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

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

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.

[Images © 2024 Tim Healey/TTAC.com]

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Tim Healey
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.

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4 of 39 comments
  • Chiefmonkey Chiefmonkey on Apr 16, 2024

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

    • See 1 previous
    • MaintenanceCosts 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.



  • Chiefmonkey Chiefmonkey on Apr 17, 2024

    "These are premium luxury vehicles for the affluent"

    I wouldn't go that far...

  • Tane94 Blue Mini, love Minis because it's total custom ordering and the S has the BMW turbo engine.
  • AZFelix What could possibly go wrong with putting your life in the robotic hands of precision crafted and expertly programmed machinery?
  • Orange260z I'm facing the "tire aging out" issue as well - the Conti ECS on my 911 have 2017 date codes but have lots (likely >70%) tread remaining. The tires have spent quite little time in the sun, as the car has become a garage queen and has likely had ~10K kms put on in the last 5 years. I did notice that they were getting harder last year, as the car pushes more in corners and the back end breaks loose under heavy acceleration. I'll have to do a careful inspection for cracks when I get the car out for the summer in the coming weeks.
  • VoGhost Interesting comments. Back in reality, AV is already here, and the experience to date has been that AV is far safer than most drivers. But I guess your "news" didn't tell you that, for some reason.
  • Doc423 Come try to take it, Pal. Environmental Whacko.
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