It’s challenging to write a review on vehicles that are competent, but lack edge. Case in point: the Kia Sorento X-Line SX Prestige AWD. It’s a solid crossover SUV with no real flaws. But it lacks “fizz.” It lacks that special spark that hooks us as drivers. What it lacks, in other words, is a story. But just because a car has a story, it doesn’t mean it’s good. And this Sorento is good. And that’s good enough.

Now in its second year on the market, the fourth-gen Sorento is just sort of… there. The Sorento used to be Kia’s flagship SUV, before Kia bestowed that honor upon the Telluride, and the two SUVs still play in the same space. Both are large, three-row SUVs that promise a life of off-road adventure and comfort. The Telluride offers a V6 compared to the Sorento’s turbocharged four banger, with the Telluride offering a 10-horsepower advantage. And spec for spec, the two SUVs carry a similar MSRP, too.

But only the Telluride is the media darling, and we don’t fully understand why. The Sorento may not be the most radical-looking crossover out there, but it is attractive. It is, oddly, one of the few press cars we had where we had random dudes (and they were all middle-aged dudes) approach us to tell us how stoked they were on the thing.

Our Sorento was equipped with the X-Line package, which raises ride height by 1 inch, boasts improved approach/departure angles, has an advanced AWD snow mode (which is useless in Los Angeles) and features a beefier roof rack. Technically, it gets more “aggressive” front and rear bumpers, but unless you knew what to look for, this package doesn’t make the Sorento X-Line look any brawnier than a base-level FWD version.

This Sorento’s cabin isn’t revolutionary, either, but it is an incredibly nice, quiet place to be. Fit and finish is fantastic, with high-grade materials used throughout. Sure, the open-pore wood and metal accents may not be genuine, but at least here they’re a more-than-passable facsimile. Primary seating areas are trimmed in diamond-stitch leather, including the second-row captain’s chairs. Front seats are heated and cooled, the second-row seats are heated, and while the third-row seating is pretty basic, it does offer a power fold-down feature.

Kia’s Sorento X-Line SX Prestige AWD offers a lot of tech, too, including a 10.25-inch high-res touchscreen display, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, and. USB charging ports for every seat. Best of all, most major comfort features are controlled via actual buttons and switches, which in our minds, make for a safer drive.

Mechanically, the Sorento is no slouch. It’s turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder is rated at 281 horsepower and 311 lb-ft of torque. It gets an 8-speed wet-type DCT. And as the first paragraph suggests, this top-of-the-line version gets AWD. There’s no performance story to speak of, but power feels adequate, even when the SUV is loaded with people. Its transmission is smooth, as is the ride quality. And the steering and brakes are as accurate as anything else in this segment. Again, nothing revolutionary, but it all gets the job done.

And when you’re buying a vehicle like this, that's essentially what you want: something that will get the job done. So in that respect, the Sorento shines. Where the Sorento shines even brighter is its price. MSRP for this fully loaded, top-of-the-line example is just $45,120. And that price gets you everything, from advanced driver-assist technologies to a 360-view monitor to a high-end Bose system.

Of course, at the time of this writing, Kia dealers are in the news for ruining the brand via extreme price gouging and requiring credit checks for test drives. So if you like the Sorento, maybe wait until 2023 to buy one. By then, things should hopefully settle, and you’ll perhaps have a buying experience that, like the Sorento, could be best described as “good enough.”