KIA Sorento; Dedicated Discussion, Owner/ Fan Club Thread

[faakhir19]

+1, even if they bring the new Sorento, they have to price it lower than the Fortuner to capture the market

[faakhir19]

Fortuner and Revo is not a regular public buying it for family, it is the diffrent private and governmental organizations..

Almost all the Fortuners in Lahore, Faislabad, Islamabad are under private use... And specially in DHA, there are A LOT of Fortuners

It would be really difficult to compete with Fortuner specially jab KIA Laa bhi aik generation purani gari raha hai

[emzee92]

Offroading will be a major deciding factor between Sorento and Fortuner. It won't be a walk in the park for KLM I guess!

[emzee92]

Still think Cerato could have easily been a hit, specially considering the strategy adopted by Nishat. Elantra is already out of the competition if this is how they are gonna play!

[fazalwahab11375]

Well Indus make a return of investment on Fortune because it shares everything technically with Revo pickup also locally produced. In case of Sorento, it will be a stand along model and KLM to sell way more to balance out the upfront cost they will put to develop it locally. Expensive aftersale service ki wajah say Sportage owners already kanoon ko heath laga rahay hain..

[fazalwahab11375]

Cerato could have been hit but I think bringing a small compact crossover in the same price range would sell more than Cerato and this is what I think would be the reason Cerato is now on back burner..

[Nabeel_Ali]

If KLM brings 3rd gen. I think it won’t sell. The overall SUV is quite outdated and looks like an MPV.

I hope they bring fourth gen somehow. It will be an instant hit. Looks beautiful inside and out.

[hussain182]

Fortuner will also be getting a facelift pretty soon

[emzee92]

Would indeed be a challenge for Kia since most of the compact SUVs are based in India, they'd have to get alternative versions from China or other production facilities.

Also, SELTOS india is smaller than the global version.

[usman19854]

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40019830

The article confirms that an older model of Sorento is coming.

[wasiqshahab94]

I think they're just reporting the info making rounds on the web about Sorento, which is based on an educated guess, not any concrete evidence or insider source.

[fazalwahab11375]

These articles take feedback sometime from pakwheels so, you never knew the writer info is based on this thread.. lol

[wasiqshahab94]

Correct.
Nevertheless, I think Hyundai's Sant Fe is a much better proposition compared to 3rd gen Sorento, Hyundai could see good sales against Fortuner in 7-9mn segment if they launch CKD Santa Fe. But that would be the sensible thing to do and we all know Hyundai Nishat has a strict policy against making sense.

[wasiqshahab94]

Sorento 4th gen detailed for USA. now comes with a 2.5l NA engine as well as 1.6T hybrid. Are you watching KLM?

[fazalwahab11375]

𝙎𝙊𝙍𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙊 𝘾𝘽𝙐 𝘿𝙚𝙢𝙤 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 :

As per Pakistan import data, it reflects that KIA Lucky motors imported 3 units of KIA Sorento. 2 units with 3.5LV6 while one unit with a 2.4L engine. All three units are FWD. The 17 digit VIN normally gives us some information [ its like a DNA of a vehicle ] if you decode. I tried decoding it as well but could not crack it. The VIN [ vehicle Identification number ] are reported to the motor vehicle agencies in certain countries for verification at time of registration. VIN is a unique 17 digit number engarved at various locations on the vehicle.

As I could not tracks back these VIN's, it seems like these three units might not be bearing a real VIN because these are not supposed to go for sale commercially or for registration purpose and are imported for development of CKD locally by Lucky Motors. We can call these CBU units as demo example units.

The position 4 to 7 on VIN normally tells the class/ generation and / model of the vehicle. Although maybe the VIN might not be real / actual but we do see that two reported VIN on the import data share same alphabets "PGGU", which means these [ 2.4L and 3.5L V6 ] are identical generation. The 4th generation Sorento is NOT available with a 2.4L engine, so we can easily assume that these CBU units are not 4th generation. The 3rd generation Sorento is/ was available with a 3.5LV6 engine option as well.

YES; The new 4th generation will be available with 3.5LV6 option and earliest would be in Australia and only as FWD early next year BUT that model for right hand drive market and with 3.5LV6 has not yet gone into production. KIA is selling a 2.2L Turbo Diesel with option of AWD in Australia at this time.

So, possibility and chances of a 4th generation CBU import by Lucky motors with 3.5LV6 version are slim. I personally think that all these three CBU demo units are the "3RD GENERATION". I can still put lesser probability for another scenario; maybe Lucky Imported both the 3rd and 4th generation but again it does not make sense to import two different generations.

Keep in mind, these CBU were cleared in 3rd week of October and that means that these units left for Pakistan as final destination couple of months ago via sea cargo and possibly August 2020 or earlier. Back in August the 4th generation Sorento production just started in US as LHD while Korea was also making LHD units for local markets while Sorento was not available officially for sale in any RHD drive markets back then. This further complicates the availability of a RHD 4th generation Sorento for KIA Lucky for import.

We can expect a Pakistan assembled Sorento for sale in next few months, possibly First quarter of 2021.

[darthvader]

They need to price this significantly lower than a Fortuner if they have any hopes for success.

[usman19854]

so we can easily assume that these CBU units are not 4th generation.

sad, huge chance of this failing

if it was up to me I'd go all out with a seltos and a stonic

[fazalwahab11375]

Confirmed 3rd gen..

[wasiqshahab94]

Fazal bhai get us more info about Cerato, Niro and Stinger. Pricing, variants, launch time, anything.

[fazalwahab11375]

Stinger is not coming.. its just there on the road for creating a buzz. KLM imported one Stinger almost two years ago and they used it at auto show display to create a hype. This is the same single stinger of Pakistan. They used it when they were launching Picanto and Sportage, now they are using it for launch of Sorento. KLM not bringing the newer Sorento and we are expecting a flagship KIA vehicle in Pakistan as CKD ??

KIA is just using it for their marketing campaign/ public excitement , attraction and enthusiasm and they are successfully doing it. Stinger is KIA halo car and produced at KIA own facilities and only 3 for global supply. Additionally; Stinger is near end of its production cycle and most probably will not be replaced globally with next generation.

If you see it on the road, it does not mean it is launching here as local assembled vehicle. Obviously KIA can import and launch it as CBU but Stinger is not in pipeline for production locally. As CBU expect the 2L version to cost over 20 Million.

Lastly; all this marketing campaign by KIA at this time is for the introduction of SORENTO. If you see other 3 vehicles roaming around along with it, it doesn't mean, all 4 are coming. And these are not camouflaged vehciles, these are marketing wraps with slogans. These are just for public hype. As of Cerato, there are mixed news. Last I know that KLM is not bringing it here. I will check for more updates.