Who makes the best SUV for large families? Kia takes on Skoda

These two SUVs may be marketed to the same people, but they differ in crucial ways

You’re living the suburban dream. You have the detached executive home, a pair of incomes and a glut of kids to keep you busy. Time was you’d have a big Volvo estate in the driveway, perhaps with a pair of pop-up seats in the boot, to help you cart kids, friends, cousins and grandparents about, and take the results of your weekend loft clear-outs to the tip.
These days, the big Volvo estate has been replaced by a seven-seat SUV, for better or for worse. Such things are now the darlings of larger families, who adore their combination of rugged, lifestyle-y looks that suggest you spend your weekends mountain biking and kayaking, with the flexibility to take any combination of people and clutter on the school run and family days out.
Among the most popular is the Skoda Kodiaq. Its classless image, gentle styling and all-round sense of solidity have made it a huge hit with buyers ever since it was launched as Skoda’s first-ever SUV in 2017. 
Now, there’s a second-generation Kodiaq, with updated styling, a fresh interior and an iteration of the Volkswagen Group’s love-or-loathe infotainment software. But it won’t have the playing field all to itself. 
For while Skoda has been beavering away on the new Kodiaq, Kia has been updating its Sorento large SUV. 
It’s more of a mid-life primp than an entirely new vehicle. But, with attention-grabbing styling and a hybrid powertrain, the Sorento is both bigger and bolder than Skoda’s offering and could prove a tempting lure for buyers of the new Kodiaq.
Those interested will have to have deep wallets, however, because the Sorento isn’t cheap. Even for the entry-level 1.6 Hybrid 2 tested here they’ll have to pay £42,995. 
By contrast, the tested Skoda Kodiaq looks a bit of a bargain. It has a 1.5-litre petrol engine, and in mid-range SE L trim, with seven seats (important to mention, as there’s also a five-seat version), it will set you back £40,205. 
The Skoda has artificial leather upholstery, 19 inch wheels and a powered bootlid, too; in this form, the Sorento has to make do with cloth trim and smaller wheels.
As you might expect, the Sorento’s higher price translates into a higher monthly PCP finance cost – to the tune of about £100. And that isn’t the only extra cost the Sorento will incur; despite being a full hybrid, its official combined fuel economy of 42.7mpg compares poorly with the 44.4mpg of the Kodiaq – which is only a mild hybrid.
But there is a method to the madness of the Sorento’s high costs. For one thing, it’s quite a bit more powerful; 212bhp to the Kodiaq’s 148, to be precise. For another, only the Kodiaq’s front wheels are driven; by contrast, the Sorento has full-time four-wheel drive.
Then there’s the separate air-conditioning system for the rearmost seats, the heated steering wheel and two extra Isofix childseat mounting points in the rearmost row, giving a total of four to the Kodiaq’s two. In other words, you might have to pay more for the Sorento but you get more, too.
In addition, Kia’s reputation for reliability is more impressive than Skoda’s, backed up by a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. You can extend the Kodiaq’s warranty from the standard three years and 60,000 miles, but it’ll cost extra. 
The Sorento feels roomier, too. Whether it’s in the front, middle or rearmost rows, there’s more space to spread out and the interior feels airier – as you might expect, given the Sorento is around 6cm longer, 4cm wider and 4cm taller. 
This holds especially true in the very back, where the Kodiaq will seat two adults next to each other – but only just. They’ll need to have the middle row seats slid forward to make room for their legs, too, while access isn’t great.
The Sorento gives you more room – not by much, but enough to make a difference on a longer journey. But that’s not all it offers; occupants of the rearmost row in the Sorento benefit from individual air vents with separate controls, as well as a USB socket each to charge a phone. 
Kodiaq occupants, by contrast, must make do with the stuffy air that’s already passed through the rest of the cabin and hope their phone doesn’t run out of juice. 
And if you want to mount an Isofix child seat in the Kodiaq, it’ll have to be in one of the outer two middle-row seats. That’s more inconvenient than it sounds, because it means adult passengers are consigned to the third row and you have to remove the seat each time you want to gain access. 
By contrast, the Sorento’s extra Isofix mounting points give the option to mount child seats in the third row, allowing four or five adults to ride in the front two. 
This makes better use of the available space, giving the adults more leg room and resulting in less of a faff to get in and out. The Sorento’s larger door apertures make clicking the child seats into place easier, too – wherever you choose to fit them. 
Further forward, the Kodiaq feels pretty classy, with an upholstered dashboard, a huge touchscreen display and good use of Skoda’s new “smart dials”, which include physical climate controls that allow you to adjust the temperature without taking your eyes from the road.
The Sorento has proper dials to adjust the temperature, too, though the climate control panel itself is interchangeable with a series of shortcuts for the touchscreen – which makes it more fiddly to use. 
On the whole, the Sorento’s interior is the more enjoyable of the two cars, with a greater variety of more tactile materials and a design that’s classier and less busy than that of the Kodiaq. 
What’s more, the Sorento’s touchscreen is more responsive and more clearly laid out than the Kodiaq’s. Skoda has done a lot of work on this system since it first came out, trying to iron out all the glitches – but it’s still not very intuitive and can be slow to respond and frustrating to use. 
On the road, the Sorento is the quieter of the two – particularly at low urban speeds, where the engine will turn off completely if there’s enough juice in the battery. 
Its only real fault is a slightly jiggly ride quality, which doesn’t entirely fade away at higher speeds. The Sorento does at least feel stable and secure at all times, which makes it a good long-distance cruiser.
The Kodiaq manages to avoid this jiggliness, but it does feel a little lumpen at lower speeds, with a slightly dopey way of pitching back and forth over larger bumps that makes its dampers feel a little slow. 
It also feels a little gutless low down – especially in comparison with the Sorento, which leaps forward as you touch the accelerator pedal. That’s thanks largely to its bigger electric motor, which drives the wheels (the Kodiaq’s, given that it’s a mild hybrid, doesn’t).
As a result, you often have to work the Kodiaq’s engine harder to achieve solid acceleration and when you do so it gets rather vocal. There’s quite a bit of road roar through the tyres, too, especially on concrete motorway surfaces.
Thankfully, at these higher speeds, the ride quality evens out, so while you have to turn up the stereo, the Kodiaq settles into a relaxed cruise and whiles away the miles with relative ease. 
The decision really depends on how often you think you will use all seven seats. 
If the rearmost row is going to be for very occasional use – giving lifts to friends after school, for example – then by all means save some cash and get the Kodiaq. It’s a solid all-rounder, if somewhat unspectacular; a car that doesn’t blow you away, but one that does what you ask of it, for a very respectable price. 
But if you’re prepared to spend a little bit more, the Sorento is more satisfying to drive, and to own, and a better choice if you’re to use that third row regularly – or, indeed, if you want to use Isofix seats there. 
Even though this is an entry-level model, it doesn’t feel like it from inside; it’s more appealing than the Kodiaq when you climb aboard and more enjoyable to spend time in if you’re in the back. Yes, it does cost more, but it’s the better car of the two. 
156bhp, 48.7mpg, £40,250 on the road
This smart and well-finished seven-seat SUV often gets overlooked, perhaps unfairly. Now that it has Nissan’s new hybrid powertrain it offers good fuel economy and performance at a fairly sensible price – though this N-Connecta version doesn’t give you as much equipment as either the tested Kia or Skoda. The third row of seats is pretty vestigial, too. 
212bhp, 41.5mpg, £46,775 on the road
The new Santa Fe looks like nothing else – and it’s pretty smart inside, too. Yet under the skin it’s pretty similar to the Sorento, with an identical powertrain. Given that, the fact it’s so much more expensive might be a hard sell, although even this base-model Santa Fe delivers far more equipment as standard. 
161bhp, 42.7mpg, £43,445 on the road
It’s increasingly clear the Discovery Sport is getting long in the tooth; its mild hybrid diesel engine is outshone on fuel economy by the mild hybrid petrol in this test, for example. For all that, this is a lovely car to be in and to drive, with an unctuously smooth ride and a beautifully finished interior. Bear in mind Land Rover’s parlous reputation for reliability, though.