The Ford Everest and Kia Sorento have differing sets of capabilities under the same seven-seat family SUV banner, so which is the better multitasker?
- As SUV genres converge…
- Pricing parallels
- Talking safety
- Diesel deliberations
- At the crossroads
- Harder core or softer road?
As SUV genres converge…
It’s not always straightforward sorting through all the SUVs available on the market, and even within the broad category of large family SUVs there’s a variety of models with differing skillsets.
Whether they are svelte road-goers, hard-core bush dwellers or part of the burgeoning ute-becomes-SUV set, they’re often all put under the same descriptive blanket.
The one common factor is that they are all wagons. Depending on size category, they can be five-seaters, seven-seaters and sometimes even eight-seaters.
SUVs can generally be narrowed down to two sub-genres comprising those that can, and those that can’t. That is, those that can go off-road without a qualm but are compromised on the bitumen, and those that are happy on the road but limited in the bush.
SUV buyers have rarely been so spoiled for choice. So much so that, with the wealth of product available, it’s often difficult to decide exactly which vehicle, among this eclectic mix of SUV offerings, best matches personal needs.
The dilemma concerns not so much vehicle size, but the mechanical fundamentals: exactly which skillset is likely to come into play during ownership? School drop-offs? Holiday travels with the family? Adventures in the bush?
These are two outstanding vehicles representing what are almost polar opposites in terms of their design roots while fulfilling similar requirements. Together they represent an interesting conundrum that faces many Australian buyers.
As the soft-road/hard-core sub-genres converge, which SUV – the Ford Everest or the Kia Sorento – offers the better and more applicable mix of skillsets?
We chose to compare mid-spec versions of the two – a Ford Everest Trend 4×4 and a diesel-engined Kia Sorento GT-Line AWD – to come up with an answer.
Pricing parallels
The current 2023 Ford Everest Trend 4×4 is priced from $65,290 plus on-road costs, notwithstanding that a minor MY23 update is coming later in the first half of this year that will push it up $300 for no change in standard specification.
There’s an upgrade coming for the 2023 Kia Sorento, too, but for now the pricing holds firm for the well-established GT-Line AWD Diesel that’s listed at $65,070 plus ORCs.
That difference could be evened out in the first few tanks of fuel, depending on the price of diesel at any given bowser, but the standard equipment inclusions resoundingly favour the Sorento.
The Kia Sorento GT-Line comes standard with powered, heated and cooled front seats where the Ford lists all the above – apart from the driver’s seat – as extra-cost.
The Sorento also adds the credibility of a sub-woofer-packing, 12-speaker Bose sound system which puts the Everest’s admittedly decent but lower-performance eight-speaker set-up in the shade.
What’s more, the Kia also gets a hands-free powered tailgate which is extra-cost in the Everest and adds a little luxury touch with roll-up blinds in the rear side windows.
Both Everest and Sorento are equipped with an under-slung, full-size alloy spare wheel while the Kia’s running gear comprises 20-inch wheels with low-profile tyres. The Everest offers a more multi-purpose set-up using 18-inch wheels wrapped in all-season tyres.
As for warranties, there’s no beating the seven-year/unlimited-kilometre deal offered on the Kia Sorento, nor its seven-year capped-price servicing plan. Roadside assist can be available for up to eight years providing the vehicle is regularly serviced at a Kia dealer.
The Ford Everest is covered by a five year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and set-price servicing is offered for the first four “general” services. Customers are also able to determine ongoing maintenance costs via a service price calculator. Roadside assist for up to seven years is available via auto club membership that is renewed with each service.
Talking safety
The safety tech of both the 2023 Ford Everest and Kia Sorento follows a similar path with all the usual bases covered.
We’re talking autonomous emergency braking (AEB) in forward and reverse, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors, driver attention detection, rain-sensing wipers and post-impact braking.
But, again, the Korean brand goes a few steps further with active pedestrian avoidance technology, the addition of active assist to the blind spot monitoring system, front and rear cross traffic alert, a set of front, rear and side cameras providing a bird’s eye view for more accurate manoeuvring, plus the ability to park itself (a facility only available on the Platinum-spec Ford Everest).
That said, the Ford Everest does score points with its lane keep assist supplemented by road departure technology, traffic sign activated cruise control and intersection assist, which susses out what the driver of a vehicle approaching from an intersecting road might be planning.
With the inclusion of two knee bags taking the airbag tally to nine, the Ford Everest betters the Kia Sorento’s total of seven airbags.
Both have front centre airbags and carry up-to-date five-star ANCAP ratings; the Ford Everest in 2022 and the Kia Sorento in 2020.
Diesel deliberations
The 2.2-litre turbo-diesel in the 2023 Kia Sorento has attracted a lot of praise for its smoothness, silence, responsiveness and economy, and continues to evoke plenty of positive commentary.
But there can be no denying that the 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel in the 2023 Ford Everest does an even more impressive job.
Producing more punch – 154kW/500Nm compared to the Kia’s 148kW/440Nm – the feisty Ford four adds weight to the theory that smaller can actually be better.
The Everest might, at the end of the day, be ultimately disadvantaged by the bulk and weight of its ladder-frame chassis construction compared with the unitary-bodied Kia (1908kg tare versus the Ford’s 2323kg).
However, the Ford manages to put up a decent fight in terms of its performance, exhaust emissions and fuel consumption.
Helped no end by a nicely calibrated 10-speed automatic gearbox, the Everest minimises its weight disadvantages to respond strongly on the road and, while it’s never as quick as the Kia in terms of initial accelerator response, there’s rarely a moment when it feels tardy.
Our economy readings of 8.0L/100km for the Kia and 9.0L/100km for the Ford were close to consistent, in terms of relativities, with the official quoted figures which have the Kia at 6.1L/100km and the Ford at 7.2L/100km.
A 13-litre discrepancy in fuel tank sizes, favouring the Everest which holds 80 litres, suggests similar touring ranges.
The Ford Everest also joins a group of diesel Fords using AdBlue fluid to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions and add to its environmental credentials. This is administered via a nozzle next to the fuel filler that needs to be monitored and topped up by the driver.
A readout on the dash advises when this is necessary.
At the crossroads
In terms of underpinnings, the 2023 Ford Everest and Kia Sorento could hardly be more different, so there are plusses and minuses around how they function in various circumstances.
Both offer impressive attenuation of cabin noise levels, the Ford Everest maybe having a bit of an edge in open-road conditions, while bump absorption factors tend to depend on the bumps themselves.
The Everest’s fatter tyres and smaller wheels invest a nice level of softness which is particularly noticeable on the sharp potholes that are currently infecting Australian roads with a particular viciousness.
The Kia Sorento’s bigger wheels and less-compliant, lower-profile tyres are more intolerant of the hard-edged stuff and transmit added road noise.
But the Sorento offers quicker steering to demonstrate the advantages that an independently sprung, car-like suspension system can have over what is basically a primitive, live rear axle as employed in the Everest – even though, unlike the leaf springs used in every Ford Ranger other than the Raptor, it has a multi-link coil-spring arrangement at the back.
With its lower-slung proportions and much quicker steering (2.6 turns from lock to lock as against 3.4 for the Everest), the Sorento is a less-intimidating drive, its tendency to a flat cornering stance contrasting with the high-riding demeanour of the Everest.
That in itself is going to win points with urban dwellers every day.
The dual-range Everest also now benefits from a selectable full-time 4WD system that can be used to add extra security on low-grip surfaces and offers selectable modes for dealing with slippery, muddy or sandy conditions.
The Kia Sorento’s on-demand AWD system works with an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox offering Comfort, Eco, Sport and Smart settings, plus three selectable modes for driving in snow, mud or sand.
Kudos for both SUVs which have ventilated disc brakes on all corners, although the review Everest was something of a surprise with its unimpressive stopping abilities which were more akin to expectations of an old-school, disc-drum off-roader.
The new Everest’s towing capacity of 3.5 tonnes makes it way more useful for pulling a caravan or boat than the Sorento’s meagre 2.0t rating.
In terms of cabin amenities there’s less of a difference than you might imagine. The Ford absolutely lacks the architectural sophistication of the Kia, but it wouldn’t take an awful lot – more attention to trimming the centre console and adding extra soft-touch surfacing, for example – to bring the two closer together.
The Everest’s large, portrait-style display looks full of promise but the need to drill down through numerous levels to find a particular function can be very annoying. The Sorento’s landscape-oriented touch-screen infotainment system somehow feels more familiar and readily adjusted to.
In terms of cabin accommodation there’s not much to separate the two. Although the Everest stands taller, is broader across the shoulders and longer overall, the Sorento is measurably superior in all-round shoulder-room and equal in headroom and boot dimensions (benefits of its unitary body).
There are some discrepancies with quoted maximum cargo volumes which favour the Kia at a solid 2011 litres against the Everest’s 1823 litres.
In terms of seating comfort and passenger space, the Everest and Sorento are not worlds apart, although the high-riding Ford’s ladder-frame construction means elevated hip points requiring passengers to hoist themselves up quite a bit more just getting aboard.
The Everest’s running boards, which are indicative its off-bitumen capabilities, help compensate and are particularly handy when exiting from the third-row seats.
Third-row access is rarely something to crow about with seven-seaters but both the Everest – helped along with the amount of boarding space opened up via its sliding centre-row seat – and the Sorento, because the seat hip points are lower, fare well enough.
Cabin ventilation in the Everest is taken care of by roof venting which – from the Trend model upwards – serves the second and third rows, while the Sorento has a more familiar ventilation system catering for all three rows.
Harder core or softer road?
In some ways a comparison between two vehicles that on one hand are strikingly similar, but on the other hand are fundamentally different, is hardly likely to produce a definitive outcome.
But with the realisation that the overwhelming bulk of SUV buyers – even SUVs that are fully off-road capable – are unlikely to ever entertain the idea of taking off into the uncharted bush, it is clear where the majority are likely to focus their decision-making.
On the other hand, the appeal of a genuine off-road wagon that can double as comfortable and efficient urban transport is undoubtedly irresistible to some. And even more so if the off-road wagon in question is able to challenge the soft-roaders in urban environments.
Nowhere is that duality better expressed in today’s volume-selling large SUV segment than the new 2023 Ford Everest.
With its evolving on-road sophistication and its already-proven off-road capabilities, the Everest is more likely than ever to capture the hearts and minds of family-oriented, adventurous buyers of multi-passenger SUVs – particularly those who also want to pull a caravan or boat.
But, though it’s closer than anything else in its ute-based peer group, the Ford Everest isn’t quite there yet. However refined and capable it might be, its workhorse roots remain close to the surface whether it be in the cabin, the technology, the dynamic qualities or the running costs.
Against this is the 2023 Kia Sorento, the large SUV to which we’ve already given the nod as the most accomplished in its group.
By all measures apart from towing and off-road know-how, the Kia Sorento outscores the Ford Everest. In our view, it is about as good as a family SUV gets.
For these reasons and more, and despite the many qualities of the latest-generation Ford Everest, we rate the Kia Sorento as the clear winner of this comparison.
2023 Ford Everest Trend 4×4 at a glance:
Price: $65,290 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder biturbo-diesel
Output: 154kW/500Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.2L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 190/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)
2023 Kia Sorento GT-Line Diesel AWD at a glance:
Price: $65,070 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 148kW/440Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 6.1L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 159g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2020)
Keyword: Ford Everest v Kia Sorento 2023 Comparison