Hi, you only need to look as far as the top of the XM Sorento page and you will see what is known as a Sticky which can best be described as a post-it note like you might see in an office environment or on your fridge at home. These are permanent threads that don't move in chronological order as all the other threads. You will find one called http://www.kia-forums.com/2011-xm-sorento-forum/59488-undocumented-sorento-tip-hints-features.html

 

Thanks. I did see that thread (and even mention in my question). The thing is that what most people believe is “undocumented” is actually very well documented either in the KIA’s car user’s manual or in the navigation system user’s manual. Most people don’t ever read those manuals. I am talking about truly undocumented hacks aka “easter eggs” as well as about the documented features that are programmable by the dealer at the vehicle owner’s request.

One of the things I really would like to have enabled on my Sorento SX is being able to have all windows go down and the sunroof open at a press of a button. I live in NC, and this past summer was extremely hot. We bought the Sorento to transport our one-year-old baby. It would be very convenient if we could just press a button and have all windows go down and sunroof open to release the hot air that gets trapped in the cabin. The temperature in the cabin reaches extreme levels in the South of the USA in summer time; by the time you have put the baby in the car seat, all hot air will have escaped through the open windows and the sunroof.

In my Lexus GS and Lexus IS, this is an available option that a dealer can program. The list of such features takes about a page, and during your first free maintenance at 1,000 miles, you can tell the dealer which features you want to be enabled, and they do it for free. In the Lexus, if the dealer enables this feature, it is activated by holding down the OPEN button on the remote. This is a great feature, but not a great implementation in Lexus because when you have a Smart Key, most people do not want to get the key out to activate this feature. A much better implementation would be to use the button on the door handle to activate this feature. For example, in Sorento, when you press the passenger door handle button, it unlocks all doors. It would be perfect if you could double-push that button to unlock all doors and have all windows go down and the sunroof open. This would be great for putting a baby in the car seat through the right-side second-row door.

 

And if you accidentally push the buttons like that either via your pocket or just by accident and it is raining outside...need I say more? A double push on the Kia remote lock or unlock button already has a secondary feature and that is to fold or un-fold the mirrors.

 

Then, you don’t have to have that feature enabled. By the way, in the three years of me owning the GS, that button on the smart key fob got pushed and held accidentally only once (inside of my pants’ pocket), and ironically, it was during a light rain.

I already mentioned that the way that Lexus implemented that feature is not optimal because you have to pull out your smart key in order to activate the feature. The whole point of a smart key is that you don’t have to pull it out to unlock the vehicle, to start the vehicle, or to lock the vehicle. I think programming this feature into the button on the outside door handle on the passenger side would be a good idea, though. You would have to have the button pressed for the entire duration of windows going down and sunroof opening. So, if you were to accidentally push and hold that button, you would only open the windows and the sunroof a little before you realized what you were doing and would let go off the button. But then again, I am not bashing Sorento, I am just asking if there are some hidden features like this that could be either programmed by the dealer (even if one has to pay for the programming) or being enabled via an undocumented hack.