A Land Rover Discovery-owning friend nearly choked with laughter when I parked outside her house in the Sorento. Once she had recovered, she told me that someone had recently advised her to buy one, and she had laughed then too. I sort of smiled weakly during all this, but I knew she had missed the point by a wide margin.Whether consciously or not, people who buy the Discovery (or anything in its price range) surely do so partly to show that they can. The Sorento is not that kind of car. It's part of the long-standing Kia tradition of offering a lot for not very much money, and it has to be considered as such.It's a full-sized SUV, and a reasonably serious one at that. Mechanically, there isn't a great deal of difference between this car and the one that was launched in 2003, with which I tackled an intimidatingly robust off-road course and didn't get stuck. For the launch of the current model (reported here) Richard Dredge went charging through the dunes of the Sahara, and he didn't get stuck either. You can take it from this that the Sorento is pretty capable away from the tarmac.Such differences as there are among the oily bits relate mostly to the engine. The 2.5-litre turbo diesel engine has been upgraded significantly, and now produces 168bhp, or 30bhp more than it did previously. This has not turned the Sorento into a performance car, but it has made it a bit perkier. The towing capacity has also improved, and in a rather pleasing winner-takes-all situation the fuel economy and CO2 emissions are better too.The 3.3-litre V6 petrol Sorento (which at the time of writing is due to arrive in the UK very shortly) comes with automatic transmission as standard. The diesels have a choice of that gearbox or, as in the case of the test car, a five-speed manual. The automatic adds £1100 to the list price, but it may be worth it, because the manual has a remarkably floppy linkage; you can move the knob at least an inch in any direction without having the slightest effect on what goes on downstream.Although you can get used to this eventually, it doesn't help the perceived quality much. This is one of several areas where the Sorento's relatively low price - and presumably development budget - becomes apparent. Gear linkages are devilish things to get right (a race car designer once told me it was the worst job he had to face), and it might have cost an alarming amount of money to make the one on the Sorento better than it is.In the same way, it's reasonable enough that the interior isn't as impressive as it is in more expensive cars, though it has been improved and there's nothing particularly wrong with it. And I can see how there might not have been enough in the budget to suppress the noise of the engine. I haven't been going round with a noise meter or anything, but I'd say that the Sorento is louder than the class average, though it isn't even close to being the worst.Actually, there's something odd about this. When I first drove the original Sorento I was impressed by how quiet it was. Is the new one noisier, or have class standards improved dramatically in the last four years?For that matter, has ride quality improved by a similar amount? I thought the first Sorento rode quite well, though it could occasionally be quite jittery. By current standards, this one is too soft and wallows around too much for comfort. I don't think that's a cost issue - all that needs to be done is a slight firming-up of the suspension and the Sorento would be a lot more pleasant to drive.No practicality has been lost in the switch to the new model. There is still plenty of room, as I found when three of us and a lot of equipment and luggage were packed in for a 300-mile round trip. There were no complaints about lack of space, though my passengers - who know very little about cars - did comment on the ride quality, so it's not just me.The test car was an XS, which means it's halfway up the three-model range. Compared with the entry-level XE, it has climate control (rather than conventional air-conditioning), grey leather upholstery, heated front seats, cruise control, folding mirrors, privacy glass, a windscreen wiper de-icer, automatic headlights, various cosmetic fripperies and a transmission which, unlike that of the XE, is in four-wheel drive all the time, though the amount of power sent to each axle varies according to requirements.That lot is worth £3000, and although much of it is very useful I can also see the appeal of saving the money. The XE costs just under £20,000, and there's something about being on the low side of that psychological barrier that somehow makes the Sorento a lot more appealing.On the other hand, you could go the other way and spend more money on the range-topping XT. A higher proportion of its extra equipment is cosmetic, but it does also provide ESP and headlamp washers, which are useful, and 17" wheels and a CD autochanger, which are nice to have.In all its various forms, the Sorento is a good SUV which represents decent value for money. There are some questionable aspects, but not enough that you need pay attention to the jibes of someone who happens to be able to afford a Discovery. Engine 2497cc, 4 cylinders Power 168bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 35.8mpg / 209g/km Acceleration 0-60mph: 11.6 seconds Top speed 113mph Price £22,995 Details correct at publication date
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