I had fun writing this one. Production needed more wordage than normal for space reasons, so I obliged with a little rant on the question of SUV's. Hope it makes sense.


MAKE AND MODEL: Kia Sorrento

DESCRIPTION: jeep/SUV

ENGINE: 2.2 litre Diesel

OTHER AVAILABLE ENGINES: None, but it's also available in automatic and two wheel drive

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The kind of refinement normally found in Europe.

THE LOW DOWN: It's time to talk about SUV's.
There was once a time when a tall vehicle with a large diesel engine, four wheel drive capability, space in the back for a few bales of hay and a general robustness about it was known as a jeep.
It didn't greatly matter whether it was a Land/Range Rover, a Toyota Landcrusier, an Isuzu Trooper or a Mitsubishi Pajero, it was still a jeep.
Of course, 'Jeep' can't be the official name for them because, since 1987, it is actually a brand name that belongs to Chrysler. In fact the very word explains their true heritage. Back in the second world war, the rugged open topped cars the American army used to get around were known as General Purpose vehicles. This became shortened to GP, or Jeep.
So let us, for the purpose of this history lesson, call them jeeps with a small 'j'.
By and large, the only people who bothered to buy jeeps were farmers, builders and the horsey people – in other words the kind of people who actually needed one, and it was a sensible and responsible option.
Anyway, the Americans, who were loading them up with surf boards and mountain bikes or pulling horseboxes started to call them Sports Utility Vehicles. And if they'd left it there, that would have been fine.
But then some jackass decided that, well seeing as some shallow urbanised Americans were buying them to make themselves look cool and rugged, but weren't actually putting surf boards in them, or ever going off road, that maybe we should go the whole hog and make them comfortable passenger cars.
And little by little, engine sizes became smaller, the seats got more padding, four wheel drive became optional or dispensed with, and the difference between an SUV and one of those God-awful people carriers became purely cosmetic.
The result? A lot of the criticism of what are now called SUV's is hopelessly misguided.
Consider a seven-seat 2-litre diesel-powered, two-wheel drive thing that looks like what we used to call a jeep and is called an SUV. Now consider a seven-seat 2-litre diesel-powered, two-wheel drive thing that looks like a beached whale and is called a people carrier.
What's the difference? One is the sensible option for people with big families – the other has single-handedly caused global warming.
Where the marketing people have gotten it terribly wrong is that they messed up form and function.
If it comes in the form of a jeep, its function is to pull bullocks out of a mucky field and to the mart.
If it comes in the form of a beached whale, its function is to pull children out of bed and to school, soccer, ballet and back home again.
The Kia Sorrento we drove at Dunleas in Kilcullen last Thursday morning is a perfect example of all that.
It looks like a jeep. It is in fact an extremely good-value comfortable people carrier.
This is the second edition of the Sorrento. The first one was very popular because it was good looking and good value. The second one is better looking again and even better value.
Driving it was a revelation – possibly because I had low expectations. Kia have managed to somehow give the driver the impression they are driving a car. Features are close at hand, comprehensive and yet easy to operate.
On the narrow roads around Two-Mile-House and Athgarvan it certainly didn't feel like you were driving a tank. The sway that you normally associate with tall vehicles wasn't as pronounced as I've experienced it – and it was also remarkably quiet – no louder than a car with a similar engine.
And yet every so often when I turned around I'd get a bit of a shock to see how far back it goes.
You would think that a 2.2 litre diesel engine would be on the small side for a machine that big, but it has plenty of poke and the six speed manual gear box the Leinster Leader drove is eminently forgettable – not in the sense that it's bad, but in the sense that it is smooth and refined and not likely to get in the way of enjoying the drive.
Machines that size often come with gear boxes that resemble that of a 40 year old tractor.
The inside of the car goes against the worst instincts of Asian and American cars – that is to say they've avoided trying to make it cheap looking. There's a definite mid-range European sensibility going on here – kinda like a Renault or Opel.
There are leather seats complete with uncomplicated electric position adjusters.
Dunleas are pitching this as a good-value competitor to the over priced Audi Q7 or Discovery – and they're dead right to do so. But they could also comfortably pitch it at large families (numbers and/or size).
We found it difficult to find information on fuel economy. Our usual source only had info on the previous edition of the Sorrento. The larger 2.5 litre diesel in that model needed 10 litres of diesel per 100 kms in the city, 5.9 litres on the open road and an overall average of 6.7. Assuming the 2.2 litre is more frugal, then that's something to smile about. Although bear in mind that the automatic won't be as good.
Unfortunately, on the emissions side, they missed out by one single gram of CO2 and it is in Band E which will make it a little hefty on the pocket.
If a comfortable seven seater for a large family is what you're after, then to hell with the begrudgers, get yourself one of these.

PRICES RANGE FROM: €39,595 to €47,595.

WHO IS IT FOR: Large families.

MARKS OUT OF TEN: 8/10 Paying that tax will hurt!