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...

  • ToolGuy I recently purchased 12 ignition coils, but that covered two different vehicles.
  • 2ACL Getting nice car vibes, nonetheless, $29k feels ambitious. It's a decade old and a relatively common spec of a model that's gaining notoriety as repo fodder.
  • ToolGuy A lot of days I skip lunch if I am working.
  • 3-On-The-Tree I like my 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 better. Plus it gets 30 mpg on the highway.
  • El scotto Inside EVs? Like that's not biased not a bit. /s The US government just put a 100% tariff on Chines EV's. Do BYD's or other Chinese EVs even come close to meeting US crash regulations? My money would on an empty Amazon box instead. The car market has imploded. The big three were too greedy and thought everyone wanted top-spec trucks and suvs. Too bad not everyone could afford them. The EV market has imploded in magnitudes greater than the ice market. This is exactly the wrong time to enter the US EV market.In the end, the Chinese will help a lot of lawyers buy boats. The Chinese have no respect and do not recognize intellectual property. The Chinese copy of the Land Rover that was reported that manufacturers should be very afraid of? Naw, if the Chinese try to import that lawyers will be pushing wheelbarrows full of money.Then again, any country that is great at making athletic shoes in not, repeat not known for the quality of their vehicles.Or in five years we could all be ordering our new rides off Temu.
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