2024 Kia Sorento petrol V6: Australian deliveries halted for fix, diagnosis unclear

Customer deliveries for some 2024 Kia Sorento variants have been temporarily halted in Australia.

Kia Australia has notified dealers that it has suspended deliveries for 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated petrol V6 versions of the facelifted Sorento – launched in Australia in late December – after detection of a “potential technical issue”.

A Kia Australia spokesperson told WhichCar that the brand has halted deliveries while it works to verify the potential technical fault.

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“There is a temporary halt on deliveries to customers while Kia Australia verifies a potential technical issue affecting some petrol variants,” the spokesperson said.

A bulletin seen by WhichCar states Kia Australia will advise its dealers “shortly” on when customer deliveries for petrol V6 models can resume.

Kia Australia was unable to confirm what the potential technical issue is.

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In March, a 2024 Sorento V6 customer told an owners forum that Kia Australia had provided a full refund after their vehicle entered 'limp home mode' at 110km/h due to an “engine system failure”, three weeks after their car was delivered on December 27.

“I managed to pull across three lanes of freeway traffic into an emergency shoulder,” said the owner.

“We signed today finally for a full refund ten weeks after the car went off the road. The part [Kia dealer] ordered apparently did not fix the issue and it’s still undiagnosed,” the owner added in a more recent update.

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The company has not yet announced a recall on vehicles already delivered, claiming there has been no impact on customer deliveries for other Sorento variants, or petrol versions of the Kia Carnival people mover which use the same 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated V6 as the Sorento.

The facelifted 2024 Kia Sorento is offered with a 200kW/332Nm 3.5-litre petrol V6, a 148kW/440Nm four-cylinder turbo-diesel, or a 169kW/350Nm 1.6-litre turbo-petrol hybrid.

Diesel accounts for around 80 to 85 per cent of Sorento sales in Australia, while around one per cent are hybrids and petrol V6 examples make up the remaining amount.

A new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Sorento will arrive in Australia between July and September 2024.