2014 Kia Sorento Scores Top Safety Marks

Luke Vandezande
by Luke Vandezande

Kia’s 2014 Sorento crossover is one of the latest models to earn a five-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The vehicle is only three years only, but the Korean brand says 80 percent of its parts are new for 2014. It rides on a new platform shared with the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. It is unusual for a car in the middle of its lifecycle to come with that much new content, but the brand and parent Hyundai are actually saving money on redundant tooling by moving the Sorento to a new platform.

NHTSA scored the car with five stars overall. That rating is based on three sub-ratings: a rollover test as well as frontal and side-impact crashes. The vehicle scored five stars in both of the crash tests but four in rollover testing. The rating is identical to the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport.

SEE ALSO: 2014 Kia Sorento Review

In addition to that rating, the Sorento was also named a “Top Safety Pick” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Despite the name, that isn’t the highest rating issued by the IIHS. In order to earn that distinction, it needs to earn a “good” rating in four of the five tests and no worse than an “acceptable” rating in the fifth. The Sorento hasn’t undergone the recently-introduced “small overlap” test most vehicles are currently struggling to pass. There are four ratings given: good, acceptable, marginal and poor.

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Luke Vandezande
Luke Vandezande

Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.

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