When you hear the name Telluride, you undoubtedly think of the mountain town in Colorado. I’m a film junkie so the first thing I think of is the world renowned film festival that takes place in Tulleride: the Telluride Film Festival. So, bear with me because there will be a plethora of film references in this review.
The 2020 Kia Telluride appeared on my radar with all the mystique and elegance a French art film. It was 2018 and I knew Kia had a mid-sized SUV on the horizon but the first time I actually laid eyes on one was at the Texas Auto Show at the State Fair of Texas. The model on display was a prototype, a beautiful model especially crafted for Texas. It had leather straps, buckles attaching the hood to the body and a leather wrapped spare tire at the rear. It looked rugged and chic, ready to go on a safari like Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. But it was a prototype, a tantalizing trailer to the feature presentation that would be the 2020 Kia Telluride.
Now the Kia Telluride has “premiered” on Kia dealership showrooms around the world and I’ve had an opportunity to experience it first hand. Like a well-conceived, superbly written Academy Award worthy movie, the 2020 Telluride is everything I was hoping for and more.
The IMAX of KIAs
Imax films, with their enormous screen size and booming sound, can engage the senses with an intensity greater than your average movie screens. The same can be said about the Telluride. It’s the Korean company’s largest vehicle to date and designed specifically for the U.S. market, which means big and bold are key words used to describe it. Like a James Cameron movie, it pulls out all the punches, excelling at design, functionality, comfort, cargo space, and – most importantly – drivability.
The Telluride’s style is refined in ways that feel like it’s already had generations to perfect. It’s a handsome vehicle and while its technically a mid-sized SUV it feels more like “the perfect size.” There’s just enough “chunkiness” to the exterior design to create a respectable aggressiveness but it slims down where it needs to. Step back and check out the Telluride from the side and you’ll see a leaner SUV than what the front or back profiles offer. Even so I love the extra wide grill up front and the tall, pillar tail lights in the back. And the name badging above the grill is the perfect touch.
The inside of this beast is cavernous. You’ll usually only find this much space in large trucks. Plenty of head and leg room in all rows, including the often dreaded third row. While butt space is limited in comparison to the first and second rows, this third row has a generous amount of leg and head room making it tolerable for most adults. Zoë’s car seat, of course, fit nicely into the second row and still left me plenty of room to recline the front row seats. Note: you can opt for either a three-seat second row bench or two captain’s chairs that offer slim space to enter the third room in between them.
While not mind-blowing, cargo space is as generous as you’d expect in a vehicle as big as the Telluride. 21 cubic feet of space in the cargo area may not seem cavernous but as you can see in the photo below, it was enough to for a weekend trip to Austin. Notice that I was even able to squeeze in Zoe’s fold-able playpen. With the two row of seats down, the cargo area expands to 46 cubic feet of space. Fold down both the third row and the second row and the Telluride offers a whopping 87 cubic feet of space.
Going to a drive-in movie? This would be the vehicle to go in. Up front, there is more than enough room to stretch out and the wide windshield provides ample viewing. The layout of the dash is simplistic but elongated to match the Telluride’s wide stance and it classy. A faux wood grain applied to the dash and door design give the impression of sophistication and thankfully all the materials are smooth to the touch. Heck, even the extra, “wide-screen” infotainment screen that sits high up on the dash can make the interior of the Telluride feel cinematic.
“Float like a Cadillac, sting like a Beemer”
That quote is from the Disney/Pixar movie Cars; I was showing clips of it to Zoë one day and I overheard it. At the time I thought I knew what it meant but in the Kia Telluride, it took on a bit of a different meaning. The Telluride delivers an extremely comfortable ride – almost too comfortable sometimes – but when it needs to, there is adequate performance under the hood to tackle most day to day driving experiences. Float like a caddy, sting like a Beemer.
What do I mean by too comfortable? The Telluride is designed for a cushiony experience and factors like large tires and an enhanced suspension assist in this regard. Most times, I enjoyed this experience but a few brief moments while I was testing driving left me wanting more of a connection with the road. Handling is certainly on point but all the background digital activity at work while the the Telluride is in what it calls “smart mode” can overcompensate just a tad. This assistance is a step in the right direction for some drivers (a pretense for the automated future promised in Spielberg’s Minority Report where cars pretty much drove themselves) but being a lowly auto journalist I took notice and often switched driving mode to “Sport Mode” for the stiffer handling.
The Telluride comes with a 3.8-Liter V-6 engine that produces 291-horspower and 262-pound feet of torque; this is the flavor of engine that’s offer on every Telluride, not mater the trim level. This engine is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission that supplies power to either the front wheels or all four on the AWD version. There is enough power here to haul 7-8 passengers and cargo without much trouble but while this puppy looks like it could easily go off-road, I wouldn’t recommend anything too adventurous. I drove it around my father-in-law’s acres of grassy/muddy land in Austin during my review week and it performed confidently. I wouldn’t take it rock climbing though.
“I’m Just Here for the Gasoline.”
Mad Max said that, in “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.” I’m more of a Mad Max 1 kinda guy but it’s still a good quote and speaks to one of my only disappointments with the 2020 Telluride: the fuel economy. It’s not bad but it’s nothing to write home about either. The AWD version I tested gets 18 mpg city and 24 mpg highway; the front wheel version gets a slightly higher 20 mpg city and 26 mpg highway. I found that I got around 24 mpg on the highway but I never seemed to get above 18 mpg in the city; could be my driving style. Again, this fuel economy rating isn’t a deal breaker and it’s actually better than some mid-sized SUVs in this segment.
“I always say, the way a man treats his car is how he treats himself.”
It ironic and humorous that this line is from the movie “The Transporter” because when I think about it, that’s what I’ve become – a transporter of my daughter. As a Dad Driver, this quote has a double meaning now, because I tend to take more precaution in all aspects of my life, including how I drive and what I drive. So, as I become more safety conscious in my life then I expect the vehicle I drive be an extension of that philosophy. Good thing the KIA took safety seriously when designing the Telluride.
All trims of the Telluride come with popular driver-assistance technology like blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, lane-keeping assist, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and adaptive cruise control. Kia even includes a snazzy feature called Highway Driving Assist that reads road markings and can automatically change lanes when needed. I wasn’t brave enough to test this feature out because, like the emergency braking for pedestrian feature, it required me to put the Telluride in some extreme conditions. My mother always told me, “if it ain’t yours, don’t break it.”
I did, however, conduct a test which uses some of the technology behind Highway Driving Assist. While driving on a highway with clear road markings and clear of other vehicles, I switched adaptive cruise control on, set it to a safely moderate speed, and turned on active lane control just before I entered a portion of the highway that contained a few wide turns. I let go of the wheel and let the magic happen. The Telluride noticed the curve in the road, realized I had let go of the wheel, and adjusted so that a combination of brakes and handling worked together to actually turn the vehicle with the curve. The Telluride never left the lane and adjusted speed according to safe carry my vehicle through the curve safely. It felt like an autonomous driving experience and while these features are only meant to act as precautionary measures for a distracted driver, its still dope that the technology works so well.
“You care more about the car than you do about most people.”
This line from Thelma and Louise is actually partially true when it comes to the Kia Telluride. It’s a beautiful SUV in my opinion and there is so much to love about it that the positives far outweigh the negatives. Since it’s release, Kia sister company Hyundai has introduced the Palisade and it shares a lot in common with the Telluride – but it’s just not the same. The Telluride has a lot to offer, particular to a Dad Driver like me who wants sophistication, ruggedness, technology, abundant space and an overall pleasant driving experience, all rolled up into one vehicle. Does the Telluride have some shortfalls. Certainly but this is the inaugural year for the Telluride – the first screening, you might say – and with years to refine, there will be lots to lots to love in the sequels.
Phillip is a filmmaker, an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and craft beer aficionado. He writes about cars, car tech, and various other cool Dad things. He lives, works and plays in Dallas, Texas.
