Our 2022 Kia Sorento SX Can’t Catch a ‘Brake
But warped rotors can’t stop this mid-size SUV from getting to 20,000 miles.
20,000-Mile Update
Our long-term Kia Sorento SX has proven to be a comfortable road-trip vehicle, and staffers lately have been routinely signing it out to travel to faraway places.
Photo assistant Charley M. Ladd added more than 2500 miles driving the Sorento from our Ann Arbor, Michigan, home base to Pikes Peak in Colorado for the mountain’s annual hill-climb and back in late June. Immediately after that, road test editor Rebecca Hackett put nearly 500 more miles on the Kia when she took it to Thompsonville, Michigan, for the Fourth of July weekend. Factor in the Sorento’s sizable cargo hold with its third-row bench folded, generous passenger space for those in the second-row captain’s chairs, and quiet interior (just 68 decibels enter the cabin at 70 mph, a figure equal to that of the last Acura RDX we tested), and it’s little surprise staffers are regularly enlisting this Sapphire Blue SUV for road-trip duty.
Sorento Service
That said, Hackett wrote that the dual-clutch automatic transmission’s off-the-line shudders were “really cramping [her] style,” although neither she nor Ladd noted any issues with the gearbox at highway speeds.
By the time the Sorento finally caught a break from cross-country and interstate cruising, with its odometer already past the 16,000-mile mark, it also had a brake pedal that was pulsating under pressure.
Our local Kia service center updated the gearbox’s programming free of charge. With the brakes, the culprit was scored rotors. Resurfacing the discs set us back $353. It also reduced the thermal capacity of the Sorento’s rotors, increasing the likelihood of future scoring.
Add in the $268 it cost us to have the Sorento’s oil and filter changed, tires rotated, and cabin air filter replaced, and we were out a total of $621.
More Road-Tripping
With its scheduled maintenance complete and its brake and transmission troubles addressed, the Sorento hit the road once again. Technical editor Dan Edmunds drove it from Michigan to his home near Los Angeles.
“The low-speed drivability issues didn’t rear their head,” he said at the conclusion of the 2467-mile trip. Nor did the left pedal pulsate when Edmunds applied the brakes.
We figure this bodes well for the remaining 20,000 miles of our Sorento SX’s 40,000-mile stay. That said, if there remain any weaknesses in the Sorento’s tweaked transmission programming or its resurfaced rotors, a few weeks of driving in traffic-heavy Southern California ought to uncover them.
Months in Fleet: 6 months Current Mileage: 20,934 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 24 mpg
Fuel Tank Size: 17.7 gal Observed Fuel Range: 420 miles
Service: $402 Normal Wear: $0 Repair: $353
Damage and Destruction: $0
