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New Kia Sorento and Land Rover Discovery Sport vs Honda CR-V: practicality

The market for large hybrid SUVs is reaching boiling point with the arrival of these new contenders from Kia and Land Rover. The car they have to beat is the Honda CR-V

Kia Sorento 2021 rear seats

Space and practicality

Front space, rear space, seating flexibility, boot

Although the Discovery Sport has less head and leg room up front than our other contenders and isn’t as broad, all three are airy and offer more than enough space for six-footers to sit comfortably.

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Likewise, in the second row, none of them is remotely poky. The Discovery Sport is more on equal terms here, although it still has slightly less leg room than its rivals; the CR-V and Sorento are again broadly similar on that point. In short, they’ll all carry a couple of six-footers with centimetres of leg and head room going spare. Even a middle rear passenger won’t feel squished; all three have a slightly raised middle seat, but there’s still copious space beneath the roofline.

Land Rover Discovery Sport 2021 rear seats

Of course, the Sorento and Discovery Sport have the ability to seat two more people in a third row. Indeed, ‘people’ means six-footers in the Sorento, because even without sliding the second-row seats all the way forward (something you can do in the Discovery Sport too), there’s enough leg room for them and just about enough head room.

Steve Huntingford

Updated: 19 February 2021

Car reviews

Kia Sorento dynamic

Kia Sorento

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Honda CR-V front cornering

Honda CR-V

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Land Rover Discovery Sport driving front right

Land Rover Discovery Sport

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The Discovery Sport’s third-row seats are for smaller people: those up to about 5ft 8in tall. The CR-V’s second row seats don’t slide but, as in the other two, can be reclined.

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Honda CR-V 2021 rear seats

Both seven-seaters leave you with some luggage space with their third-row seats deployed: a few shopping bags in the Discovery Sport and a few more in the Sorento. In five-seat mode, the Sorento has the biggest boot, taking a magnificent 10 carry-on suitcases below its load cover. The CR-V is only one behind, followed by eight cases for the Discovery Sport.

Underfloor storage is minimal across the board, so for extra room it’s a case of dropping the second-row seats, by pulling handy levers on the sides of the CR-V’s boot or pressing buttons on the side of the Sorento’s. The Discovery Sport doesn’t offer such convenience, but its 40/20/40 seat split is more useful than the others’ 60/40 arrangement.