Life Adventures with a Kia Sorento

We received a car from Drive STI, but all opinions are my own.

A couple weeks ago we had the opportunity to go for an adventure in a Kia Sorento. One week to explore the open roads, testing out the 2014 model. I’m a huge advocate of the SUV over the mini van so, trust me when I say I was gun ho for this adventure. Since I spend much of my time during the week in the car, not only did I get to test drive it to and from school, running errands, but also loaded this baby up doing all my errands to get ready for Brayden’s birthday party. This baby can fit a lot of stuff in it’s rear end! I was also told by the great team that dropped it off that this car has the 3rd row option, which is seriously amazing for a family like ours because we can utilize it’s spacious trunk, but also have the ability to carpool with additional people using the 3rd row. Major bonus in our book!

 

As many of your know, being a business owner can make for very busy weeks and when Friday arrives, we’ve been doing our best to close our computers and clock out for the weekend so we can take our kids on an adventure. We ride the Balboa Ferry, ride bikes to the park, grab a big cup of fro yo or even head to the Farmer’s Market. Believe it or not, our kids really love going and have even made friends with many of the farmer’s that are there every week. It’s been so wonderful to watch them get excited about all the healthy food we’ve been eating. Brayden’s favorite thing to do each week is pick out a new bouquet of flowers for our home. His Papa Circle has taught him well! 

Lately I’ve been realizing just how important this family time is to me. Not that it hasn’t always been, I just think that it’s so easy to get lost in the mundane of the day to day grind and when that happens, you don’t take advantage of all those little moments that make up much of their memories. I want Katelyn and Brayden to grow up remembering how much time we spent together playing, laughing and going on adventures, not that we were always working. I want them to understand that they can achieve their dreams and work hard, while still showering their family with the gift of quality time.  

 I really believe that giving people the opportunity to test drive a car for multiple days has so many benefits. The main one being that it really allows you the opportunity to see if the car fits your lifestyle. When you visit a dealership and get to take the car on a quick 2 mile drive, it’s not really enough time to take advantage of trying out it’s many benefits. I wonder how many people have walked off a car lot because they just weren’t sure, but if given the opportunity to spend some additional time with the car, would not only purchase it, but tell all their friends to buy one too? I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to us. I could research cars all day long on the internet, but until you spend time with the car, you never truly know if it’s right for you.

 Now, I already mentioned the spacious trunk and the optional third row seating, but there are several other things I loved about the car.

• The Kia Sorento not only has seat warmers in the front 2 seats, but also seat coolers! Umm, sign me up for those hot summer days!
• There’s a touchscreen!
• The navigation system is not only easy to set up and enter your destination, but you can also hear the person giving you directions loud and clear. I like this so much better than relying on my iPhone, especially when it’s not supposed to be in my hand.
• Sirius radio, can I can a what, what?! I loved having hundreds of different stations to choose from. I believe that there is a monthly service cost after the trial, but I’m telling you, it would be well worth it!
• The incredible sunroof! Y’all this thing goes the distance and when I say distance, I mean the almost the whole length of the car. It was awesome!
• Bucket seats in the front and back seats for extra comfort.
• An alert system built in that helps to keep you from getting into accidents. It has everything from beeping alerts, to an alert that would light up in my side view mirrors if people were in my blind spot and I was getting ready to change lanes.
• The back up camera!! Oh my goodness y’all, when you put the car into reverse, a rear view camera image pops up on your screen and using guidelines, helps you back up or even parallel park! This might revolutionize driving! I’m seriously the worst parallel parker ever.
• Ok, I saved the best for last. There’s a button on the touchscreen in the car labeled “Parking Minder” and it will send the exact location you’ve parked to your phone. The app even allows you to take up to 3 pictures of your location just in case you need the extra help. It doesn’t get more incredibly awesome than that! Imagine never loosing your car again….

We had such a great time with our Kia Sorento, if you’re in the market for a new car and love the idea of owning a small SUV, I would recommend giving this one a test drive. Be sure to ask lots of questions and try and take it for more than a 2 mile test drive. Oh and be sure to make them give you the full tour of all the things this baby can do that’s not on the sticker.

What kinds of adventures do you like to take your family on? What are some ways you try to balance work/family life?

xo, Alissa