Kia releases pictures of all-new 2016 Sorento

(August 13, 2014) Ahead of its unveiling in South Korea this month and its official debut at the Paris Motor Show in October, Kia Motors reports that the next-generation Sorento crossover will be longer, lower and have more interior space than the outgoing version. Kia released the first images of the 2016 Sorento this week.

The mid-sized crossover’s new sheet metal borrows the longer hood and wider D-pillars from the Cross GT concept shown in 2013 at the Chicago Auto Show while “evolving” the current Sorento’s sheet metal, according to a statement from Kia’s press office in the United Kingdom. Up front is a bolder, trucklike iteration of Kia’s “tiger nose” grille.



Kia’s design studio in Namyang, South Korea, led the project with significant input from Kia studios in Germany and Irvine, Calif.

The Sorento is Kia’s third best-selling model in the United States this year behind the Optima and Soul.

Kia extended the Sorento’s wheelbase more than three inches to 109.4 inches, stretched its overall length to 188.2 inches from 184.4 inches to add passenger room to all three rows of seating. Kia also shrunk the Sorento’s height by less than an inch to 66.3 inches.

In addition to engineering and design changes, the revamped Sorento will feature “a host of new convenience and safety technologies, as well as enhanced space, driving comfort and handling response,” Lee Soon-nam, Kia’s overseas marketing chief, said in a statement.

The new Sorento is expected to go on sale in the United States in the first quarter of 2015.

Sources: Automotive News, Kia Motor Company