Comments on: Kia Sorento diesel leads in Global Green Challenge

By: Blinky Bill from Bellingen

Blinky Bill from Bellingen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:59:29 +0000

It’s hard to believe that I’m even reading about a Korean car, let alone considering buying one. But I am AND I’m mighty impressed by everything I read about the Sorento from Kia.

Yep the mates and I are starting to notice improvements in style, performance & economy in the Korean cars. They will certainly have the Japanese looking over their shoulders.

I may well have to take one for a test drive as a buzz box for my 4×4. Having said that though the Sorento with 145kW and 422Nm (plus economy) is no slouch.

By: Anthrax

Anthrax — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:58:10 +0000

Too bad Greenfleet aren’t doing it this year like they were in 2007… figures were don on a daily basis so we could all keep track of it.

By: Sam 300TD

Sam 300TD — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:15:05 +0000

A Kia Soul with this engine would kick ass!

By: Frenchie

Frenchie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:26:25 +0000

So if your a country rep, get a XR6 of Maloo Ute! Or a Sante Fe if you want to impress your clients.

By: DE

DE — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:18:19 +0000

Maybe Kia cottoned on to the fact that this sort of trip isn’t suited to Hybrid cars, and that the results wouldn’t help their marketing. The Sorento advertising however will benefit quite well.

Toyota resisted strongly entering at all, let alone the Prius. Rumour has it even to the point of actively discouraging dealer involvement.

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:37:30 +0000

But CA posted an article saying the Cerato was entering?????

By: DE

DE — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:00:14 +0000

Andrew, it’s not in the starting list.

Also the Tesla, whilst looking good for urban driving, in this test it fails by being recharged from a deisel powered generator, on the back of a truck, that is following the car. Better economy would have been achieved if they just put the car on the truck (but that isn’t the point here).

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:47:34 +0000

any word on how the LPI Cerato went???

I am interested to see if the underated LPG can make headlines

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:46:28 +0000

How about an imformative write up CA????

Thanks for filling in the big blanks “DE”.

Also with no competition in any of the classes, why is Kia geting a write up for winning their one horse race???
“Lets face it, hyundai and kia are the same”

Im sure this competition/test will get more relevant in the years to come, but at the moment this does nothing but burn unnecessary fuel.
This drive is about saving the world by reducing emissions, but this drive test would surely undo what manufacturers have managed to save on over the years.

Its like going on a diet, and at the end of the 12 months eating a heap of chocolate biscuits

once more manufacturers compete in years to come though im sure their will be more pressure on them to really knuckle down on economy

By: DE

DE — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:32:05 +0000

Read on below, I posted those over an hour ago.

BTW the SUV and small deisel classes is the only “classes” with more than on entry (two competing teams).
Based on CA headline then every other entrant (except Hyundai) could claim to be “Leading in the Global Green Challenge”
In fact under the rules the V8 Maloo is the real leader with the XR6 Turbo second.

If you are looking for the most economical the the Ford Fiesta Econetic is leading.

By: Hagar

Hagar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:21:55 +0000

Me too :) yes indeed what was the consumption on this first leg. I live in the bush so I am very interested

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:19:59 +0000

Wow, that’s a LOT of torque from a 2.2!

By: DE

DE — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:28:16 +0000

CA Says:
“At the end of day one of the Global Green Challenge Kia Australia are leading the medium SUV class”

Not sure that parent company Hyundai would be real happy as the Santa Fe is running 3rd and 4th (there are NO OTHER entries in the class).

BTW the above post is a direct quote and should have been placed inside “quotation marks” – sorry for the omision.

By: DE

DE — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:04:24 +0000

The Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo has thus far improved its ADR stated figure by some 39.41% (7.09 litres/100KM) while the HSV Maloo Ute improvement is reported as a staggering 44.99%. (8.00 litres/100KM)

The Holden Sportwagon improvement was 33.43% (6.19 litres/100Km) while the Skoda Superb improvement was listed as 31.93% (4.70 litres/100km).

Both Hyundai Santa Fe models improved and were remarkably similar with improvements of 21.77% and 21.23%. Best fuel consumption figure for the Hyundai Santa Fe entries was 5.24 litres/100Km.

There was more variation in the two Kia Sorento entries with one vehicle improving by 26.68% and the other by 19.72%. Best fuel consumption figure was 4.91 litres/100Km.

Fuel consumption figures have been interesting to say the least with the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic diesel achieving a figure of 3.13 litres/100Km on the Katherine to Tennant Creek stage over 600 kilometres plus.

The best of the Mini D’s achieved a fuel consumption figure of 3.30 litres/100Km.

The Suzuki Alto achieved 3.88 litres/100km.

By: Silver Streak

Silver Streak — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:52:19 +0000

The one annoying thing about this challenge, is the lack of information and results so far. We’re into the third stage today and only heard a little bit about the first short stage…..c’mon guys, where’s all your blogs??
I’ve checked other websites as well, and they say “follow the event on here”, and nothing!! only what happened on the Friday. So give us more info!!

By: sammo

sammo — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:01:02 +0000

can’t wait for the CA Sorento review!

By: Philthy

Philthy — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:50:15 +0000

So, what did it do? How much less than 6.7?