Compare the2026 Kia SorentoVS 2026 Dodge Durango

Safety
Warranty
Reliability
Engine
Fuel Economy and Range
Transmission
Brakes and Stopping
Suspension and Handling
Chassis
Passenger Space
Cargo Capacity
Payload
Ergonomics
Recommendations

Safety

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For enhanced safety, the front and second-row seat shoulder belts of the Kia Sorento have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Dodge Durango doesn’t offer pretensioners for its second-row seat belts.

Both the Sorento and Durango have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Sorento has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Durango’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.

In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Sorento are reminded to check the back seat when a sensor determines the back seat is occupied. The Durango doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

With its standard Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, the Kia Sorento is better at preventing collisions with pedestrians than the Dodge Durango, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

	Sorento	Durango
Overall Evaluation	GOOD	POOR
	Crossing Child - DAY
12 MPH	AVOIDED	No Slowing
25 MPH	AVOIDED	No Slowing
	Crossing Adult - NIGHT
12 MPH Brights	AVOIDED	No Slowing
12 MPH Low beams	AVOIDED	No Slowing
25 MPH Brights	AVOIDED	No Slowing
25 MPH Low beams	AVOIDED	No Slowing
	Parallel Adult - NIGHT
25 MPH Brights	AVOIDED	No Slowing
25 MPH Low beams	AVOIDED	No Slowing
37 MPH Brights	-34 MPH	No Slowing
Warning Issued-Brights	1.4 sec	No Warning
37 MPH Low beams	-33 MPH	No Slowing
Warning Issued-Low beams	1.1 sec	No Warning

In a Vehicle-to-Vehicle Frontal Crash Prevention 2.0 test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Kia Sorento achieved a “Good” rating - the highest possible - for its performance in forward collision warning and automatic braking systems, demonstrating its excellent capabilities in preventing collisions. The Dodge Durango has not been tested.

When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Sorento’s standard Downhill Brake Control allows you to creep down safely. The Durango doesn’t offer Downhill Brake Control.

The Sorento’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Durango.

The Sorento SX has a standard Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Durango only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.

Both the Sorento and Durango have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Sorento has Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Durango’s Rear Cross Path Detection doesn’t automatically brake.

The Sorento’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Durango doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.

Both the Sorento and the Durango have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available all wheel drive.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Kia Sorento is safer than the Dodge Durango:

	Sorento	Durango
	Driver
STARS	4 Stars	4 Stars
Neck Injury Risk	23%	34%
Neck Stress	208 lbs.	236 lbs.
	Passenger
STARS	4 Stars	4 Stars
Chest Compression	.4 inches	.8 inches
Neck Stress	139 lbs.	156 lbs.
Neck Compression	52 lbs.	86 lbs.
Leg Forces (l/r)	118/119 lbs.	303/32 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

A significantly tougher test than their original offset frontal crash test, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does 40 MPH small overlap frontal offset crash tests. In this test, where only 25% of the total width of the vehicle is struck, results indicate that the Kia Sorento is safer than the Durango:

	Sorento	Durango
Overall Evaluation	GOOD	MARGINAL
Restraints	GOOD	ACCEPTABLE
Head Neck Evaluation	GOOD	GOOD
Head injury index	83	119
Peak Head Forces	0 G’s	0 G’s
Steering Column Movement Rearward	1 cm	9 cm
Chest Evaluation	GOOD	GOOD
Max Chest Compression	24 cm	26 cm
Hip & Thigh Evaluation	GOOD	ACCEPTABLE
Femur Force R/L	1/.8 kN	5.3/2.5 kN
Hip & Thigh Injury Risk R/L	0%/0%	6%/0%
Lower Leg Evaluation	GOOD	POOR
Tibia index R/L	.56/.53	1.53/.59

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Kia Sorento is safer than the Dodge Durango:

	Sorento	Durango
	Front Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
HIC	25	46
Chest Movement	.7 inches	1.1 inches
Hip Force	196 lbs.	236 lbs.
	Rear Seat
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Spine Acceleration	29 G’s	34 G’s
Hip Force	196 lbs.	446 lbs.
	Into Pole
STARS	5 Stars	5 Stars
Spine Acceleration	32 G’s	43 G’s
Hip Force	552 lbs.	714 lbs.

New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.

Instrumented handling tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and analysis of its dimensions indicate that the Sorento is 3.9% to 5.3% less likely to roll over than the Durango.

Warranty

The Sorento comes with a full 5-year/60,000-mile basic warranty, which covers the entire truck and includes 24-hour roadside assistance. The Durango’s 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty expires 2 years or 24,000 miles sooner.

Kia’s powertrain warranty covers the Sorento 5 years and 40,000 miles longer than Dodge covers the Durango. Any repair needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts is fully covered for 10 years or 100,000 miles. Coverage on the Durango ends after only 5 years or 60,000 miles.

Reliability

For smoother operation, better efficiency and fewer moving parts, the engines in the Sorento have an overhead cam design, rather than the old pushrod design of some of the engines in the Durango.

Engine

As tested in Motor Trend the Sorento EX/SX 2.5 turbo 4-cylinder is faster than the Dodge Durango V8:

	Sorento	Durango
Zero to 60 MPH	6.3 sec	6.6 sec
Quarter Mile	14.8 sec	15 sec
Speed in 1/4 Mile	97 MPH	93.2 MPH

Fuel Economy and Range

On the EPA test cycle the Sorento gets better mileage than the Durango:

			MPG
Sorento
	FWD	2.5 DOHC 4-cyl.	23 city/31 hwy
		2.5 turbo 4-cyl.	20 city/29 hwy
	AWD	2.5 DOHC 4-cyl.	23 city/28 hwy
		2.5 turbo 4-cyl.	20 city/27 hwy
Durango
	RWD	3.6 DOHC V6	18 city/25 hwy
	AWD	3.6 DOHC V6	17 city/24 hwy
		5.7 OHV V8	14 city/21 hwy

Regardless of its engine, the Sorento’s engine automatically turns off when the vehicle is stopped, saving fuel and reducing pollution. If the conditions warrant or the driver wishes, the system can be manually disabled at any time for the duration of a trip. Dodge only offers an automatic engine start/stop system on the Durango V6.

To lower fuel costs and make buying fuel easier, the Kia Sorento uses regular unleaded gasoline. The Durango R/T requires premium, which can cost on average about 84.9 cents more per gallon.

Transmission

The Sorento offers an available sequential manual gearbox (SMG). With no clutch pedal to worry about and a fully automatic mode, an SMG is much more efficient than a conventional automatic but just as easy to drive. The Durango doesn’t offer an SMG or a conventional manual transmission.

Brakes and Stopping

The Sorento stops much shorter than the Durango:

	Sorento	Durango
60 to 0 MPH	115 feet	127 feet	Motor Trend
60 to 0 MPH (Wet)	143 feet	155 feet	Consumer Reports

Suspension and Handling

The Sorento has standard front and rear stabilizer bars, which help keep the Sorento flat and controlled during cornering. The Durango’s suspension doesn’t offer a rear stabilizer bar.

For better handling and stability, the average track (width between the wheels) on the Sorento is .8 inches wider in the front and 1 inch wider in the rear than the track on the Durango.

The Sorento X-Line SX Prestige handles at .85 G’s, while the Durango pulls only .76 G’s of cornering force in a Motor Trend skidpad test.

The Sorento X-Line SX Prestige executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver 2.3 seconds quicker than the Durango R/T (26.5 seconds @ .67 average G’s vs. 28.8 seconds @ .59 average G’s).

For better maneuverability, the Sorento’s turning circle is 3.1 feet tighter than the Durango’s (37.9 feet vs. 41 feet).

For greater off-road capability the Sorento has a greater minimum ground clearance than the Durango (8.2 vs. 8.1 inches), allowing the Sorento to travel over rougher terrain without being stopped or damaged.

Chassis

The Kia Sorento may be more efficient, handle and accelerate better because it weighs about 1050 to 1100 pounds less than the Dodge Durango.

The Sorento LX/S/EX/SX is 11.2 inches shorter than the Durango, making the Sorento easier to handle, maneuver and park in tight spaces.

Passenger Space

The Sorento has .4 inches more front headroom, 1.1 inches more front legroom, .6 inches more front shoulder room, 3.1 inches more rear legroom, .4 inches more rear shoulder room, .1 inches more third row hip room and 2.6 inches more third row shoulder room than the Durango.

Cargo Capacity

The Sorento has a standard third row seat which folds flat into the floor. This completely clears a very large cargo area quickly. The Durango doesn’t offer seats that fold into the floor.

Pressing a button automatically lowers the Sorento’s second row seats, to make changing between passengers and cargo easier. The Durango doesn’t offer automatic folding seats.

To make loading groceries and cargo easier when your hands are full, the Sorento’s liftgate can be opened and closed just by waiting momentarily behind the back bumper, leaving your hands completely free. The Durango doesn’t offer a hands-free gesture to open its liftgate, forcing you to put cargo down if your hands are full.

Payload

The Sorento has a higher maximum payload capacity than the Durango (1543 vs. 1450 lbs.).

Ergonomics

The Sorento’s power parking brake sets with one touch and releases with one touch or automatically. The Durango’s parking brake has to be released manually.

The Sorento Prestige’s front and rear power windows all open or close fully with one touch of the switches, making it more convenient at drive-up windows and toll booths, or when talking with someone outside the car. The Durango’s rear power window switches have to be held the entire time to open or close them fully.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducts detailed tests on headlights for their range both straight ahead and in curves and to be certain they don’t exceed acceptable amounts of glare to oncoming drivers. The Sorento’s headlights were rated “Acceptable” by the IIHS, while the Durango’s headlights are rated “Marginal.”

Manual rear side window sunshades are available in the Sorento to help block heat and glare for the rear passengers. The Durango doesn’t offer rear side window sunshades.

Recommendations

Consumer Reports® recommends the Kia Sorento, based on reliability, safety and performance. The Dodge Durango isn't recommended.

The Kia Sorento outsold the Dodge Durango by 57% during 2024.

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