Neither is better than the other. They are both basically the same, but with different styling. To my eye, though the Santa Fe got the 2.2 R Type engine first, the Sorento is better looking. Avoid the automatics of either, though. The manuals are the ones to go for. (I previously recommended the 2006-2010 Sorento auto over the manual because the manual of that was so terrible with a huge gap between 2nd and 3rd.)