Overview I’ve worked on a pile of these. First-generation Kia Telluride, 2020 and up. Same basic powertrain every time: 3.8L V6, transverse layout, 8-speed automatic. No CVT drama. No dual-clutch weirdness. Just a conventional torque-converter tranny doing its job. But here’s the thing. The transmission itself isn’t the villain in this story. The driveline is…
Overview The 2023–present Kia Sportage. Fifth generation. New chassis. New electronics. Same old reality — it still lives and dies by its transmission and driveline. No CVT. No dual-clutch. That surprises some people. What you get instead are two traditional torque-converter automatics, depending on engine choice. One for the 2.5L gas model. Another for the…
Overview I’ve worked on a lot of these fourth-generation Sportage models. Some are quiet commuters that rack up miles without drama. Others roll in with flashing PRND indicators, flaring RPMs, or AWD bind that feels like the brakes are dragging. Same badge. Different stories. The 2017–2022 Kia Sportage (QL chassis) didn’t use a CVT. Good….
Overview The 2011–2016 Kia Sportage (SL platform, U.S. market) runs a simple setup. No CVT drama. No dual-clutch science project. Just a conventional 6-speed torque-converter automatic bolted to a four-cylinder. I’ve had a lot of these in the air. Some at 60,000 miles. Some past 180,000 miles (290,000 km). Most of them don’t grenade. They…
Overview The 2005–2010 Kia Sportage on the KM platform is simple. Old-school simple. No CVT drama. No dual-clutch nonsense. Just a four-speed automatic or a five-speed manual bolted to a small crossover that was trying to grow up. I’ve worked on these since they were still under factory warranty. I’ve seen them at 40,000 Miles…
Overview The 2004–2009 Kia Spectra. Simple car. Basic front-wheel-drive layout. No AWD tricks, no transfer case hanging off the side, no PTU waiting to explode. Just a transverse engine and a transaxle bolted to it. I’ve worked on a lot of these. Budget commuters. College cars. First cars. They weren’t engineered to impress anyone —…
Overview The third-gen Kia Soul (SK3) didn’t reinvent the wheel. It just changed the transmission strategy and hoped nobody would notice. Front-wheel drive only. No AWD. No transfer case. No PTU to explode. That simplifies things — but it also means when the tranny fails, the whole car is done moving. There’s no backup plan….
Overview The 2014–2019 Kia Soul Gen 2 is one of those cars that looks simple. Boxy. Honest. Cheap to own. And in a lot of ways, it is. But when we’re talking about transmissions and driveline components, the story depends entirely on which version you’re staring at on the lift. You’ve got three very different…
Overview The 2010–2013 Kia Soul is simple. That’s the good news. No AWD drama. No transfer case hanging off the side. No rear diff waiting to leak all over your driveway. Every U.S. model in this generation is front-wheel drive with a transverse transaxle and two front CV axles. That’s it. Clean layout. Easy to…
Overview The 2021–present Kia Sorento (MQ4) changed the whole drivetrain story. New platform. New transmissions. New problems. I’ve had these on lifts with 8,000 Miles. I’ve had them back at 70,000 Miles. Same theme every time — which transmission did you buy? The line in the sand is simple. If it has the 2.5L turbo…
Overview The 2016–2020 third-gen Sorento (UM chassis) runs a straightforward drivetrain. No CVT weirdness. No dual-clutch experiment. Just a conventional hydraulic 6-speed automatic bolted to a transverse engine, feeding either the front wheels or an on-demand AWD setup with an electro-hydraulic rear coupling. Simple on paper. In the real world, it’s a mixed bag. I’ve…
Overview The 2003–2010 Kia Sorento. Old-school SUV. Body-on-frame. Real transfer case. Real driveshafts. Not a crossover pretending to be a truck. This platform runs a longitudinal setup — engine front to back, transmission bolted behind it, transfer case hanging off the tail on 4WD models. Rear-wheel drive first. Front axle joins the party when commanded….
Overview The first-gen U.S. Kia Seltos (2021–present, SP2) looks simple on a dealer lot. It isn’t. The tranny story changes depending on engine and year, and the AWD side has its own weird little failure lane that has nothing to do with gears getting chewed up. I’ll start where owners get burned: the official campaigns…
Overview The 2011–2015 Kia Sorento (XM) isn’t exotic. No CVT drama. No dual-clutch science experiment. Just a conventional transverse setup with a torque converter automatic and, in rare cases, a 6-speed manual. Simple. That’s the good news. The bad news? Early production hiccups. And one of them was serious enough to get the attention of…
Overview The 2015–2021 Kia Sedona. Simple drivetrain. One engine. One tranny. Front-wheel drive only. I like simple. Simple means fewer weird integration problems, fewer “what were they thinking?” engineering meetings, fewer mystery modules hiding under the dash deciding when your transmission should act confused. This generation runs the 3.3L Lambda II GDI V6 paired to…