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    2021 Kia Telluride review: One of the best SUVs you can buy

    The Telluride is our choose for one of the best three-row SUV in its class.
    Craig Cole/Roadshow

    In a world teeming with SUVs of all shapes, sizes and types, the 2021 Kia Telluride is an automotive all-star. With driving refinement and inside appointments that would not be misplaced in a luxurious automotive, good-looking styling and loads of versatility, this three-row hauler is definitely one of many section’s greatest.

    LikeLuxurious automotive appointmentsGreat driving refinement refinementSpacious cabin

    Don’t LikeIneffective lane-keeping assistObviously faux wooden trim

    With a welcoming entrance finish, curt bottom and stylish flanks accentuated by curiously stepped brightwork surrounding the aspect glass, Kia’s Telluride SUV is significantly engaging. To my eyes, it’s miles prettier than its sibling, the equally compelling if extra curiously styled Hyundai Palisade.Increasing its curb attraction (in case you embrace the darkness, that’s), my top-of-the-line SX-trim tester is fitted with the $1,295 Nightfall Edition look bundle, an choices group that is out there on a number of fashions. As its identify suggests, the Nightfall will get a lot of blacked-out components, together with 20-inch wheels, roof rails, skid plates, emblems and the grille, in addition to some barely darker greenhouse trim. Overall, the look is engaging if a bit too monochromatic for my style.

    What is true up my alley, nonetheless, is the Telluride’s attractive inside. From the supplies and textures to the format and construct high quality, the whole lot’s top-notch — the phony wooden trim being the one exception. The premium graining on the gentle plastics is beautiful, the buttons and switches really feel strong and function with Mercedes-Benz-like slickness and all of the controls are straightforward to succeed in and use, which means there is not any fumbling round to determine the way you interact the auto brake-hold function or decrease the fan pace. My tester can also be fitted with the $2,300 SX Prestige bundle, which brings goodies like a head-up show, Nappa leather-based seating surfaces, heated and ventilated second-row seats, rain-sensing windshield wipers and extra to the desk, serving to make an already upscale automobile really feel much more premium.The Telluride earns excessive marks for its total consolation, too. While its entrance seats may use extra contouring to be really coddling for long-haul drives, they’re nonetheless good. The second-row buckets in my tester are road-trip accepted, nonetheless, adjusting in a number of instructions, offering wonderful consolation for grownup passengers because of their elevated decrease cushions and being hospitable in all seasons, courtesy of the aforementioned heating and air flow features. Ensuring everybody’s cell units stay absolutely juiced, this Telluride has two USB type-A retailers within the sides of the entrance seatbacks in addition to a 12-volt socket and a 110-volt family outlet on the backside of the middle console. There are even a pair USB ports servicing the third row. No, you’ll be able to’t get a correct rear-seat leisure system, however Kia tells me one is within the works.

    The inside is properly designed and opulent.
    Craig Cole/Roadshow
    Providing easy accessibility to the Telluride’s again bench, these second-row buckets tilt and slide on the push of a button, leaving a pathway giant sufficient for limber adults to clamber by. Average-sized grownups must also be fairly comfy on this Kia’s third-row seat, which is sort of hospitable and presents respectable quantities of room for each legs and heads.

    If you could haul cargo as an alternative of simply passengers, the Telluride has you coated. With 21 cubic toes of house behind the third row, it presents extra room than the Honda Pilot, Ford Explorer or Toyota Highlander. Space behind the second- and first-row seats could be very related for all 4 of those automobiles, although the Explorer does have a miniscule benefit in complete cargo room. Fold all its seats down and the Telluride presents a powerful 87 cubic toes of junk-hauling house.Next up, let’s discuss tech. Advanced driving aids like rear parking sensors, adaptive cruise management with stop-and-go performance and rear cross-traffic alert are all customary throughout the Telluride vary. Lane-keeping help is included, too, nevertheless it’s just about ineffective, doing virtually nothing to maintain this Kia from wandering like a vagabond.These 20-inch wheels are a part of a brand new Nightfall look bundle.
    Craig Cole/Roadshow
    On the infotainment entrance, lesser fashions function an 8-inch dashboard touchscreen, although my SX tester has a beneficiant 10.2-inch show that is each shiny and simple to succeed in. Kia’s newest infotainment system is not essentially my favourite providing, although it is nonetheless wonderful, easy to make use of and responsive. Zooming in or out on the navigation map and swiping by menus is speedy and easy. No matter the variant, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included with each Telluride.Putting all of it in movement, only one drivetrain is obtainable on this three-row hauler. The Telluride makes use of a 3.8-liter gasoline-burning V6 that delivers 291 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque. Smooth and hushed, this engine is matched solely to an ivy-league clever eight-speed computerized transmission. Seriously good, this gearbox is as near good as you will ever discover in a mass-market automobile, being quick-witted, silky easy and wanting to downshift whilst you gently squeeze the accelerator pedal to name up a bit extra pace.This Kia is not any featherweight, clocking in at 4,482 kilos, however the efficiency it offers is sort of spectacular, not less than when empty and with no trailer in tow. Driven usually, the Telluride has no bother maintaining with site visitors or overtaking dawdling Sunday drivers. Nail the accelerator and it scoots, the engine ramping up shortly, aided by that ever-resourceful transmission. Hauling a full load up the aspect of a desert mountain within the warmth of July is perhaps a difficulty, however pushed on flatlands with none passengers or baggage, the Telluride delivers wonderful efficiency.Even absolutely loaded, the Telluride is a good worth.
    Craig Cole/Roadshow
    Like any SUV value its salt, all-wheel drive is offered, a function that is non-obligatory throughout your complete Telluride vary. As you’d count on, it does degrade gasoline financial system, however solely by a pair miles per gallon. This instance is fitted with the traction-enhancing function and it is rated at 19 mpg metropolis, 24 mpg on the freeway and 21 mpg mixed. In combined driving, I’ve averaged 21.1 mpg in response to the journey pc, a better-than-expected determine given how liberal I used to be with the accelerator pedal.As for trip high quality, it is as supple and refined as this Kia’s upscale inside, which additionally stays unnervingly hushed, even at freeway speeds. The Telluride shrugs off giant bumps with ease whereas smaller imperfections are virtually utterly filtered out. This SUV’s dealing with is benign and predictable, however nothing to sing about. The Telluride is nicer and higher designed than in all probability any of its main rivals, and in sure methods, it seems like a step above some so-called luxurious automobiles. And what’s extra exceptional than all that’s the pricing. Including $1,170 in vacation spot charges, a base LX mannequin begins at 33 grand and alter, although my properly outfitted SX all-wheel-drive tester checks out for $50,180, although that also seems like a cut price. In brief, Kia completely nailed it with the Telluride.

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