By the beginning of the 2000s, the SUV markets was gaining quite a considerable amount of attention both from producers and car buyers the world over.
In 2002 the first generation Sorento came out with two options transmissions, a 5 speed manual and a 4 speed automatic. This was later changed into a 5 speed sequential starting with 2005. The motor came from Hyundai and it was a 3.5 double overhead cam V6 with 192 hp. The car comes in two trim levels, a base package and the LX version which included alloy wheels, step bars, fog lams, leather-wrapped steering wheel and a roof rack.