Kia Sorento Enters PBA

On Tuesday, Kia Motors unveiled the name of its team in the upcoming 40^th season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and they named it after one their best sellers- the Kia Sorento.

New team on the block

The newly formed team will be sponsored by Kia’s executive distributor in the country, the Columbian Autocar Corporation (CAC). For the past few months, the team got a lot of attention after hiring Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao as its playing coach. Playing with the Filipino champ are Francis Bercede, Kenneth Ighalo, Paolo Romero, Paolo Taha, Michael Acuna, Jeremy Bartolo, Jonathan Banal, Anthony Gavieres, Giorgio Umali, Richard Cole and 24^th overall pick Kyle Pascual. Pacquiao, for his part, was the PBA’s 11^th over-all pick during its Rookie Draft and is considered the oldest draftee at the age of 35.

Naming contest

The name “Sorento” was chosen for Kia’s contest where participants were asked to produce the name of the Korean car producer’s basketball team. Kia is just one of the three new teams that will be competing in the local premiere hoop league, which also includes PBA-D League stalwarts-NLEX and Blackwater. CAC awarded 15 winning entries in the "name their team stint" with a chance to fly to Los Angeles in California. For the complete list of winners, visit Kia’s website.

What is the Sorento?

Kia Sorento (the car) is a midsize crossover SUV manufactured in 2002. Since its inception, this car series has expanded to two generations and a third one is expected to be released this year. In a short span of time, Kia has updated this car to break away from its predecessor’s body-on-frame platform to a more modern unibody design. The Sorento uses a 2.2 liter 16-valve CRDi diesel engine which spurts 187 horsepower and 437 Nm of torque. It has a maximum speed of 190 kph and can accelerate from 0-100 kph in 9.5 seconds. An entry level Sorento is valued at P1.285 million, while its high end seven- seater variant has a price tag of P1.925 million.

Launching at PIMS

The newly formed team is expected to be launched at the 5^th Philippine International Motor Show (PIMS) on September 18 to 21 at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. Kia also promised to showcase a special two-tone variant of the compact crossover Kia Soul and new color versions of the subcompact Kia Picanto.