2007 KIA Sorento Speed

13
Introduction
VEHICLE HANDLING
INSTRUCTIONSAs with other vehicles of this type, failure
to operate this vehicle correctly may
result in loss of control, an accident or
vehicle rollover. Specific design charac-
teristics (higher ground clearance, track,
etc.) give this vehicle a higher center of
gravity than ordinary cars. They are not
designed for cornering at the same
speeds as conventional 2-wheel drive
vehicles. Avoid sharp turns or abrupt
maneuvers. Again, failure to operate this
vehicle correctly may result in loss of
control, an accident or vehicle rollover.
Be sure to read the “on-pavement’’
and “off-road’’ driving guidelines,
Section 5 in this manual.
VEHICLE BREAK-IN PROCESSNo special break-in period is needed. By
following a few simple precautions for the
first 1,000 km (600 miles) you may add to
the performance, economy and life of
your vehicle.
 Do not race the engine.
 Do not maintain a single speed for longperiods of time, either fast or slow.
Varying engine speed is needed to
properly break-in the engine.
 Avoid hard stops, except in emergen- cies, to allow the brakes to seat prop-
erly.
 Avoid full-throttle starts.

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3
Driver’s air bagThe driver’s air bag is stored in the cen-
ter of the steering wheel.
WARNING
Ignoring the SRS indictor light
(air bag indicator and passenger
air bag off indicator) can result in
serious or fatal injury if the air
bags occupant classification sys-
tem or pretensioners do not work
properly. Have your car checked
by a dealer as soon as possible if
the SRS warning light alerts you
to a potential problem.
Sitting improperly or out of posi- tion can result in serious or fatal
injury in a crash. All occupants
should sit upright in their seats
with their feet on the floor until
the vehicle is parked and the igni-
tion key is removed.
E2BLA422BHLZ2120
WARNING
You must always sit as far backfrom the steering wheel air bag as
possible (chest at least 250 mm
(10 inches) away from the steer-
ing wheel), while still maintaining
a comfortable seating position for
good vehicle control, in order to
reduce the risk of injury or death
in a collision.
Never place objects over the air bag storage compartments or
between the air bags and your-
self. Due to the speed and force of
the air bag inflation, such objects
could hit your body at high speed
and cause severe bodily injury
and even death.
Do not put stickers or ornaments on the steering wheel cover.
These may interfere with the
deployment of the air bag.

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Knowing your vehicle
Curtain air bagCurtain air bags are located along both
sides of the roof rails above the front and
rear doors.
They are designed to help protect the
heads of the front seat occupants and
the rear outboard seat occupants in cer-
tain side impact collisions.
WARNING
The front seat passenger air bagis much larger than the steering
wheel air bag and inflates with
considerably more force. It can
seriously hurt or kill a passenger
who is not in the proper position
and wearing the safety belt prop-
erly. The front passengers should
always move their seat as far
back as practical and sit back in
their seat.
It is essential that the front pas- sengers always wear their safety
belts when vehicle is in motion,
even when the vehicle is moving
in a parking lot or up a driveway
into garage.
If the driver brakes the vehicle heavily prior to an impact, unbelt-
ed occupants will be thrown for-
ward. If the front passenger is not
wearing the safety belts, they will
be directly in front of the air bags
when deployment occurs. In that
situation, serious injury or death
is possible.
(Continued)
(Continued)
Never allow front passenger toput their hands, feet or face on or
close to the instrument panel. In
the event of air bag deployment,
such a mispositioned occupant
would be likely to suffer severe
injury or death.
Never allow children/old and fee- ble persons/pregnant women to
sit on the front passenger’s seat.
They may be seriously injured by
the air bag inflation when air bag
deploys.
Do not put objects or stickers on the instrument panel. Do not
apply any accessory to the front
windshield. Do not install after-
market mirrors or accessories on
the factory-installed rearview mir-
ror. Any of these could interfere
with the deployment of the air bag
or could hit your body at high
speed and cause severe bodily
injury and even death.
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Knowing your vehicle58
3 The curtain air bag deployment occurs
only on the side of the vehicle affected
by the impact.
The curtain air bags are not designed to deploy during collisions from the
front or rear of the vehicle or in most
rollover situations.
The curtain air bags are designed to deploy only during certain side-impact
collisions, depending on the crash
severity, angle, speed and impact.
(Continued)
Do not allow the passengers tolean their heads or bodies onto
doors, put their arms on the
doors, stretch their arms out of
the window, or place objects
between the doors and passen-
gers when they are seated on the
seats where curtain air bags are
equipped.
Never try to open or repair any components of the curtain air bag
system. This should be done only
by an authorized Kia dealer.
Failure to follow the above men-
tioned instructions can result in
severe injury or death to the vehicle
occupants in an accident.
WARNING
In order for the curtain air bags to provide its best protection, both
front seat occupants and both
outboard rear occupants should
sit in an upright position with the
safety belts properly fastened.
When children are seated in the rear outboard seats, they must be
seated in the proper child
restraint system. Make sure to put
the child restraint system as far
away from the door side as possi-
ble, and secure the child restraint
system in position.
(Continued)

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Knowing your vehicle
Why didn’t my air bag go off in a
collision? (Inflation and non-inflation conditionsof the air bag)There are many types of accidents in
which the air bag would not be expected
to provide additional protection.
These include rear impacts, second or
third collisions in multiple impact acci-
dents, as well as low speed impacts. In
other words, just because your vehicle is
damaged and even if it is totally unus-
able, don’t be surprised that the air bags
did not inflate.
Air bag collision sensors(1) SRS control module
(2) Front impact sensor
(3) Side impact sensor
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Knowing your vehicle60
3
WARNING
Do not hit or allow any objects to
impact the locations where air
bag or sensors are installed.
This may cause unexpected air
bag deployment, which could
result in severe personal injury or
death.
If the installation location or angle of the sensors is altered in
any way, the air bags may deploy
when they should not or they may
not deploy when they should,
causing severe injury or death.
Therefore, do not try to perform
maintenance on or around the air
bag sensors. Have the vehicle
checked and repaired by the
authorized Kia dealer.
Problems may arise if the sensor installation angles are changed
due to the deformation of front
bumper, body or B pillar where
side collision sensors are
installed. Have the vehicle
checked and repaired by the
authorized Kia dealer.
(Continued)
(Continued)
Your vehicle has been designedto absorb impact and deploy the
air bag(s) in certain collisions.
Installing aftermarket bumper
guards or replacing a bumper
with non-genuine parts may
adversely affect your vehicles
collision and air bag deployment
performance.
Air bag inflation conditionFront air bag
Front air bags (driver’s and front passen-
ger’s air bags and driver’s knee air bag)
are designed to inflate when the impact
is delivered to front collision sensors
depending on the intensity, speed or
angles of impact of the front collision -
generally from an area a little to the left to
a little to the right of straight ahead.
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Knowing your vehicle
Curtain air bag
Curtain air bags are designed to inflate
when the impact signal is delivered to the
side collision sensors, depending on the
severity, speed, and/or angle of the
impact or rollover.Although the front air bags (driver’s and
front passenger’s air bags and driver’s
knee air bag) are designed to inflate only
in frontal collision, it may inflate in any
collision if front impact sensors detect a
sufficient impact.
Curtain air bags are designed to inflate
only in side impact collision, but may
inflate in any collision if side impact sen-
sors detect a sufficient impact.
If the vehicle chassis is impacted by
bumps or objects on unimproved roads
or sidewalks, air bags may deploy. Drive
carefully on unimproved roads or on sur-
faces not designed for vehicle traffic to
prevent unintended air bag deployment.
To protect occupants, front air bags and
pre-tensioner safety belts may deploy in
certain side impact collisions.
Air bag non-inflation conditions In collisions, the vehicle safety belts
are sufficient to protect the vehicle
occupants and the air bags may not
deploy. In some cases, deploying air
bags in low-speed collisions can cause
a secondary impact to the occupants
(light abrasions, cuts, burns, etc.), or
loss of vehicle control.
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Knowing your vehicle62
3 Air bags may not inflate in rear colli-
sions, because occupants are moved
backward by the force of the impact. In
this case, the air bags do not provide
protection. Front air bags may not inflate in side
impact collision, because occupants
move to the direction of the collision,
and thus front air bag deployment does
not provide proper protection.
However, curtain air bags may inflate
depending on the intensity, vehicle
speed and angles of impact. In a slant impact or collision, the force
delivered will be relatively weaker than
that of frontal or side collision. So, the
air bags may not inflate.
1VQA2087
OVQ036018N
1VQA2089