Kia Sorento
FINAL REPORT Our SUV pays a visit to the biggest Kia dealership in Europe
OVER the past year we’ve reported on how the Sorento has impressed us on road and off it, as well as in the city. But one thing we haven’t touched on is Kia’s aftersales service – so when the brand announced it was opening its biggest dealer in Europe in Brentford, west London, we jumped at the chance to pay it a visit.
The 41,000-square-foot facility fills four floors over 1.3 acres in a prime site near the M4 populated by flagship showrooms from Volkswagen, Mercedes and Audi – indicating the type of buyers Kia is confident of attracting.
And ‘state-of-the-art’ doesn’t really do GWR Kia justice, because every last detail has been thought of to ensure it provides the last word in customer satisfaction.
The workshop area includes 11 service bays and can cope with 80 services a day; it even incorporates a turntable photo studio to allow approved used cars to be snapped on site and put up for sale in double-quick time. The showroom area, meanwhile, showcases Kia’s entire range and includes two dedicated customer handover bays, an upmarket cafe and all manner of data points and touchscreens to pass on info to buyers.
Highlight
Floor one caters for used cars, but the real highlight is the marketing floor above. It features a 17.5-metre-long, 3.7-metre-high display that includes 202,500 LEDS that beam Kia’s latest promotional campaigns to the 27 million drivers who pass by on the adjacent elevated section of the M4 each year.
David Grainger (right), who heads up Norton Way, which operates the dealership, describes it as “a big statement for Kia”. He told me the priority of the staff there was to “deal with the customer how they want to be dealt with”. To be fair, that’s something the brand’s dealers have demonstrated pretty well anyway, as a ninth place finish in our Driver Power dealer survey earlier this year testifies.
Even so, it’s hard not to be impressed by GWR Kia. As someone who has lived with the Sorento day in day out for 12 months, I’ve gained a real appreciation of its genuine quality and ability as an all-round family car. But Kia realises there is more to attracting and keeping customers than great vehicles, and this new dealer is a big statement of intent that the upward trajectory of the product range will be matched by ongoing improvements in customer service.
Sadly, though, our time with the Sorento is coming to an end. Over nearly 10,000 miles it’s coped admirably with everything family life has thrown at it, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a great-value seven-seat SUV. I can give it no higher praise than that.
“This new flagship west London dealer from Kia is a big statement of intent”