[14000rpm]

Circa 2017.
It had been 5 yrs since I moved to a small city called Vaasa in Finland

..and 4 yrs since I had replaced my Stick Shift Citroen Xantia

I loved the Xantia for its stupendous ride quality which, till date, has been the best I've driven but wife wanted a larger car because family <insert vin diesel family meme here>

In came a Honda CRV.

It was big alright but it was a stick shift and a LHD at that because Europe. Overwhelmed my wife enough that she didn't even try driving it. Replacing the CRV was imminent and it had to be an automatic this time around.

So, there started a lookout for an Automatic SUV. I drove by a KIA dealership frequently and saw the 2016 Sorento in the showroom. Loved KIA's new design language at the time and the Sorento UM (2014-2020) was the 1st of the new design language which looked sculpted and frankly quite appealing.

The look is decidedly upscale with elegance and balanced proportions inside and out and a preponderance of premium look and feel materials cheering the cabin.

But, that was not the car in my radar. It was going to be a new LR Discovery Sport.
Got one for a full day test drive and drove around a bit and loved it.

The Sorento was nice but the Discovery Sport was nicer. So that's the choice I went with and soon forgot all about the Sorento and started working on the plan to buy a 2017 Discovery Sport.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to me, destiny had other plans career-wise. When I moved to Finland, this was not the country of my choice to settle down in. It was always going to be US. However, my employer gave me a net total of 2 choices to make to move out of India - Finland or Finland. Finland it was in 2012 but in 2017, around the same time as making the car replacement plan, I was able to secure a location change to US.

Considered Finland a 'break journey' and soon started to look at the much wider multi cuisine a-la-carte menu of cars in US. Obviously the Sorento and the Discovery Sport went out of the window. Or so I thought...

[14000rpm]

Come Summer 2017 and the Visa process was underway.

In the meantime, I started to narrow down on the choice of car and it had to be a 4 Dr Jeep Wrangler. That's it. It was the car I'd always wanted and drove many times during previous US Stints as rentals. Loved it.

End of June '17, I sold the CRV to a used car dealer a day before our flight to Detroit, Michigan.

Landed in Detroit, picked up a Dodge RAM I'd rented since I had a lot of excess baggage. Checked into hotel and quickly started working on the basics - Search for home & car, bank account, check in at work etc etc.

It turns out, the account I was going to manage (I'm in IT Sales) was swapped out at the last minute. FCA, now Stellantis, was my customer !! Thrilled me all the more since it gave me access to the very people working on the new Jeep JL whose launch was around the corner. I started talking to a few on the nuances of a Jeep JK (outgoing model) to help me buy a used JKU (JK unlimited- 4 Dr). All I took away from those conversations were - ''wait for the JLU (JL Unlimited). It is way better than the JKU''. I was even able to secure Directors discount that a few directors in the HQ can give out.

Now, all this was in July '17. JLU was going to come out only in April '18. I had a long time to go before I could get a JLU. Went back to used car dealers searching for a low miles reasonably priced JKU. Turns out, the combination of low miles and reasonable price doesn't exist. More so for the Jeep which has always had a very good resale value. I didn't have a big budget to start with since I'd just then moved into the country and therefore I convinced myself to wait 1 more year to have a Jeep in my driveway.

In the meantime, the RAM was still around ferrying only a baby stroller in its huge cargo bed. That too uncovered. More than anything, it was getting too expensive to keep any longer. Had to get me a used car ASAP. Gave myself a budget and a search criteria limiting me to only American SUVs and went dealer-hopping and narrowed down to a 2015 Low miles Ford Edge sport with a 280 bhp NA V6. I kinda liked the styling but I didn't like the price. While I was going back and forth on the price, lo and behold, a 2016 KIA Sorento drove in. Apparently it was just then added to the inventory. One of my criteria was "No Asian cars". Didn't give it a second look and continued haggling with the dealer for the Ford Edge.

Wife and daughter, now bored with my negotiations, wandered off into the parking lot and came back liking a different car- the 2016 KIA Sorento that just drove in !!.

It broke the 1st Criteria but hey, wifey liked the way it looked and that changed everything. To top it all, at 14k, it had the lowest miles of all my searches. The dealer was now ready to negotiate on the Sorento as well.
How was this happening?
Was it destined?
From first seeing it in Finland and then family liking the same car in US, It had to be some sorcery. It chose me. wait a minute. Wasn't it going to be my decision?

Whatever it was, it was soon in my driveway

However, it wasn't going to be for long as the plan was to replace it in June 2018 with the JLU.

Did this happen? We'll see.

[14000rpm]

So, what did I get?
Well, the Sorento had always been a well packaged all rounder.

Here, Let me have Matt Watson explain it.

https://youtu.be/Sbo5v0Uio2w

Its a decent 3 row SUV sharing its platform with the KIA Carnival YP and the Hyundai Santa Fe DM.

The car that chose me was a LX trim which means it is a mid level spec.

• AWD with Central locking Differential
• Cruise control.
• Traction control
• Stability control
• ABS
• TPMS
• Power Windows with 1 touch for Front windows.
• Power Seat
• 6 speed Automatic transmission
• Heated Seats
• 3 row seating with the 3rd row fully folding into the boot.
• Fold flat middle bench with 40/20/40 split.
• Fabric seats.
• Bluetooth audio with 6 speakers.
• Electrically adjustable mirrors
• Day/night rear view mirror
• 17" alloys
• 2.4 Litre NA petrol Engine with 185 bhp.
• Auto Headlights.
• front side airbags, and front- and second-row side curtain airbags.
• Rearview camera
• Rear parking sensors and Uvo eServices (geo-fencing, speed alert and curfew alert for secondary drivers).

The feature list in the upper trims take this car up several notches into the premium German car category.

My take-

The Korean-American is quiet well appointed inside even in Mid level LX Trim.

It has a roomy interior to be a comfortable 5 seater and a large boot big enough to have my Labrador along with some of my kids' toys or groceries or any other shopping.

It has comfortable and supportive front seats, is stable and composed at speed, and feels very solid.

The second row has good legroom, while being able to slide, recline and fold flat via levers in the cargo area. This versatility is present regardless of seating configuration, which isn't always the case in competing SUVs.

As for the third-row seat, kids and smaller adults have additional space and it isn't the penalty box you'd imagine.

Most surfaces in the 2016 Kia Sorento are soft to the touch and richly textured, while the two-tone color schemes accentuate these quality materials.

There is a sense of sophistication to the 2016 Kia Sorento's ride as it manages to soak up bumps without harshness. Kia's midsize crossover is also impressively quiet making it very comfortable for family road trips.

The 185 bhp 4 cylinder engine is alright but its the drive modes that change the characteristics quite dramatically. Every Sorento comes with Driver Mode Select, which features three modes (Normal, Sport and Eco) that alter transmission shift points and steering effort. ECO/Normal mode are practically the same. No difference. The car feels sluggish with lazy shifts. Its ok to potter around but jab some juice on the highway and it gets weazy.

However, its the sport mode that makes the car alive. Shifts hold till 6500 rpm and the engine is buzzing with life gathering momentum rapidly. Suffice to say I preferred to keep it in Sport mode as much as possible.

All-in-all its a decent car. No complaints. Then again, this car was never meant to be a forever car and merely a stop-gap while I waited for the JLU.

[14000rpm]

Day to Day life & commute settled down to normalcy and the Sorento did all that was asked of it. Our daily commute was not significant what with Child's daycare being a mere 1.5 Miles away and customer location, FCA, being only 10 miles away.

However, come Oct '17 wife got herself a job and we anticipated some travel for her too and then came the need for a 2nd car. Tricky situation since my plan was to add a 2nd car only in June '18. Tried to hand over the Sorento to her and start looking for a JKU again.

However, driving in Michigan is quite overwhelming and the low seating position and high cowl in the Sorento was certainly not confidence inspiring for her. Soon I was convinced she needed a car which, even if she chose to, won't let her crash !

Picked up a 2018 Toyota Camry Automatic on lease for her after looking at other smaller cars with ADAS features and failing to find a good fit.

Missed my 2nd chance to get a Jeep and kept the wait on for summer '18.

In the meantime, while I spent a lot of time configuring the JL 2 Dr and dreamt of the JLU, I got my opportunity to visit the inner sanctum of FCA R&D where the JLU proto's were in testing. Got my chance to sit in it and fiddle around a bit like a child with a new toy.

As luck would have it, my team was assigned the task of Software validation and they got to test drive the camo'd proto's on the road. Needless to say I hopped in a few times. Couldn't drive them for legal reasons. No photo's too.

Icing on the cake - one of my other team-member who was assigned to test drive all FCA cars on their proving in Chelsea, MI was now assigned the JLU. Naturally I drove over to Chelsea. Made a few requests and soon enough, rode-along in the JLU on their off-road test track.

As a bonus, I got to ride-along a high speed Run in a Dodge Challenger V8.

Woo Hoo !

Excitement for the JLU only built up further. The engineers were right. the JLU felt way better and sophisticated compared to the JKU.

[14000rpm]

All was going good. We even purchased a brand new house in Rochester Hills, MI.

Was it all good though? While we were trying to re-acquaint ourselves to life in US, somewhere along the way, we hadn't left Finland. To put it differently, our head was in US and heart was back in Finland.

Popular opinion says ''Finns are cold, unsocial, unwelcoming, etc.,etc., ''. Not true. To us, the Finns made us feel far more at home than the Americans. People make a place not the other way around.
Some say It could quite possibly be because we were in Michigan and not New Jersey, Texas or California. Job responsibility ensured we were not going to leave Michigan just coz we didn't feel at home.

We had valid Resident's permit (RP) from Finland when we left the country. Against the suggestion of the Dutch Immigration officer, we hadn't destroyed our RPs. Somewhere along the way, around May '18, out of sheer curiosity, I just made a check my network about the job market out in Finland. And, Voila! just like that, without even making a proper resume, I had 3 job opportunities in Finland !

What was going on?
Was it a sign?
Was it not enough that we left the country half-Finnish'd?

This prompted a whole new dinner conversation topic for many many days to come. One thing led to another and soon it was Ghar Waapsi ! only the Ghar was meant to be Finland !

Wait a Minute ! this was in May ' 18. JLU was released already. What's going to happen to the JLU dream now?

[14000rpm]

Did some asking around with my Finnish friends and it turns out that Finland exempts Customs Tax for returning resident's, not just Citizens, even RP holders. Lots of cars are imported into Finland in this way. Could I still buy the JLU now and take it with me as relocation shipment?

Turns out, there is a small caveat. The car should've been in my ownership for more than 6 months and shouldn't have any loan on them.

New plan: Sell the house, use the Equity to buy the JLU in whatever config was available for a quick delivery.

Quickly finalized the offer with the new employer and tried to negotiate a starting date 7 month later. It was quite ambitious of me to try this but eh, you lose nothing but just asking.

Alas, this wasn't to be. Had to join new employer's Espoo office by end of Oct. The job offer was good and I was quite sure that a similar would not come easily if I let it slide.

This meant, my JLU dream quickly vaporized.

So, what to do with the Cars that I had? Sell them both and buy again in Finland?

the Camry was on a lease. Could only transfer lease. Not sell.
Luckily for me, the car was driven quite less. Wife didn't really have to go to office for her work. She only drove it 6 miles a day on Daycare duty. the 10k miles/yr limit was never met. This was an advantage. The transferee would get more miles to drive over the course of the lease. Posted on a Lease Transfer broker website and soon enough, it was finalized quickly and paperwork started.

As for the Sorento, well, did some research about Sorento prices in Finland. Similarly spec'd cars in Finland were going for twice the price I paid to buy this in US.

Got me thinking - If I sold the Sorento in the US, I'd have anyway lost some money on it and I had to pay far higher for a car of the same size in Finland.
How about shipping the Sorento to Finland, drive it around for 2 yrs, as mandated by Finland for such imports, and sell it off for more than purchase price while having used it a few years?
Customs and exempted and shipping cost is borne by the new employer anyway !

made a quick 'Head-decision' and added the Sorento to the list of goods as part of Removal of Goods service and started the paper-work for car export.

got myself a 40 ft Container which was to take everything I had in US - Toilet Paper to Car. everything goes !

And that's the story of how a KIA Sorento chose me in Finland, had me buy in US and bring it back to Finland !

Of all the choices in Detroit, the Automotive hub of America car industry, I got myself an American Built Korean SUV for a lifer !
I'll forever be heckled for this decision.

[14000rpm]

for the impatient who ask ''hey 14000rpm, what makes this a 1 of 1? get to the point !!''

Alright, Alright. Here goes..

Back when I was trying to make sense of what to do with the cars, it was mathematics that made the most sense to take the KIA to Finland. In fact, this is what I had as bumper sticker for a long time on the KIA after it landed in Finland.

Eventually, this was not the only parameter I should have considered. I'll admit I got carried away with the application of the words - 'Globalization' and 'Global Cars'. I knew KIA was manufacturing the Sorento in US and shipping out to many countries. This, at the time, seemed to me that it included Europe too. Hence I assumed that any future needs of Spares was not an an issue for KIA, Finland to take care of.

I was so wrong.

You see, this term called 'Global Car' is merely marketing and I've learnt it the hard way. The design may look the same globally and that is perhaps where it stops. The market position of these cars in various Geo's plays a role in -

• where it is manufactured
• Associated supply chain
• Quality parameters of components which, in itself, is dictated by the 'built to a price' strategy. I'm now much aware that this 'built to a price' is not only applicable for emerging economies like India but also in the western world.
• Emissions. etc.

In the case of the Sorento, it is positioned smack in the highly competitive Mid-Size SUV segment with a Value for Money proposition. They've certainly hit several nails at once with the VFM strategy since it beats many cars in 'number Features for the price' and is priced quite aggressively in the States. Sorento's for the America market are manufactured in Georgia, USA.

On the other hand, Sorento's in Europe have a more premium positioning and hence have a different strategy for not only the way Standard features are kitted in for the variants but also the quality of the trims. Features from the Top Variant in US market are standard features in the Mid-Variant in Europe. While I had a mid-Variant in US, it was certainly bare bones compared to local market Sorento's.

Also, the Sorento's sold in Europe are actually manufactured in Algeria and come only in Diesel.

But mine is a US Spec Sorento with a 2.4 petrol engine. Nobody knows about this car in Europe.

So, there you have it.

That's how my 2016 KIA Sorento LX 2.4 GDI is a 1 of 1 Kia Sorento in the whole of Europe.

[14000rpm]

Well, let me start with an incident that opened up this can of worms. As some of you may have read in my 'lifelog' thread linked below, I met with an accident on the day the car was supposed to be transported to the warehouse before being loaded to a container and exported to Finland.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post4842321 (Times of Finland : How I got Finnish'd) <Shameless lug to my own thread. >

In short, owing to all the work the preceding nights in packing for the removal of goods, I hadn't slept well and I had to drive an hour away for an errand. What had never happened before in my life, happened. I slept on the wheel driving at 65 MPH/105 KPH. and veered into a small valley which was the road divider. Most of you familiar with US roads can relate to this type of super wide dividers.
I was so asleep that even the rumble strips I drove could not wake me up.
When I eventually woke up and stopped and assessed the damage, I was much relieved that the airbag didn't pop. A whole bunch of underbody components were strewn in the wake of my unplanned off-road venture. Car was drivable and I drove back to finish the errand and transported the car as planned.

In my mind, I truly believed that these components could be sourced in Finland too and fixed back to original easily.
However, reality was far from that.

Details after a quick detour but still on the same topic - as soon as the car landed in Finland, I had to get it registered. I had all the customs paper work handy but then, there was one small issue. There was no documented measurement of Co2 emissions of a Sorento 2.4 GDI. This meant a regular Inspection center, which typically can issue me a registration, could not do it. They had to look up reference documents across Europe before giving up and taking measurement anew. This is another way I knew I had a version of the car that was one of it's kind in Europe.

Drove around with a temporary number till they figured this out. Did drive it on US plates for a few days and got many curious looks till it got Baptized in Finland.

Now, back to the accident repair. The local KIA dealer, per protocol, reached out to KIA's part supplier with the required BOM. All I needed were basic parts such as wheel inner housing, fender liner, Skip plate panels, brackets and related items. How hard could it be?

Boy was I wrong. My requirement went into a major red-tape jumping from one table to another including KIA brand manager in Finland. Absolutely nobody from the official channels could source these parts for me after nearly 1 year of jumping tables. Reason- this is an American model and hence has different parts.

I eventually learnt that the parts are designed slightly different for the American and the European models. What a revelation. The plastic parts in the American models are certainly cheaper and lower quality compared to the European model.
Loaded a long IKEA package once and the plastic panel in the boot cracked.
Tied my Dog to one of the load hooks inside the boot which easily broke and tore up the plastic around it when he tried to jump out of the car.
Oh the Misery !

There was no issue running the car though and life went on without issues even when I was chasing KIA Motors (KMC) down to have them import the parts.

Eventually I had to locate a KIA dealer in the neighborhood of a buddy of mine in New Jersey, USA who offered to buy it on my behalf and go to FedEx and ship it out to me. Eventually for reasons I can't recollect, FedEx wasn't going to ship it out either. I had to then take the traditional route of a shipping company who does removal of goods to go to this place pick up the parts, pack them up properly for a long ride on the sea. After a long voyage, it then reached me after getting customs clearance from a company I had to engage just for this.
Phew. What an ordeal.

This was a shocking blow to the assumptions made before shipping the car out of US. Was this going to be the beginning of all problems?

Perhaps it was. While the required parts were enroute to Finland, the car threw up Check Engine light. Upon thorough inspection, the issue was isolated to an evaporator issue in the fuel tank and needed a new spare part to fix and eliminate check Engine light. I could not imagine going through it all over again. Got the error wiped and moved on.
The light came on several times thereafter and I just chose to live with it.

Got the body parts installed, fixed some other minor niggles, did some body work to remove some scratches and generally gave the car a refresh. Luckily, there weren't anymore problems but the big one had scarred me for good.

After the mandatory ownership period of 2 yrs were done, I went over to a few dealerships to trade-in or sell the Sorento. I got ridiculously low offers just because this was an unknown car in Europe. So much for a 1 of 1 car eh. 1 of 1 Cadillac, sure. There are takers. 1 of 1 Kia Sorento from the US? Nobody. Turns out, using mathematics for making these kind of decisions is not such a great idea.

Decided to keep the Sorento till it chose to drive itself to it's grave. We anyway had much reduced driving distances than before.

And that's the Story of my 1 of 1 KIA Sorento and how it chose me.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage today

[HappyWheels]

Good one!

That was one crazy trip!

For some reason, always thought that the American vehicles were always the ones with the best spec and built variants.

Did you fix the CEL issue?

And, how is this relationship going now?

PS: Hope this amount of content has not exhausted your yearly quota of write up on your own threads here (going by past experience here) .

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

That was one crazy trip!

you bet. the whole 18 month US stint was one big shopping trip. arrived with check-in baggage, Departed with a 40 ft container worth of goods including a Car+ a house.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

For some reason, always thought that the American vehicles were always the ones with the best spec and built variants.

It is perhaps true too in some cases. It all depends on the market positioning, competition, market share etc.
Success or lack of it depends on positioning and relevance.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

Did you fix the CEL issue?

Nopes. Did not bother to import that 1 single spare part. Thought I'd pick it up when I went to US on a business trip but that hasn't happened yet.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

And, how is this relationship going now?

We've parted ways. Separated. Talaq Talaq Talaq !

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

PS: Hope this amount of content has not exhausted your yearly quota of write up on your own threads here (going by past experience here) .

There is more coming. Hint: Response in previous line.

[vshankarhere]

Ah, of all the threads I have read in T-bhp this goes right at the top for its twists and turns. Definitely got me hooked. All the best and hope you own the one of one Kia Sorento in Finnish land for years to come!

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by vshankarhere

Ah, of all the threads I have read in T-bhp this goes right at the top for its twists and turns. Definitely got me hooked.

Thanks. Glad it was entertaining.

Originally Posted by vshankarhere

hope you own the one of one Kia Sorento in Finnish land for years to come!

Actually, that is the next 'twist'. It's gone. It wasn't destined to be with me for years to come after all. A thread on it's replacement is in the works already

[benbsb29]

You sure lead an interesting life.. job hops, car changes, country changes and then a 1 of a kind Sorento.

Read it in one go, and looking forward to the updates.

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

You sure lead an interesting life.. job hops, car changes, country changes and then a 1 of a kind Sorento.

That's one way of putting it.

Chaotic, Nomadic, Undecisive are other ways to describe my life.
Spirit of Md Bin Tughlaq lives in me.

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Read it in one go, and looking forward to the updates.

Appreciated. Glad I was able to keep you engaged.
The biggest update is that the Sorento is now sold. I am a sales guy after all. Managed to sell the unsellable..sort of.

It's another thing that it is not moving from the dealership just yet despite price drops. Not my problem I guess.

I sold the Sorento to a dealership owned and run by a friend of mine and purchased a Range Rover Sport from him. Since the Sorento is not moving, I can't see him at Sauna's meet-up's for a while.