2024 Kia Sorento -- Family Influence Brings Rugged Facelift

by Tim Healey

Published: November 16th, 2023

2024 kia sorento family influence brings rugged facelift

LOS ANGELES -- Boxes are in these days, it seems.

OK, that's probably a bit of an overstatement -- there are plenty of crossovers on the market with swoopy styling -- but the facelifted 2024 Kia Sorento is definitely following the rugged/boxy trend.

Kia's wording for the front of the Sorento is "boxy, upright hood" and that's quite accurate. Looking at the press images -- I will be seeing the Sorento up close later today -- I am getting serious "baby Telluride" vibes. Given the popularity of the larger Telluride, this is probably not a bad thing from Kia's perspective.

Keeping with the "rugged" thing, there will be an X-Pro package that's off-road-oriented.

Speaking of trims, the entire trim walk is as follows: LX, S, EX, SX, and SX-P, with X-Line and X-Pro packages available -- the X-Line will be available on the EX and above while the X-Pro will be available on SX-P.

The front end isn't the only part of the Sorento that's influenced by Telluride -- the vertical taillamps from the Telluride also make their way to the Sorento. By the way, Kia straight up admits the Telluride's influence in its press materials.

And the EV9's -- the new Sorento's grille and vertical LED headlights are influenced by the upcoming EV SUV.

Interior updates center around the available new curving display that houses two 12.3-inch screens (the standard display has a 4.3-incher and 12.3-incher) .

X-Lines get a center-locking differential, roof rack, 20-inch gloss black wheels, a gloss-black grille unique to this trim, and trim-specific interior badging.

X-Pros get 17-inch wheels, BF Goodrich all-terrain tires, and a towing capacity of 4,000 pounds. That number tops the Sorento range.

The X-Line and X-Pro have slightly different interior treatments and unique available exterior paint colors.

Other key available features include a faster navigation/infotainment system that now has over-the-air updates, a digital key, a slew of USB-C ports, forward collision-avoidance assist, lane-keeping assist, lane-following assist, intelligent cruise control that learns to match your driving style, highway-driving assist with automatic lane change, a digital camera rearview mirror, and 360-degree camera. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard.

The Sorento remains available with front-wheel or all-wheel drive and either a 2.5-liter four cylinder that makes 191 horsepower and 181 lb-ft of torque or a turbocharged 2.5-liter four that makes 281 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque. The former engine pairs with an eight-speed automatic transmission and is used for LX and S trims. The other engine pairs with a dual-clutch, eight-speed automatic.

The 2024 Kia Sorento goes on sale in the first quarter of 2024, with hybrid and plug-in hybrid models expected to follow later in 2024 as 2025 models.

[Images: Kia]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 13 comments

Lou_BC on Nov 16, 2023

It's got that Toyota lower "fat lip" look. Why would they copy that?

They went all in on the photoshopping of it in the wild. I'll sh!t myself if I ever see one in the back country.

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Bd2 on Nov 18, 2023

Don't really care for the sheet-metal (pre or post refresh), but the revised dash is a major improvement (getting rid of those awful center vents).

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Bouzouki Cadillac (aka GM!!) made so many mistakes over the past 40 years, right up to today, one could make a MBA course of it. Others have alluded to them, there is not enough room for me to recite them in a flowing, cohesive manner.Cadillac today is literally a tarted-up Chevrolet. They are nice cars, and the "aura" of the Cadillac name still works on several (mostly female) consumers who are not car enthusiasts.The CT4 and CT5 offer superlative ride and handling, and even performance--but, it is wrapped in sheet metal that (at least I think) looks awful, with (still) sub-par interiors. They are niche cars. They are the last gasp of the Alpha platform--which I have been told by people close to it, was meant to be a Pontiac "BMW 3-series". The bankruptcy killed Pontiac, but the Alpha had been mostly engineered, so it was "Cadillac-ized" with the new "edgy" CTS styling.Most Cadillacs sold are crossovers. The most profitable "Cadillac" is the Escalade (note that GM never jack up the name on THAT!).The question posed here is rather irrelevant. NO ONE has "a blank check", because GM (any company or corporation) does not have bottomless resources.Better styling, and superlative "performance" (by that, I mean being among the best in noise, harshness, handling, performance, reliablity, quality) would cost a lot of money.Post-bankruptcy GM actually tried. No one here mentioned GM's effort to do just that: the "Omega" platform, aka CT6.The (horribly misnamed) CT6 was actually a credible Mercedes/Lexus competitor. I'm sure it cost GM a fortune to develop (the platform was unique, not shared with any other car. The top-of-the-line ORIGINAL Blackwing V8 was also unique, expensive, and ultimately...very few were sold. All of this is a LOT of money).I used to know the sales numbers, and my sense was the CT6 sold about HALF the units GM projected. More importantly, it sold about half to two thirds the volume of the S-Class (which cost a lot more in 201x)Many of your fixed cost are predicated on volume. One way to improve your business case (if the right people want to get the Green Light) is to inflate your projected volumes. This lowers the unit cost for seats, mufflers, control arms, etc, and makes the vehicle more profitable--on paper.Suppliers tool up to make the number of parts the carmaker projects. However, if the volume is less than expected, the automaker has to make up the difference.So, unfortunately, not only was the CT6 an expensive car to build, but Cadillac's weak "brand equity" limited how much GM could charge (and these were still pricey cars in 2016-18, a "base" car was ).Other than the name, the "Omega" could have marked the starting point for Cadillac to once again be the standard of the world. Other than the awful name (Fleetwood, Elegante, Paramount, even ParAMOUR would be better), and offering the basest car with a FOUR cylinder turbo on the base car (incredibly moronic!), it was very good car and a CREDIBLE Mercedes S-Class/Lexus LS400 alternative. While I cannot know if the novel aluminum body was worth the cost (very expensive and complex to build), the bragging rights were legit--a LARGE car that was lighter, but had good body rigidity. No surprise, the interior was not the best, but the gap with the big boys was as close as GM has done in the luxury sphere.Mary Barra decided that profits today and tomorrow were more important than gambling on profits in 2025 and later. Having sunk a TON of money, and even done a mid-cycle enhancement, complete with the new Blackwing engine (which copied BMW with the twin turbos nestled in the "V"!), in fall 2018 GM announced it was discontinuing the car, and closing the assembly plant it was built in. (And so you know, building different platforms on the same line is very challenging and considerably less efficient in terms of capital and labor costs than the same platform, or better yet, the same model).So now, GM is anticipating that, as the car market "goes electric" (if you can call it that--more like the Federal Government and EU and even China PUSHING electric cars), they can make electric Cadillacs that are "prestige". The Cadillac Celestique is the opening salvo--$340,000. We will see how it works out.
Lynn Joiner Lynn JoinerJust put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Lynn Joiner Just put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Ollicat I am only speaking from my own perspective so no need to bash me if you disagree. I already know half or more of you will disagree with me. But I think the traditional upscale Cadillac buyer has traditionally been more conservative in their political position. My suggestion is to make Cadillac separate from GM and make them into a COMPANY, not just cars. And made the company different from all other car companies by promoting conservative causes and messaging. They need to build up a whole aura about the company and appeal to a large group of people that are really kind of sick of the left and sending their money that direction. But yes, I also agree about many of your suggestions above about the cars too. No EVs. But at this point, what has Cadillac got to lose by separating from GM completely and appealing to people with money who want to show everyone that they aren't buying the leftist Kook-Aid.
Jkross22 Cadillac's brand is damaged for the mass market. Why would someone pay top dollar for what they know is a tarted up Chevy? That's how non-car people see this.