What's the news?
Kia's chief designer, Peter Schreyer, has taken his pen to the Sorento SUV and given it a mid-life update that brings its looks more into line with the latest corporate profile.
Exterior
Kia's designers have given the Sorento the same 'Tiger Mouth' front end that has worked so successfully on the rest of the current range. The more aggressive styling features new headlamps with LED daytime running lights and distinctive new fog lights housed in a restyled front bumper. There are new LED tail-lights too along with optional 19-inch alloys.
Interior
Inside the five- or seven-seat cabin, there are more soft-touch surfaces than before, plus a new LCD instrument cluster. A new centre stack houses a seven-inch colour screen while a restyled console featuring a straight-gate selector has been added - Kia says to "reinforce the vehicle's more luxurious character." A panoramic sunroof, with power blind, can be added too.
Mechanicals
Significant changes have apparently been made to the body shell - to improve ride, handling and comfort - and also to the powertrains to deliver 'best-in-class' fuel economy with lower emissions. Unfortunately no further details are provided so we will just have to take Kia's word for it for now.
Anything else?
The new Sorento is due to arrive in Ireland later this year and full details of the specification and trim will be available in due course.