Kia Sorento SUV (2011-2015) - Reliability & safety

Kia has an excellent reputation for building reliable cars – and even if it didn’t, there isn’t much to worry about when you get a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty from new, which is transferrable to subsequent owners. The Kia Sorento has a top safety rating, too, with plenty of equipment to back up its score.

Kia Sorento reliability

The Kia Sorento didn’t appear in our Driver Power 2014 owner satisfaction survey, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t reliable. It’s not one of Kia’s big-volume sellers such as the Rio, Cee’d or Sportage, which is why it didn’t make an appearance, but those popular models all performed well.

As a brand, Kia lived up to its good reputation with a very impressive seventh-place finish in the manufacturer rankings out of 32 carmakers. Skoda and Dacia were the only two budget manufacturers to finish ahead of it. The company’s dealerships didn’t do badly, either – they came in at 10th place out of 32 manufacturers’ franchises – well inside the top third.

The only thing that really counts against the Sorento is its cabin materials, which feel a bit cheap when you compare them to those of rivals.

See what real-world Kia Sorento owners think about their cars. 

Kia Sorento safety

A five-star Euro NCAP rating leaves the Sorento comfortably at the top of its game for safety – and it isn't short of safety equipment, either. All models come with emergency stop signalling, six airbags, electronic stability control and traction control as standard.

Four-wheel drive is also standard, so there’s plenty of grip in wet and slippery conditions and every model has hill-start assistance to help you get moving on steep inclines and rough surfaces. Every version of the Sorento from the KX-2 model upwards comes with self-levelling suspension, which helps to balance the car out and makes it more adept at covering particularly bumpy surfaces.