The 2015 Kia Sorento SX carried me Wednesday noon to Fort Lupton for lunch with Dick Johnson at the Wholly Stromboli. An unusual restaurant name, one not soon forgotten; I likened it to Harry Caray’s tavern in Chicago known as the Holy Cow.
Dick Johnson and I back in the early 1970s worked side by side on the Denver Post city desk. Dick soon turned his excellent writing skills to a career with the Post’s Empire magazine; I followed another fork in the road filled with automobiles. Dick’s gait has slowed a bit, yet he drives an automobile with as much command as ever from his residence in Denver. The Sorento today is a smooth-operating crossover. Introduced with a truck-based configuration in 2003, the Sorento gave up its offroad aspirations in May 2010 when, as an ’11 model, it unveiled car-based underpinnings. The sales pace more than doubled almost immediately and Kia has sold more than 100,000 Sorentos yearly since. The Sorento, which received major styling and power upgrades a year ago, shows minor refinements in its front end for 2015. A large sunroof, 4 ½ feet long, is a brightener in daylight hours, for the interior of the Sorento review model is very dark, with black leather and even the simulated wood trim is of dark cherry finish. Manual sunshades can be raised on the rear side windows. Lightly bolstered front leather seats, average-sized, are supportive and comfortable. Legroom is somewhat tight in the second row. The seats slide fore and aft in order to create entry into the third row, where the smaller seats are decent but lack headroom. The third row, when in place, leaves scarcely any cargo space at the far back. Fold the third row and the cargo area expands to a roomy 37 cubic feet. The spare tire is stowed underneath the rear of the vehicle. Delivering smooth traction with the SX all-wheel-drive crossover is a 290-horsepower, 3.3-liter V-6 engine and 6-speed automatic transmission, which emphasizes strong midrange torque, particularly when in manual mode. A May 11 snowstorm brought into play Kia’s AWD system, which proportions torque to the rear wheels as needed. The driver, with push of a button on the steering wheel, can engage electric-steering adjustments from normal to soft comfort to quickened sport.Also available with cheaper versions of the Sorento is a 191-hp, 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine.
Didn’t miss it, Bill; simply didn’t have space for all the impressive models on display. In fact, one will soon be heading my way for test-driving. Think it competes with European sedans costing $30,000 more? We’ll see.
Bud, I’ve been to Estes Park frequently and I believe you were in a “loading only” zone along Main Street in last week’s photo of the Nissan Frontier Pro-4X pickup. A red truck in a no-parking spot, risky. – S.T.
We parked out front of Granny Gingham’s only long enough for the photo, Steve. In driving on up to the Other Side restaurant, Jan and I pulled up alongside seven Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Always a neat sight. As to your parking comments, five or six years ago, we photographed a new Chrysler 300 in the same spot, when main-street parking was legal.
