My wife and I are shopping for a new vehicle for her, and so far she likes the Kia Sorento and the Ford Flex the most, with the Ford Escape hybrid rounding out the top three.
Pros and cons:
[ul]
[li]The price is roughly comparable on all three, with the Kia slightly lower and the hybrid Escape slightly higher; dealer cash-back incentives on the Flex almost eliminate the Kia’s advantage, though.[/li][li]The Escape gets by far the best miles per gallon, followed distantly by the Sorento and the Flex, with the Flex slightly lower than the Sorento.[/li][li]The Flex has the most passenger room, followed by the Sorento. The Escape seats only five, compared to seven for the other two.[/li][li]Mrs. Chef likes the looks of the Sorento the best; she finds the Escape ordinary-looking and the Flex downright homely (“It looks like a refrigerator” were her exact words), but said the Flex’s looks bothered her less after she drove it.[/li][li]Among the “little things that mean a lot,” the Flex has these really cool third-row seats that pivot so the seat becomes the back and the back becomes the seat, so you can sit facing out the open hatchback while tailgating, etc. Mrs. Chef LOVES this, even though we don’t tailgate. (I can’t criticize; I once chose a car because its AC vents could be made to swing back and forth like an oscillating fan.) The Sorento, for its part, has a panoramic moonroof that she also likes.[/li][/ul]
I thought I’d invite the Dope to help us decide by weighing in with anecdotal evidence either for or against one or more of these cars. Do you drive one? Like it, hate it?
Don’t have anything to say about Flex or Sorento but…
If you’re looking for a roomy “let’s all pile in the car and go somewhere” kind of vehicle, the Escape isn’t it. Unless they’ve changed the back seat space since 2004, it’s pretty cramped back there. It’s fine for short trips or if your kids will be 0-10 in the lifespan of the car, but otherwise I’ve never felt comfortable making adults sit in the back seat of mine for longer than say an hour.
Of course, I grew up riding in a Taurus and an Aerostar so I may have grandiose ideas about how big a back seat should be, but I still don’t think the Escape is a good family car.
Great car for moving stuff and transporting your dogs, tho. And, I think it’s sexy.
Yeah, the lack of passenger room is the main reason the Escape is a distant third on this list… the only reason it’s even on the list at all is the almighty m-p-g. I think it’s unlikely we’ll end up with one, to tell the truth.
Kia has the 10yr/160Kmiles on the powertrain, 5 yr/60K on everything else warranty. Ford is 5yr/50K on powertrain and 3 yr/36K on everything else.
That’s a value-add on the Kia, from my point of view. The Kia warranty is also transferrable to subsequent owners (with the exception that 2nd owner+ only gets 5yrs/60k on the powertrain) which, should you end up wanting to sell it in under 5yrs, really helps move a used car by private sale.
I rented a Flex for a 8-day roadtrip. It was comfortable, got decent gas mileage (23mpg over 1200 miles), and had the best AM radio of any car I’ve ever driven (probably not a consideration for many, but I love listening to talk radio).
Some might consider it ugly, but it got a lot of comments when I was on the road. A lot of people asked me how I liked “my” Flex, and several followed up the question with “We just love ours!” I’d rather have a 4Runner, but the Flex is a pretty nice SUV.
We actually looked at the Highlander first, but it’s too expensive – the hybrid in particular is nearly fifty large. Come ON, Toyota – you’re not freaking Lexus!
I think so too… but someone else mentioned that Kias have a reputation as “throwaway cars,” i.e. they don’t last as long as some other makes. I find this hard to believe in light of the longer warranty – surely a car company would only offer a longer warranty on a MORE reliable car, wouldn’t they?
My dad has a Flex and when you drive with the windows open there’s a weird thumping noise. I think it has to do with the shape of the car. It’s extremely annoying.
The darling little Scion xB and Honda element were at least original. The Flex is a giant knockoff version, only with the addition of so much chrome it would have been tacky in 1963.
Not if they need a long warranty to convince you to buy their POS cars. My parents bought a Sonata in 98 or so. It had a long warranty and broke down way too often. Having it repaired under warranty was nice, but the warranty didn’t pay for all the time my mom wasted waiting for the tow truck, etc. On the other hand, Hondas have generally had a reputation as reliable and up until only a few years ago only carried 3yr/36K warranties.
I drove a Sorento for a couple of weeks a few months ago while my car was in the shop. Once again on this board, I find myself in need of a pukey smiley. That thing sucked- it’s the 2010 version of the minivan of the 80s. Do not want!
It was just very utilitarian and ugly, not fun to drive at all, and you can’t make any abrupt maneuvers without fear of tipping over. Completely different in every way from my sports car, which I love.