Drive Notes: 2024 Kia Telluride SX-Prestige X-Line

by Tim Healey

Published: April 15th, 2024

drive notes 2024 kia telluride sx prestige x line

Last week I wheeled a 2024 Kia Telluride SX-Prestige X-Line around town. I have thoughts, and here they are, in bullet-point form.

As a reminder, this Kia has a 3.8-liter V6 that makes 291horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque, plus an eight-speed automatic transmission.

It's also quite big and boxy.

Pros

The steering, while a bit too artificially heavy, feels pretty well dialed-in for a large three-row crossover.
This thing is comfortable. Nice seats, lots of room.
Kia's infotainment system is generally pretty good.
The interior still has plenty of old-school knobs and buttons.
For being such a boring box, the Telluride still manages to look stylish.

Cons

It's ponderous. Not slow, per se, but you feel the size.
Fuel economy is predictably dismal.
That name is a mouthful.
It's easy to lose this thing in a parking lot full of similar-looking large crossovers.

Hyundai's Palisade is the more stylish of the two siblings, but the Telluride is generally a pleasant pal to live with. Just prepare a large enough budget for fuel.

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.

#CarReviews #DriveNotes #Kia #KiaTelluride #2024KiaTelluride #Telluride #Newcars

Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

Join the conversation

4 of 39 comments

Chiefmonkey on Apr 16, 2024

Did these have the same security/theft problem that other Kias have? lol

Like Reply
- See 1 previous
- Analoggrotto on Apr 17, 2024
  
  These are premium luxury vehicles for the affluent, so no.
  
  Like
- MaintenanceCosts on Apr 17, 2024
  
  No, these have always had immobilizers. But Kia Boyz aren't very smart, so they still break into these more than you would expect with other brands, and insurance premiums will reflect that.
  
  1
Chiefmonkey on Apr 17, 2024

"These are premium luxury vehicles for the affluent"
I wouldn't go that far...

Like Reply

Recent Comments

MaintenanceCosts This is refreshing. Excess car storage which brainless local zoning rules forced the builders of this mall to include, but which normally sits empty, is actually being used for car storage!
MaintenanceCosts Nice car if you can get it properly sorted, but the level of safety tech doesn't seem quite enough for a young driver on today's brodozer-infested highways.
VoGhost OK. But if Subaru really wants this to sell, they'd make it as a PHEV with enough American content to get buyers $7,500 back on their federal taxes. Otherwise, this really doesn't stand out in a world of RAV4s and CR-Vs.
VoGhost Tesla has an average of 28 days of inventory, less than half industry average.
FreedMike Ah, Chesterfield Mall...my old teenage stomping grounds. Bummer what happened to it, that's for sure. But that's what happens when the city council approves not one, but two "premium" outlet malls right down the road to be built. That killed this mall dead.And in case anyone's interested...yes, Teslas and other EVs are very popular in that neighborhood.