the notches on the top and bottom that Kia still uses today.
With the facelift in 2012, little seems to change at first. The headlights get a somewhat different layout and the front bumper loses some air intakes, which makes the car look even more tidy. At the back, however, everything is different. The large, almost entirely red rear lights make way for L-shaped ones with what we now call a ‘striking light signature’. The section on the tailgate ends further in and more in a point. There it connects directly to the ‘canopy’ under which the license plate now houses, part of a tighter and completely new tailgate. Together with the also taut rear bumper, this Sorento looks very different from before, especially at the rear. Different, but also better?
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl