[gustafson]

Took possession of my Gravity Gray X-line last week and took it camping last weekend Below are some personal impressions (subject to change) and questions:

• Driving experience: 9/10. More nimble and responsive than expected. On the flip side, coming from FWD SX Optima, ride felt a bit too grippy, and could be the switch to AWD.
• Driving tech: The different driver assist options were a mixed bag in terms of implementation and took some getting used to. Blind spot monitoring and the distance from the vehicle ahead were solid. The cruise control implementation (in combination with the digital dash) is a bit confusing, and steering assist was jerky, and I’m still getting used to both.
• Mileage: 21-23 highway mpg in Smart mode. Didn’t see anywhere close to the advertised 27 mpg. Please post if you have any hacks to get to a higher gas mileage.
• Door child lock: was unable to disable this based on the instructions in the manual. If you were successful in disabling it, please post how in this thread.
• Camping friendliness: We were able to lay the rear seats down and lay two narrow 6 ft sleeping pads side by side. The 2nd row seats don’t fold down fully flat, but the angle could be a plus. There is a gap between the 2nd row seats though, due to the captain’s chairs. A bench-style 2nd row could be a better option to eliminate that. On the plus, the panoramic roof is great for stargazing.
• The rear view mirror seems like it has a limited range of motion, and I had to adjust my seat height slightly to compensate. While I haven’t needed to pull back and service the wipers, the instructions to do so are confusing as hell.
• I’m in love with the grey exterior color. I usually pick black over grey, but grey looks absolutely killer on the x-line. Consider me biased, of course.

A few questions:

• Is anyone getting 25+ mpg on the x-line? What drive mode(s) and settings?
• How do you disable the door child lock?
• Can you recommend an affordable and simple treatment to protect the leather and rubberized interiors, and the exterior paint?
• Is the 12v port in the 2nd row passive or active? (If active, it could be huge for plugging in a fan or other gear for camping).
• Can you recommend a bike rack (and associated tow point hardware) that is compatible with the lift gate and won’t block it?
• Can you recommend an affordable roof cargo carrier?
• Any other hacks or observations for using the car for the outdoors?

Thanks in advance, and feel free to use this thread to share your X-line stories, observations, hacks, and mods!

 

[Giancarlo90]

Took possession of my Gravity Gray X-line last week and took it camping last weekend Below are some personal impressions (subject to change) and questions:

• Driving experience: 9/10. More nimble and responsive than expected. On the flip side, coming from FWD SX Optima, ride felt a bit too grippy, and could be the switch to AWD.
• Driving tech: The different driver assist options were a mixed bag in terms of implementation and took some getting used to. Blind spot monitoring and the distance from the vehicle ahead were solid. The cruise control implementation (in combination with the digital dash) is a bit confusing, and steering assist was jerky, and I’m still getting used to both.
• Mileage: 21-23 highway mpg in Smart mode. Didn’t see anywhere close to the advertised 27 mpg. Please post if you have any hacks to get to a higher gas mileage.
• Door child lock: was unable to disable this based on the instructions in the manual. If you were successful in disabling it, please post how in this thread.
• Camping friendliness: We were able to lay the rear seats down and lay two narrow 6 ft sleeping pads side by side. The 2nd row seats don’t fold down fully flat, but the angle could be a plus. There is a gap between the 2nd row seats though, due to the captain’s chairs. A bench-style 2nd row could be a better option to do that. On the plus, the panoramic roof is great for stargazing.
• The rear view mirror seems like it has a limited range of motion, and I had to adjust my seat height slightly to compensate. While I haven’t needed to pull back and service the wipers, the instructions to do so are confusing as hell.
• I’m in love with the grey exterior color. I usually pick black over grey, but grey looks absolutely killer on the x-line. Consider me biased, of course.

A few questions:

• Is anyone getting 25+ mpg on the x-line? What drive mode(s) and settings?
• How do you disable the door child lock?
• Can you recommend an affordable and simple treatment to protect the leather and rubberized interiors, and the exterior paint?
• Is the 12v port in the 2nd row passive or active? (If active, it could be huge for plugging in a fan or other gear for camping).
• Can you recommend a bike rack (and associated tow point hardware) that is compatible with the lift gate and won’t block it?
• Can you recommend an affordable roof cargo carrier?
• Any other hacks or observations for using the car for the outdoors?

Thanks in advance, and feel free to use this thread to share your X-line stories, observations, hacks, and mods!

Not really a hack but if you push the voice button on the steering wheel, you can tell the car to open and close the driver and passenger window, turn on and off the heated steering wheel, turn heated and cooled seats on and off and, open and close the trunk. While these aren't special because it's easy to press a button, it's nice to know that we have that in this car.

 

[gustafson]

Great, thank you for sharing! My daughter and I talked about using voice command to control the windows and thought it would be cool - had no idea it already had been implemented. Guess I should RTFM.

On another note, we tried to use the voice recognition to look for state parks on the nav. It kept hearing “Staples”

 

[noshortcuts]

Thanks for the thread. In case you didn't see, here's a mod thread I started: 2021 Sorento Mods - Share and discuss

 

[noshortcuts]

Gas mileage goes way up after the first tank. I easily get estimated mpg for both city and highway - that's generally ineco mode and with smart driving but not worrying about a quick accelleration or pass now and then.

 

[noshortcuts]

The 1upusa bike rack fits perfect. You can open the trunk with a two bike rack in its upright stowed position. You can also open the trunk with bikes on the rack when you lower the rack, tilting it back. One annoyance for any rack is that the backup warning sounds every time you are in reverse. There are two work arounds. You can disable the warning sound. Or, if you only need a single bike rack then the 1upusa rack can also tilt and stow in an inward position (with no bikes) and then it doesn't confuse the reverse camera.

 

[noshortcuts]

Picture with bike rack and large Thule topper.

 

[gustafson]

Picture with bike rack and large Thule topper.

Thank you for the pic, details on the bike rack, and heads up on the mods thread! What tow hardware did you need to attach the bike rack to the car? Also, does this bike rack swing out of the way so one can stand closer to the trunk? Finally, does the lift gate stop automatically if it hits an obstruction? (Hate for my bike to scratch up the gate). Thanks!

 

[Southman1]

Thank you for the pic, details on the bike rack, and heads up on the mods thread! What tow hardware did you need to attach the bike rack to the car? Also, does this bike rack swing out of the way so one can stand closer to the trunk? Finally, does the lift gate stop automatically if it hits an obstruction? (Hate for my bike to scratch up the gate). Thanks!

Yes the gate does stop automatically. You can see for yourself by activating it and let you hand act like and obstacle. It will hit it and go back down. You will need a hitch first. Curt has one but it will be a couple of weeks before it is available for purchase. Of course the pin too.

 

[gustafson]

Yes the gate does stop automatically. You can see for yourself by activating it and let you hand act like and obstacle. It will hit it and go back down. You will need a hitch first. Curt has one but it will be a couple of weeks before it is available for purchase. Of course the pin too.

Thanks for the pointer. It does work. Makes me wonder if the sensitivity is enough to avoid getting scratched by bike hardware. I’d hate to find out the hard way

 

[Southman1]

Thanks for the pointer. It does work. Makes me wonder if the sensitivity is enough to avoid getting scratched by bike hardware. I’d hate to find out the hard way

Trust me I'm in the same boat with my bicycles just waiting for Curt to release their hitch for order.

 

[gustafson]

Some additional observations:

• Not Sorento or X-line specific, but if you’re coming from a sedan as your camping car, be aware that the Sorento trunk is not sound-insulated like in the sedan, so you are more likely to hear things rattle around.
• On my second tank of gas, and hit 24mpg today, so there’s hope on the mileage.
• Learned at the KIA dealership that the way to disable child lock on the rear doors is via the button on the driver door armrest. It works, but does not permanently disable the child lock, so still looking for a permanent solution (in case there are adults in the back seat).
• Read the entire manual, and while it is helpful, it has quite a bit of outdated and conflicting information (features not present on the car) and a few typos. It’s also a bit confusing to read. Doesn’t inspire confidence.

 

[Dgbmb]

First long drive in the x-line (last of the first tank of gas), some city but mostly highway 132 miles -> 26.1 mpg. A/C on the whole way, mostly cruise control on the highway, about 80-85 mph. No wind, only moderate terrain. Smart mode.

Derek

 

[Sorento8721]

Took possession of my Gravity Gray X-line last week and took it camping last weekend Below are some personal impressions (subject to change) and questions:

• Driving experience: 9/10. More nimble and responsive than expected. On the flip side, coming from FWD SX Optima, ride felt a bit too grippy, and could be the switch to AWD.
• Driving tech: The different driver assist options were a mixed bag in terms of implementation and took some getting used to. Blind spot monitoring and the distance from the vehicle ahead were solid. The cruise control implementation (in combination with the digital dash) is a bit confusing, and steering assist was jerky, and I’m still getting used to both.
• Mileage: 21-23 highway mpg in Smart mode. Didn’t see anywhere close to the advertised 27 mpg. Please post if you have any hacks to get to a higher gas mileage.
• Door child lock: was unable to disable this based on the instructions in the manual. If you were successful in disabling it, please post how in this thread.
• Camping friendliness: We were able to lay the rear seats down and lay two narrow 6 ft sleeping pads side by side. The 2nd row seats don’t fold down fully flat, but the angle could be a plus. There is a gap between the 2nd row seats though, due to the captain’s chairs. A bench-style 2nd row could be a better option to eliminate that. On the plus, the panoramic roof is great for stargazing.
• The rear view mirror seems like it has a limited range of motion, and I had to adjust my seat height slightly to compensate. While I haven’t needed to pull back and service the wipers, the instructions to do so are confusing as hell.
• I’m in love with the grey exterior color. I usually pick black over grey, but grey looks absolutely killer on the x-line. Consider me biased, of course.

A few questions:

• Is anyone getting 25+ mpg on the x-line? What drive mode(s) and settings?
• How do you disable the door child lock?
• Can you recommend an affordable and simple treatment to protect the leather and rubberized interiors, and the exterior paint?
• Is the 12v port in the 2nd row passive or active? (If active, it could be huge for plugging in a fan or other gear for camping).
• Can you recommend a bike rack (and associated tow point hardware) that is compatible with the lift gate and won’t block it?
• Can you recommend an affordable roof cargo carrier?
• Any other hacks or observations for using the car for the outdoors?

Thanks in advance, and feel free to use this thread to share your X-line stories, observations, hacks, and mods!

As far as cleaning a protection, gyeon leather cleaner and leather coat are great and affordable and go long way for the money. If you're comfortable with ceramic coating leather they have leather shield too which is awesome. I've applied to mine and my wife's palisade. Same feel to leather. To Jeans coloring rubbing on it spills fall off but invisible you'd like v to wipe it up and not let it sit. Gives the owner ample time to clean it easily. Hope this helps

 

[gustafson]

As far as cleaning a protection, gyeon leather cleaner and leather coat are great and affordable and go long way for the money. If you're comfortable with ceramic coating leather they have leather shield too which is awesome. I've applied to mine and my wife's palisade. Same feel to leather. To Jeans coloring rubbing on it spills fall off but invisible you'd like v to wipe it up and not let it sit. Gives the owner ample time to clean it easily. Hope this helps

Appreciate the product recommendations. Very timely, as I’d like to put some protection on the leather seats before the inevitable uh oh moments

 

[gustafson]

Audio system setting: I’ve read unfavorable views about the Bose audio system on the Sorento, so I took it upon myself to investigate. I will say that the stock settings are underwhelming, even in a parked vehicle, but I was able to give it a boost by bumping the treble, midrange, and bass up to +2, +4, and +6 respectively in the Sound options under Setup. Activating the Centerpoint Surround under the Premium Sound setting was a mixed bag but generally added a little extra oomph. Obviously, your mileage may vary, and don’t expect miracles, but wanted to share the result of my experiments. Rock on

 

[Southman1]

Audio system setting: I’ve read unfavorable views about the Bose audio system on the Sorento, so I took it upon myself to investigate. I will say that the stock settings are underwhelming, even in a parked vehicle, but I was able to give it a boost by bumping the treble, midrange, and bass up to +2, +4, and +6 respectively in the Sound options under Setup. Activating the Centerpoint Surround under the Premium Sound setting was a mixed bag but generally added a little extra oomph. Obviously, your mileage may vary, and don’t expect miracles, but wanted to share the result of my experiments. Rock on

I'm going to try your settings. I don't think the system is bad. But what I know is that SiriusXm sucks when it comes to listening to music. Pandora sounds so much better. SiriusXm sounds flat.

 

[gustafson]

I'm going to try your settings. I don't think the system is bad. But what I know is that SiriusXm sucks when it comes to listening to music. Pandora sounds so much better. SiriusXm sounds flat.

Thanks for the tip about SiriusXM, will test and report back. I just tested the settings while driving, and needed to boost the treble / mid / bass further to +4/+6/+8 and the volume to 25 to get acceptable sound on Master of Puppets It is fair to say that the speakers on the dash are anemic.

 

[gustafson]

Anyone figure out an easy way to the use the NAV on the X-line? It (understandably) doesn’t allow text entry while driving, and the voice recognition was of no use in searching for destinations, in my experience. The only way I can use it is by entering the destination manually when the car is parked, which is a bit of a pain with the onscreen keyboard. Be great if there are some hacks to use voice recognition effectively with the NAV, or a way to transfer an address from a connected smartphone to the NAV. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[noshortcuts]

Bose Sound:
The best sound I get is playing flac music files from a USB drive. I have an extensive collection of music stored on my computer so it was easy to drag and drop albums to a USB drive. A bonus is that the head unit makes the music easy to navigate and shows the album cover, etc for each song playing.

Next best sound I've found is Amazon Music HD. The frustration there is that sometimes music drops. Maybe it's based on a weak signal in some areas.

Sirius is mostly too compressed. There's a couple of hip hop stations with good sound but too many stations sound flat, missing highs and lows.