3,000 mile, 6 month ownership report // 2019 Sorento vs. 2005 4Runner (high end, loaded, leather, "Limited", traded for Sorento at 170K miles)
I shopped hard before buying the Sorento and glad I did. Especially when learning of the grief from Chevy Traverse owners. Traverse or Mazda CX9 had been my other top favorites.
The 4Runner beat it on some things, mainly the V8 and power back window
Good 4Runner things, compared to Sorento:
Worse 4Runner things compared to Sorento:
Superior Sorento features:
Sorento things that could be better:
I shopped hard before buying the Sorento and glad I did. Especially when learning of the grief from Chevy Traverse owners. Traverse or Mazda CX9 had been my other top favorites.
The 4Runner beat it on some things, mainly the V8 and power back window
Good 4Runner things, compared to Sorento:
- V8, Sorento can't beat the low end torque/towing ability
- Power Rear Window, good for hauling lumber and the 'all windows down'
- Hold the unlock on the key fob for a few seconds and all windows and moon roof open (great for hot days)
- Real roof rack, spare wheel/tire
- Rear Wheel Drive
- Easy and cheap do it yourself spare keys
Worse 4Runner things compared to Sorento:
- Handles like the pickup truck it is built on
- No modern driver or safety features
Superior Sorento features:
- Power rear lift gate, saves my back
- 8 speed auto is flawless (to be fair the conventional rwd 5 speed in the 4R was perfect too)
- Driver convenience, safety, comfort, nav, audio, android auto, way better handling than the 4R, quiet ride, seat cooling, too many good things to name really...
Sorento things that could be better:
- MPG (around town stop and go, a little over 18MPG vs. 15MPG on the V8 4Runner)
- Weight, Sorento is only 100# lighter than the 4Runner with body-on-frame, V8, RWD, towing pkg, real spare wheel, full box frame, roof rack, heavy duty truck underpinnings everywhere) Sorento must have a lot of sound deadening, certainly not as much steel
- Outside mirror "car in next lane warning lights" not visible in the daytime, not visible in peripheral vision even at night (my 2013 Acura TL has these located on the windshield A pillars, that works good)
- Limited to two key fobs (is this right?, boo)
- Driver info display fonts are a little too small, yet there is plenty of room to make them bigger (compass, tire press, etc)
- The wonderful auto hold brake feature forces automatic electric parking brake upon car shutdown
- 4Runner - brakes and exhaust sytem replaced early in its life, needed a normal maintenance timing belt change, a trouble free 14 years
- Sorento - auto headlight left-right with steering works half the time, other half of the time the warning light shows. I do like this feature and will ask the dealer to fix it.