Kia’s updated Sorento won the first fight between mid-size SUV rival 5th generation Hyundai Santa Fe during September. Kia Sorento doubled the record in sales to its brother from another mother but Hyundai hasn’t said the last word yet. According to the Ministry of Transport, Sorento sold a total of 10,190 units in the domestic market in September, making it the best-selling car in South Korea.
During the same period, 5,139 units of Santa Fe were sold. Of these, the fifth-generation (MX5) models were 4,329 units, and the remaining 810 were in stock of the older fourth-generation model (codenamed as TM). ‘The All New Santa Fe’ and ‘The New Sorento’ were released in the same week during August. Sorento was overwhelmed by double the performance of Santa Fe in September, the first complete month for both.
Despite reading this you could think both are “All-New” models, the Santa Fe is a real full-change or new generation model, specifically the 5th, while the Sorento is a mid-cycle facelift of the 4th generation model. To the extent that the existing generation model has been improved, it is usually not possible to expect the launch effect as much as a completely new car that has changed the generation.
But this is not a surprise, when the fourth generation Sorento and Santa Fe were launched, the Sorento was also more popular and received a even better response by applying Kia’s new family look after the facelift while the Santa Fe 5th generation model design may have had some impact on sales by the many likes and dislikes among domestic consumers. In particular, the back design with the tail lamp too down has been criticized. There was also an evaluation that the front design, which overemphasized the H initials, was also difficult to digest for many customers.
Is it true that Hyundai still not offered the Hybrid variant, set to be available during October, while the Sorento is available with Hybrid variant and even a diesel engine. A 62,5% of Sorento total sales accounted for the hybrid engine while the rest were for the gasoline 2.5 Turbo and 2.2 Diesel.
So despite it is expected that Santa Fe sales will soar significantly when the Santa Fe hybrid model will be available from this month, Kia’s Sorento already have won for three consecutive years to the 4th generation. Santa Fe, so it is expected to the war to continue. Let’s see what happens in this war for the coming months.
