Kia Sorento is much tougher than you might have thought

We were recently invited by Kia South Africa to attend a thing called the “Sorento Adventure”. The plan went: fly into Bloemfontein, get in the Kia Sorento and drive through to a place called Tenahead, then drive down to KwaZulu-Natal the next day and fly home from Pietermaritzburg.

I never read things properly and I didn’t pay much attention to the itinerary either. Then I got the message to dress comfortably and wear shoes suitable for mud.

Mud? Why would I need shoes for mud when I would be driving a full-house, soft-roader Kia Sorento SUV. Naturally I assumed it will be easy-going tar roads and maybe the odd dirt road to make the wheels look a bit dirty.

Changing perceptions

I mean, the Kia Sorento is perfectly suited to this kind of luxury adventure. A high-tech interior that features premium-quality materials and plenty of space for man and his luggage.

As well as a 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine offering 148 kW of power and 440 Nm of torque that runs through an auto box to the front wheels or all four wheels, model dependant. I got prepared to sit back and enjoy two days of easy driving.

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Little did I know that what I was about to experience would change my perception of the Kia Sorento forever.

From Bloem to Zastron was tar and easy dirt, but from there we turned off and tackled Lundean’s Nek Pass on our way to our next stop in Rhodes. This is a rutted single-lane rocky pass that links the Witteberge Mountains with Lesotho and runs up to 2 170m above sea level.

Kia Sorento passes test

From Rhodes, it was time to head up Naude’s Nek Pass to our overnight stop at Tenahead, which turns out to be a stunning little seven-chalet boutique hotel right at the top of the pass.

This area is steeped in history, and in the 1890s the Naude brothers, local farmers whose descendants still farm in the area, constructed a 32 km rough rock and gravel track through the mountains. They effectively created a shortcut between the villages of Rhodes and Maclear that would normally be a 160km journey.

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This makeshift pass was transformed over the years and became a national road that was in pristine condition and good enough to host local rally stages on.

In more recent times it has been left to deteriorate into a rutted, destroyed mess that Google suggests is only tackled using a 4×4 vehicle. So much so that we had the local Naude family on call with their tractors should we get stuck on our way down to KwaZulu-Natal for our flight back home.

Tough as nails

This was true ladder chassis Toyota Fortuner or Ford Everest territory we were playing in. But the Kia Sorento made short work of the journey despite long since having done away with this technology and moved onto more modern car-like suspension tech.

The result is not only car like handling on tar, but also serious off-road capability thanks to its Terrain Mode Select function that can be changed on the fly.

Did I think we would do this type of trip in a Kia Sorento? Never. But I can tell you that this SUV took everything the earth could throw at it without missing a beat and proved to us that you don’t need a rugged beast of a machine to go almost anywhere in Mzansi.