Elena Scherr: The 2020 Telluride is big news for Kia.
It's the brand's largest and most luxurious SUV to date.
The Telluride looks large and in charge.
But is it going to be a big success or a massive fail?
We're driving the Telluride to Telluride-- that's
in Colorado-- to find out.
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The Telluride is big and square, in a good way.
Kia's designers describe it as boxy on purpose,
saying that the sort of big square look
gives you more room on the inside,
and a kind of purposeful stability on the outside.
And I would have to agree.
I mean, this thing looks like it's ready to do some work.
The Telluride is based off of the Kia Sorento.
And in my opinion, everything that I
didn't love about the Sorento is fixed on the Telluride.
It's bigger.
It has more room on the inside.
It's more interesting on the inside.
It's more interesting on the outside.
It has these, like, fancy headlights and giant wheels.
I just think it looks cool.
When I reviewed the Kia Sorento I gave Kia a hard time
because I felt like the materials used
in the interior felt nice, but they were kind of boring.
It was like all the same color.
Well, you cannot accuse the Telluride of being boring.
It's like Kia heard me with their minds.
Because there's wood trim.
There's metal trim.
There's piano black.
There's leather covered materials.
There's soft plastics.
The steering wheel feels great.
And this headliner here, I just can't stop petting it.
I want to adopt it and give it a name.
Menus and controls are pretty easy to figure out
on the Kia's It's not like you've
to go digging in this screen to get
to like lane keep assist settings,
or something like that.
Like, you can just do it all from here.
Or even there's buttons right here on the left side.
All of that is reachable.
Although, I will complain, once again as a short person,
that I have to stretch to reach the controls on the far sides.
But, you know, hey, that's my problem.
Controls for the main stack are sort of divided up by theme.
So you've got all of your climate controls
running along the bottom here, including a heated steering
wheel.
Very snazzy.
And then you've got nav, and stereo system,
and stuff here in silver.
Kia uses this horizontally mounted 10 inch touchscreen
for the infotainment system.
And it's pretty cool.
Kind of unique.
There's a lot of space inside here.
You know, a lot of that has to do with the fact
that the console is kind of low and not all up in your arm
space here.
But there's plenty of storage in it, anyway.
It's not like you're missing that.
We've got two USBs.
And a 12 pull up here, as well as a charging pad for phones.
And then you've got cup holders.
They're a little bit small but, hey, cry me a river.
There is also another USB port in the console,
which can fit a cube of water.
The seats are incredibly comfortable for people
of various sizes.
Because I quizzed everyone, and we all agreed.
And not just in the front, in the back, too.
You can't talk about a three row SUV
unless you talk about the second and third rows.
So here we are in the second row.
Lots of room.
Very comfortable captain's chairs.
These are an option.
If you need to carry more people you could get the bench seat.
Then it becomes an eight passenger vehicle instead
of a seven passenger vehicle.
But if you don't have seven other friends,
you're OK with just carrying six people,
then you get the captain's chairs.
You can get them heated and cooled.
Either way the folks in the back have lots of space.
They have USB ports.
They have a 12 volt. And they have an AC plug.
Kia swears they tested these with child seats in them
and you can move them forward and get into the third row
without taking the child seat out.
Once again, I remind you, take the baby out
before you do that.
Let's see what the third row is like.
Hey, third row passengers, you've got plenty of space
back here.
And lots of light, too.
Especially if your parents sprung for the optional sunroof
here that goes all the way back.
But even if they were cheap and they didn't, you still
have your own windows on either side,
which is kind of a cool thing in a third row.
You've also got USB ports, and cup holders, and vents.
Also, ooh, I know I keep ragging on the Sorento,
but I was annoyed at it because I got stuck in the third row
when we were doing that video, look what you can do here.
Nobody has to let you out.
You can do it all by yourself.
While I'm sitting back here let me tell you
about one more safety feature that Kia has on the Telluride
that really seems family specific.
It uses the cameras that would normally
check for like rear cross traffic, and backup camera,
and stuff, to see if there's traffic
coming when you're parked.
And if it senses that a car or even a bicycle
is coming up fast on the driver's side
it automatically locks that door so that none of your passengers
step right out into the path of traffic.
Not only does the Telluride have plenty of room for the people
that are in it, but there's room for all of the gear
that you might want to bring as well.
With the third row up you can still
fit your groceries or a couple of suitcases behind.
And if you start putting things down you've got 87 cubic feet.
You can fit a lot in 87 cubic feet.
You're sold.
Right?
You're like rushing out to order one.
Well, let me tell you what they cost.
There are four different trim levels,
and the base starts at about $31,000.
If you get the top of the line like we're in,
that's the SX all wheel drive, you're
going to spend about $46,000.
Um, it's a hefty price, but you get a lot for the money.
And if you go in and you kind of find
the trim level and the options that are right for you,
I think this could be a really good deal.
So everyone's been talking about the Telluride.
I mean, by everyone I mean people
who are interested in buying three row SUVs
and everyone in the automotive industry,
have all been talking about the Telluride
since we saw the concept way back in 2016.
Because it surprised everyone.
It was so stylish.
And it was like big and blocky when
everything else is going to this kind of smooth lozenges shape.
And it looks like a truck, but it drives like a car.
It's actually a mid-sized crossover.
It's front wheel drive.
We're in the optional all wheel drive version.
It drives really nicely.
It's very quiet inside, which I was a little surprised about
because it has a fairly large engine.
It's a 3.8 liter V6.
And a lot of times the big engines
are noisier, especially when they're naturally aspirated,
as this one is.
Makes 291 horsepower.
And we've been driving it around in the mountains of Colorado,
and it hasn't been a problem.
We've been able to pass even on uphill sections.
There's almost no wind noise.
And again, we're in the mountains, and it's windy.
And the ride on the road is very quiet as well.
There's very little tire noise.
There's very little road vibration.
So I would say in terms of ride quality, like both thumbs up.
You'll have to imagine that, because I
don't want to take both hands off the wheel.
The 3.8 in the Telluride is backed
by an eight speed automatic transmission.
And it does a pretty good job.
You don't really notice that it's there.
A couple of times on some of the steeper uphill sections I felt
it drop down a couple of gears sort of looking for the right
place to be.
But it's very unobtrusive most of the time.
There are five different driving modes.
Sort of the normal stuff, a sportier one, and an eco one,
and one for driving around in bad weather.
And if you have the all wheel drive version
there's like an all wheel drive lock.
So not a locking differential exactly,
like an electronic lock.
They Kia engineers mentioned that they did a lot of work
in this car to make visibility good not just for the driver,
but for the passengers as well.
And I would say for the most part they achieved that.
The pillars up here are very thin.
The pillars in the back are very thin.
And if you're sitting in the third row
you have a full window.
A lot of times in three row SUVs the poor kids in the back
are like basically looking at solid wall.
And that is not the case in the Telluride.
Visibility is important in a car because, you know,
it's more enjoyable, obviously.
And also, it makes you a safer driver,
because you can see more.
Safety is pretty important to Kia,
and so they have a lot of safety things
that are optional in some cars, standard in the Telluride.
And that includes even some kind of high-techie, stuff
like adoptive cruise control.
So far I've been driving the Telluride
for, I don't know, maybe two hours, something like that.
And I really like these seats.
They're very comfortable.
I feel like I have enough room, but not
so much room that I'm sliding around, even
on the twisty roads.
And our videographer, who is much taller than me,
he said that they were comfortable for him as well.
So that's a win.
There's obviously plenty of headroom for me,
even lifted up in the seat.
And that headroom kind of applies all the way back.
One of the benefits of having sort of a big, boxy shape
is you have all that interior of the box to fill up
with people and stuff.
Big car, big success.
The Telluride is comfortable, quiet, and capable.
It looks like a brawler, but it's really a total sweetheart.
Not just the other mid-sized competitors,
but the bigger SUVs too, better up their game.
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