Both the Sorento and Cherokee have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Sorento S/EX/SX/Prestige/X-Line 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 Cherokee’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 Cherokee doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Sorento Prestige has a standard Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Cherokee only offers a rear monitor and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the front or sides.
Both the Sorento and Cherokee 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 Cherokee’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 Cherokee doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Sorento and the Cherokee have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, 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 Jeep Cherokee:
|
|
Sorento |
Cherokee |
|
|
Driver |
|
| STARS |
4 Stars |
4 Stars |
| Neck Injury Risk |
21% |
38.2% |
| Neck Stress |
168 lbs. |
408 lbs. |
| Neck Compression |
22 lbs. |
41 lbs. |
| Leg Forces (l/r) |
212/405 lbs. |
368/516 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Kia Sorento is safer than the Jeep Cherokee:
|
|
Sorento |
Cherokee |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Spine Acceleration |
32 G’s |
43 G’s |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its available headlight’s “Good” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Sorento the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2022, a rating granted to only 175 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Cherokee has not been tested, yet.