Kia Sorento

What is it?

Although the looks don't indicate it, the 2013 Sorento is all-new beneath the surface. It's better to drive, but the key draw remains space and value for money. Surprising efficiency is welcome too. Overall, worth a look as a cut-price Land Rover Discovery rival.

Driving

It does a reasonable job of plodding along at pace, though tyre squeal is the first warning this Sorento doesn't appreciate the finer complexities of corner entry and exit points.

The retuned suspension works wonders for refinement, and the drivetrain is reasonably quiet, making your school/shopping run headache free. Mostly.

There's a 2.0-litre diesel with 148bhp, and a 2.2-litre diesel with 194bhp, the latter hitting 62mph in around 9.6 seconds. It's reasonably quiet, punchy and more than enough for the kind of thing you buy a car like this for.

On the inside

It's a full seven seater, the new Sorento, which eats up bootspace like a hungry bootspace eater. 111 litres are on offer with all the seats up. With them folded down though, you get 1525 litres. That's plenty.

Build quality felt good on our launch car, with all the materials feeling like they could withstand the nuclear fallout of children in a bad mood. Kia are getting much better at bolting their cars together now too.

Owning

The most you'll get is 47.9mpg, with an average of around 40mpg, which to be fair, isn't too bad but isn't great in this day and age.