2023 Kia Sorento EX In-Depth Review and Test Drive Is This The Ultimate Family SUV?

2023 Kia Sorento EX. I'm taking it for a spin. Come along with me to determine if this is the perfect mid-size SUV for you and your family. With an MSRP of $4,295, there's a ton of value with this freshly redesigned Sorento. They gave it a big update and you can see a ton of modern styling all throughout. Right away when we jump into it, it looks phenomenal and sporty. The outside looks super sporty. You have automatic headlights on the LED headlights. This specific one is in the wolf gray exterior color so it's kind of like a flat gray that has become very popular in this time. It's sitting on 20-inch machine-finished black alloy rims. You have a power liftgate in the back which makes it very easy for getting in and out and putting things in the trunk. You have six passenger configurations. So this specific one comes with the captain chairs. You can go up to the EX plus from here you can go with the X line which is more like Kia's off-road package and you can go to like the SX in the top trims and get the higher packages. So for a large MSRP of $42,000, let's see how it drives and how it handles. Right away I do notice that I feel like I'm sitting higher up in these Sorentos and you can't really see like above and out the front end there. The front end nose is a little high so that's I like the viewing I like being able to see deep in front of my front end. Cars Unlocked exclusive let's check out the dead body test here and subscribe if you guys are new to the channel here but as you can see we have the third row up now so really like this you're probably one dead body barely depending on how tall they are and you can drop the seats down and here you go if you really need to go on a murder spree you're probably like what's that like probably two three four four dead bodies and then if you fold the captain chairs down you could probably throw another four on top of the captain chair so quite a large storage surface and you can even put these up and down there you can see how they flop down there with the levers so you still have to do some manual configuration but you do have quite a bit of storage area and then you have the power lift gate as well in terms of power plan this one also has the similar engine that we've seen in Kia before it's a 2.5 liter turbocharged engine pumping out 281 horsepower and 311 pounds feet of torque and it's attached to an eight speed automatic transmission accelerates pretty well a little bit of turbo lag coming out of it and you do hear that kind of turbo groan sitting in this eight-way power adjustable driver's seat so we have a lot of different adjustments for the seat the front seats are heated and in this EX you also get leather features all throughout you can see it all throughout the dash you can see it on the seats really nice comfortable leather and we have the leather wrapped wheel we also have our paddle shifters on the wheel here so if you want to adjust your gears manually you can use the paddle shifters and let's lock in there's also like the lane keeping assistant let's lock that in here so it will keep you in the lane and if you deviate from the lane it's going to push you back into the lane using that lane keep assist so that's pretty neat and then we gotta talk about the different drive modes which is down below here um comfort mode eco mode sport mode and a smart mode so probably the one you're most interested in is the eco mode because the fuel price is coming up the eco mode is handy and if you live in an area like us you can go with the snow mode mud mode and then there's a sand mode so a couple different drive modes that this vehicle offers which is great just a quick break from the video here guys behind me is cardinal kia in niagara falls they've provided the sorento for me to shoot so if you are looking to order a new kia vehicle they're your experts contact them this one's for sale and you can pick it up right away if you're happy with this specific configuration contact me or give them a call on their website mention you saw this video and i'll put their information in the description below and of course before we get back into the video if you are enjoying the content you know what all of us youtubers want we want you to subscribe we want you to hit that thumbs up button so make sure you do before you finish the video and we greatly appreciate it very easy to support your creators let's get back to it well nice little straight shifter knob i do like the kia is sticking with just the regular shifters there it does feel good like it does feel like a small crossover while you're driving it and then you have all these safety features so you have the blind spot monitor as well one thing that i really enjoy about the kia is that i don't see in this ex plus is the digital gauge cluster this one is just kind of the older gauge cluster and screen there normally you have the blind spot camera which is a really big feature that people like about kia's but it's obviously not in this ex so if you like that camera that comes on when you're turning and you signal you'll have to go up to the ex plus or the higher packages here you have this eight inch touchscreen display it is kia's kind of older style for the touchscreen jumping into the back this one like i said has the six configuration with the passenger captain chairs here and the leather continues i do like the hard backs that you get here there's three usbs so one behind each seat and one down below here which is perfect for families if they want to charge their devices and that's how you can access the third row and let's see how it feels back there it's a little tight for me to get in you know and if i have a hard time i'm sure your kids are going to have a hard time pull that back there is quite a bit of space back here i like how there's the pass through through the center console so i can still extend my legs out so not too bad back here not gonna lie just getting in and out was a little tough maybe i'm getting old let's see how it sounds here yeah not fun listening to today's calls there we go 70s on 70s you know it doesn't sound too bad um it doesn't come with the upgraded premium sound system like the top models do but i do like the infotainment and i kind of like how it just flows right through the dash here but like i said i'd love to see the digital gauge cluster like we've seen in some of the other vehicles it does have the digital heating controls in a family vehicle like this you want to be able to control the rear so all you can do is kind of turn it on and off so i'd like to see a little bit more real rear controls but everything is set up nice and easy i like how they're still traditional knobs it's not full touch screen and then look at this you can hide away any valuables you want to hide in there you can tuck away and there's our usb wireless charging as well we can charge our phone up in there and then we have two usbs sorry three usb ports down there your fuel economy using that 8-speed automatic you get 10.9 liters for every 100 kilometers in the city or 21.5 mpg now for the highway that's 8.7 liters for every 100 kilometers or 27 miles per gallon for all my american friends so not too bad on fuel economy pretty standard with what these midsize crossovers are going for nowadays it feels like a higher end vehicle some of the low kia's that we've seen like the seltos's they kind of feel um cheaper and you kind of know that you're in a kia but this it does feel like like a quality vehicle um and i would certainly consider the sorento if you were looking if you had a small family of four or five even it would be a good option thank you so much for watching and if you guys are new here make sure you subscribe give this video a thumbs up if we helped you with your buying decision and we'll see you in the next unlock have a great day