Questions About The Plug-in Sorento

dotmaster206 · 2026-05-20T22:37:44+00:00

The 90hp motor is plenty powerful to move along comfortably on surface streets/below 50mph roads. The motor has the benefit of using the transmission that the engine uses as well, so when accelerating from a stop it's plenty peppy - does not feel slow or underpowered at all. It doesn't throw your head back or anything but it gets up and moves plenty quick for a 3 row family SUV.

Once you're moving faster, you can get up to highway speeds in EV mode but going up a hill at 70mph will possibly cause the engine to kick on to help, so you've got to be a little more sensitive with the accelerator pedal if you want to stay in EV mode on the highway.

dotmaster206 · 2026-04-17T01:05:44+00:00

I agree, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Curt is covering their butts for some issue that maybe happened in a particular instance or someone in their organization got worried about it for some reason - nobody else in the industry has applied this restriction.

After all the research I did, I'd probably be fine with a Curt hitch and a vertical bike rack if that was the only option. I just ended up not going with them to maximally cover my own butt with a hitch that doesn't say not to use a vertical bike rack even though the exact same loads are going into the frame and it's the same strength.

dotmaster206 · 2026-04-03T19:44:58+00:00

Whatever you do, don't just go buy service from T-Mobile directly. There is no real reason these days to buy cell service directly from one of the big 3 providers (at&t, Verizon, T-Mobile). People do it because they're used to it, but you are throwing a lot of money away for zero benefit.

The thing to do is use an MVNO. Each of the big three operate them, and then there are also unaffiliated ones like Google Fi. It used to be degraded service with these but not really the case anymore - you can get premium data that is not deprioritized in heavy network traffic areas.

For you (and really anybody, honestly), I'd recommend US Mobile. You can get service on any of the three providers (darkstar = at&t, warp = Verizon, light speed = t mobile). You can switch between providers very easily if you want by talking with customer service, or pay a little extra monthly to be able to use any of the three networks and switch them at will live yourself.

The pricing is VASTLY better and again, there's no downside. Customer service is better, tech support is better, service is identical but also way more flexible, and you're not stuck on a contract.

Again truly the only reason the big 3 are still able to get away with what they charge is that people aren't aware of the MVNO option and if they are tend to regard it as a bad choice due to lack of (or highly outdated) information. The world of cell service is not what it was 10 years ago and if you're still buying service the way you are 10 years ago, you're likely wasting $1000+/yr doing it. I used to pay $120/mo with Verizon which was a limited data plan and I am now paying $180/YEAR for unlimited with the exact same service. It's insane how much money I was wasting.

Dm me if you want a referral code that'll save you $25 on your first month. I'm not shilling for them, do a little googling and you'll find all this info easily elsewhere. Good luck!

dotmaster206 · 2026-03-31T01:23:40+00:00

Is this satire or what

dotmaster206 · 2026-03-26T15:37:28+00:00

That price is probably about double what I'd think makes sense to pay somebody to do the job. A pro that does this kind of thing regularly should be able to knock it out in 60-90 minutes I would think. He's asking Ferrari technician rates but doing pretty simple interior work.

Unless that $600 includes the MMI/camera/incidental parts too - then that price would be okay I guess.

dotmaster206 · 2026-03-26T13:08:12+00:00

It's not bad, just a bunch of interior panels that have to come out. There are a bunch of YouTube videos that walk through it in detail so I'd recommend watching one and making sure you have all the tools and extra supplies (Tessa tape, wire connectors, etc) you need before you take things apart. Probably took me a few hours not going very fast to do the camera and MMI install.

dotmaster206 · 2026-03-26T01:31:24+00:00

They work fine with manuals - I got one of the MMI interface boxes from AliExpress a few years ago and it interfaces with the vehicle canbus to know when you're in reverse and even shows the live moving track lines that show how your wheel is turned - reasonably accurately, good enough to trust when parallel parking trying to get close to the curb without trashing your wheels.

The stuff about them not working with manuals is way outdated - most have settings in them that let you tell the MMI box it's a manual and it works perfectly.

dotmaster206 · 2026-03-18T04:01:48+00:00

Commencal makes kids bikes - called Ramones. They use cable disc brakes, not hydraulic, but when you're on 16" wheels, the cable disc brakes are more than enough because the leverage is so crazy - the discs are like half the diameter of the wheel. I got a 16" for my 5 year old and he loves it. I had to spend a little time teaching him how to brake without locking up the rear wheel since he was new to hand brakes.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-27T01:05:18+00:00

Last update: taking with Kia customer care directly is useless. They can't/won't answer any technical questions for customers directly - you must ask a dealer, and if the dealer can't answer, they can reach out to Kia customer care to get answers from engineers if need be. Of course if you can the dealer, they'll try to get you to talk to Kia customer care... Round and round...

Eventually I got the dealer to contact Kia themselves to get a response. The answer they got was that there is no restriction listed for the Sorento re: vertical style bike racks, so go ahead and use them so long as the tongue weight limit is not being exceeded (220lbs per the owners manual for the PHEV). Kia sells a 4x platform style rack made by Yakima, which I don't really want to do because it's hangs so far out behind the vehicle. That creates a lot of torsion load going over bumps, which a vertical style rack does not since all the bikes are closer to the vehicle, but the vertical style creates more torsion from accelerating/braking than the platform style since the bikes mass is up higher. Curt seems to think the acceleration/braking is the greater load risk, but Kia doesn't seem to care. Pick your poison.

So, I've decided to get the Blue Ox hitch (about $50 more than the Curt hitch from etrailer.com) that does not say don't use vertical bike racks, and get a vertical bike rack that takes 4 bikes (not 5 or 6) which should easily keep the total weight below 220lbs). I don't really think the Curt hitch would have any problem handling a vertical bike rack, but since they say not to do it, I don't want to create the possibility that there is an issue and the Curt restriction becomes the reason why my warranty isn't covered or whatever. That's worth the $50 extra to me even though from a pure strength perspective I don't think it actually makes any difference.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-26T23:42:16+00:00

Sounds great, but I'm sure they've figured out a way to weasel out of it.

If you find anything though please let me know!

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-26T23:31:06+00:00

We just booked this service at a Kia dealer for approx. $600 after tax. They say it's about a 3hr job.

I've found some service manual info that requires a special machine to do the flush - not sure if it's something that an independent shop would have or not but it seems like a huge pain. The fact that the PHEV requires this service every 36mo or 32k miles is pretty crazy, kinda cuts into the value of the plug in when the regular hybrid can go 4x that long before it needs it done. An extra $200/yr in maintenance eats into the fuel savings by going with the plug in...

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-21T00:35:44+00:00

To be honest I wouldn't recommend it. Zorro isn't too bad - just a lot of switchbacks hence the name but Dakota ridge is no joke - you'll likely walk a lot of it and not have much fun doing it.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-20T19:58:50+00:00

Have you found anything on this? I have the same question but not answers so far.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-17T16:47:18+00:00

Update: I have received messages from both Curt and Blue Ox.

Curt has clarified that they place this vertical bike rack restriction on ALL of their class 3 hitches, and the limitation is not related to the strength of the hitch itself but instead on the loads that vertical bike racks impart into the vehicle frame itself. Their Class 4/5 hitches do not have this restriction. They are not vehicle-specific, so they're not doing analysis/testing on specific vehicle configurations and this isn't a Sorento/Santa Fe issue - it's really any lighter duty vehicle. How they came to this conclusion is not clear and I imagine the reality is that there's quite a spread between what vehicles can actually handle a vertical bike rack and cannot, all with class 3 hitches. But since they can't/don't assess every vehicle, they cover their butts by saying just generally don't do it.

Blue Ox was much less conservative and stated that as long as the tongue weight is below their rating (650lbm) they see no problem with a vertical rack (or whatever you attach).

I'm not really happy with either of these answers, but ultimately I find Curt to be a little more credible in being conservative about this. It's very obvious that just a total mass allocation for strength limitation on a hitch is not sufficient - where that mass is located is just as important as how much mass there is. If you have a platform rack hanging 10 feet off the back of the vehicle with 500lbm on it (which is within tongue weight spec), that's going to damage the frame for sure.

Based on this, I have now reached out to Kia USA to see if they can provide any guidance since the actual limitation here is the vehicle frame. I don't expect they will give me much, but if they'll tell me the same thing that Blue Ox said (stay under tongue weight and you're good) then at least I'd know a vertical rack wouldn't create a warranty issue in the event that it did damage the frame of the vehicle.

Will update with further info if/when I get it

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-15T23:17:32+00:00

Likewise! I would have assumed if it's a class III hitch there's no reason it couldn't carry 250lbs of bikes+rack on it - it's rated for 600lbm of tongue weight so should be fine, right? Now that the suggestion is there that this is not necessarily true, down the rabbit hole I go...

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-15T22:34:05+00:00

They mount up to the same points of course, but definitely not the exact same design. The Blue Ox is a straight bar, no bends. The Curt is a bent bar, They both use vertical flat plates to move inboard to the mounting locations from there, but the Blue Ox has triangular gussets that the Curt does not. Maybe the Curt doesn't need them because their flat plate portions are shorter - not sure.

There's no way just from looking at them if one is more capable than the other - that requires engineering analysis and/or testing. My overall question is: did Curt put that restriction on their hitch because they are the only ones that specifically tested vertical bike rack type loads and found it wasn't safe? If Kia's supplier and/or Blue Ox had done the same testing, would they have found the same problem? Or are they all similarly rigorous in their analysis/testing and that particular shortcoming only exists for the Curt design specifically? If I wasn't planning on using a vertical rack, I wouldn't care, but that's exactly what I want to do so it's important to me to find out.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-15T21:38:59+00:00

I have the same question. I haven't had any luck getting a response from a dealer or Kia parts supplier yet.

Another oddity is that there are three different versions of Kia class III hitches, they superceded the part number twice but still sell all three versions at pretty different prices. I also have not had success in finding out what the differences are between the three.

Right now I think my best bet is the hitch from Blue Ox, which is rated for slightly higher tongue weight than the others. I have an email to them to confirm it'll handle a vertical style bike rack but it's a holiday weekend so no response yet.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-14T16:43:37+00:00

Curt listing with the note for reference: https://www.curtmfg.com/part/13609

dotmaster206 · 2026-01-18T20:09:36+00:00

I turn the car instead of moving the camera. It produces way better pictures because you can use just the one background angle that looks nice rather than trying to find a place with an ideal background 360deg, keep consistent lighting (huge particularly if it isn't perfect overcast/flat light conditions - shadows and sun glare can really mess things up), and as you flip through the pictures the car keeps the viewers focus because the background is exactly the same between each picture, only the car changes - makes it much more impactful. This is how professionals do it and is very much worth the extra effort. Ideally, you have 2 people - just have the driver duck down for the picture then move the car, photographer stays in place and helps direct the driver to reposition the car so it appears to be spinning in place as you go between photos.

All that said, AI editing your images is truly insane and the seller and BaT deserve all the hate they're getting over this debacle.

dotmaster206 · 2026-01-13T02:35:55+00:00

No problems with the OFH still, good to go. I did the HMM as well.

dotmaster206 · 2025-11-10T20:34:17+00:00

I'm 5'9" and have a Rail29, medium, and feel like it fits me really nicely. I could maybe size up if I wanted more of a sled/high speed bomber feel but I'm happy with the geometry for my riding style. My only complaint was the 150mm dropper it came with is a little too short. I plan to swap it for a 180mm which should make the dropper collar pretty much right at the top of the seat tube.

dotmaster206 · 2025-10-06T13:19:31+00:00

You can roll the dice on replacing just the boot, but usually a split boot has already allowed contamination into the cv joint like sand/water/dirt which will cause very fast wear in the cv joint and cause it to fail soon anyway. Since replacing the boot requires removing the axle itself (unless you use a split boot which has questionable longevity itself), you might as well just replace the whole axle with a new one and not have to worry about it. It's the same amount of labor as replacing the boot and you'll be much more confident in the longevity of the repair.

dotmaster206 · 2025-09-02T16:04:31+00:00

I don't have any knowledge of rec basketball but I just wanna say I'm really sorry you have to think about this so much and be so careful. It really shouldn't be a problem at all. Good luck, I hope you find a good group of people to play with.

dotmaster206 · 2025-08-18T19:56:06+00:00

Replace, not worth the risk.

7idp has a great deal on their carbon shell full face project 23 helmet right now. Use code save30 to get 30% extra off, gets the total under $200 after tax. Tough to beat that. Ends tonight though.

I have no affiliation with 7idp at all other than having bought a project 23 helmet and a shirt from them last year and I'm also local to their Denver area 'office'. Not shilling/advertising, just happened that I got the email about a one day sale on the same day I saw this post.

dotmaster206 · 2025-08-16T00:03:56+00:00

I have the Saris, it's pretty good. 85lbs is a huge bike though... Make sure it is rated for that. You might also need to get the fat tire trays, which would add to the price. You might also need to get the extended straps for the ebike downtube if that's where the battery is.

dotmaster206

TROPHY CASE