Kia loaned me their all-new 2021 Sorento X-Line AWD SUV for this evaluation. Kia – once a backmarker – is now a leader. The SUV you’re reading about today is an excellent example of a long-term company vision realized. They also fixed another major issue the brand’s styling. Their cars of the 1990s weren’t great or particularly well styled, but they got better and better because management practically supported the brand by packing every vehicle with more shiny-object-features-for-a-low-price-than-the-competition while backing their products with HUGE warranties (10-year powertrain). I’ve pondered the decisions of Mitsubishi to squander their engineering edge (think counter rotating balance shafts or any of the decades of EVOs) by purposefully driving into a box canyon of not-yet-ready-for-prime-time-tech, hoisting a green flag, and being surprised nobody cared. I’ve followed the struggles of the old Chrysler Corporation as it fought back from the (seemingly perpetual) brink of disaster with shockingly strong products (think the 1994 Dodge Ram) only to succumb to purposeful management decisions (DaimlerChrysler, Cerberus, FCA, etc.) that dug the company’s own trench toward oblivion. I’ve watched once-mighty companies become way less mighty (but no less full of hubris). Watching car companies develop over decades gives perspective about how said companies are run, and what’s important to them. 2021 Sorento X-Line AWD it's just what you’d expect from today's Kia.
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