It's interesting. This year I'd say this was a fairly obvious pick, along with the C8 in the sports car category. Fairly universal praise, pretty upsetting to the established market, both could have been executed far worse and in that way I think far exceeded expectations.
It's important to emphasize that it offers more than just a lot of equipment and features for the money.But this award is the deserved recognition that today's Korean auto industry has evolved to possess the skill and talent to design, engineer, and manufacture world-class vehicles—ones able to best their mainstream Japanese, European, and American rivals in terms of style, dynamics, refinement, and build quality.
Manufactured in West Point, Georgia, the Telluride is a Kia built in America for Americans: a comfortable and roomy three-row SUV that's perfectly pitched at the heart of a highly competitive segment that includes products from Chevy, Dodge, and Ford, as well as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and Volkswagen.
They liked the exterior. They also liked the interior.As expected of a Kia, the Telluride is a terrific value, offering lavish levels of standard equipment even in the $32,785 base model. And when you load it up to its as-tested $46,910 price, it absolutely deflates its mass-market competition.
But value is only one element of what makes the Telluride our 2020 Sport Utility of the Year. Our exhaustive judging process, in which each contender is evaluated in the context of our six key criteria, means the winning vehicle must be a well-rounded product, regardless of its functional focus.
So although its price makes the headlines, what helped the Kia Telluride garner seven first-place votes from our 11 judges is that it's anything but bargain basement in the way it looks, the way it drives, and the way it effortlessly copes with the modern American family's needs.
"Pleasing overall design, with nicely executed linework and surfacing," guest judge and former Chrysler design chief Tom Gale said during his design walkaround.
"One of the very few three-row crossovers that I actually like driving," features editor Christian Seabaugh said after he pushed the Telluride around our SUVOTY proving ground's challenging winding road.
The interior is just as confident and as sophisticated as the exterior. Again, even the base LX trim's interior looks well equipped and well finished. As for the range-topping SX: "I keep looking around the cabin and reminding myself this SUV costs only 47 grand," executive editor Mark Rechtin said after he climbed into our tester's Dune Brown Nappa leather-trimmed interior. "It feels like a rustic-modernist house of a millionaire rancher."
The interior not only looks good but is also practical and usable. Although the third row is for teenagers, adults will fit, and smartly located seat-fold buttons and grab handles to get in and out of the rear doors offer better functionality than the comparably sized Mercedes and BMW SUVs. Then there's the detail stuff, like both the second and third rows getting their own USB ports to keep all the family's devices happily charged and functioning.
"Kia shames many luxury automakers offering vehicles costing twice as much," Seabaugh said. "Fit and finish are superb, materials are excellent, and the color mixture is wonderful."
Although the V-6 engine could use a little more than its 262 lb-ft of torque in the 4,460-pound SX AWD model, the fully loaded Telluride is still quicker to 60 mph and over the quarter mile than an entry-level Mercedes-Benz GLE 350 4Matic, which costs $10,000 more without options. What's more, the Telluride also comfortably punches above its price point in terms of ride, refinement, and low noise levels.
And while most behemoth SUVs must sacrifice steering and handling for comfort, "It drives so much smaller than it is," Seabaugh said. "It feels like a good two-row crossover, with crisp turn-in and feel for the segment, excellent ride quality, and great body control." Its suspension is just a tad bouncy, but gusting crosswinds hardly fazed the Telluride when driving at 100 mph on our high-speed oval.
But it was on the gnarly, grainy, chattery, chunky surfaces on our 28-mile test loop outside Tehachapi where the big Kia really impressed the judges. Editor-in-chief Ed Loh praised its "exceptional quietness and smoothness," and de Nysschen noted that "suspension compliance and ride comfort are its strengths."
Unlike many competitors, it's a good buy up and down the trim range. That's also impressive.A rotary controller on the center console—which also allows drivers to switch between Eco, Comfort, Sport, and Smart modes, the latter of which lets the onboard computers figure out the best combination of efficiency and response—has a Snow mode, which adjusts throttle, transmission, and traction control settings to suit low-friction surfaces. A button in the center of the controller locks the center differential for ultimate traction in challenging conditions. Driven with due regard to its 8.0 inches of ground clearance, 17.0-degree approach and 20.9-degree departure angles, and 114.2-inch wheelbase, the Telluride will comfortably cope with bad roads and worse weather.
In summary:The base Telluride LX has an MSRP of $32,785. For that you get 18-inch alloy wheels and a ton of equipment—ranging from niceties like air conditioning and a leather-bound steering wheel to Kia's 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android-compatible UVO infotainment system interface and five USB charge ports. And, as mentioned, the price includes a full suite of active safety technologies and driver assistance aids. Plus, there's room aboard for six sprawling passengers (it'll fit eight, in a pinch), with a 60/40 split-folding second row and a reclining third row that provides ample room for three preteen children.
Senior production editor Zach Gale noted approvingly that even the base LX model came with the same powertrain and many of the features, such as the powered second row, as the range-topping SX: "What I really like about this SUV is how much of its experience isn't tied to the loaded trim."
The base Kia Telluride is a terrific value as a family vehicle. But so is upgrading to the $42,585 Telluride SX. Standard equipment includes 20-inch wheels, a thunderous Harman Kardon surround sound audio system, dual sunroofs, and a 12-way adjustable driver's seat with memory.
Add just three key options—all-wheel drive ($2,000); the towing package ($795), which adds self-leveling rear suspension; and the SX Prestige package ($2,000), which includes a head-up display, heated and ventilated second-row seats, and the soft Nappa leather trim—and it's an impressively smooth and quiet, lavishly equipped, and beautifully finished SUV that puts even ritzy rides like the standard-wheelbase Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator on notice. All for $47,380.
Or, as Loh put it: "A handsome SUV, loaded with the goodies families want (and want to show off), for a WTF price."
I'm sorry, I don't know how you could hate on this thing. It's really nice. Look at the 2nd row legroom!"It just does everything right," features editor Scott Evans said. "It's quiet, comfortable, smooth, stylish, and affordable. What more could you ask for?"
That's the real genius of our 2020 SUV of the Year. A great mass-market, mid-price family SUV like the Kia Telluride is a very, very hard product to execute. We'll posit that it's harder, in fact, than making a good luxury SUV—where the price premium afforded by the badge gives designers and engineers more spending headroom on equipment and tech that improve performance and refinement, along with perceived quality and luxury.
In an era when consumer behavior is influenced by an unremitting cycle of social media show and tell, buyers of affordable mainstream vehicles want to feel special. They want to feel they are getting a vehicle that has premium levels of style and quality, features and technology, and refinement and dynamic capability without paying a premium price. And with the Telluride, Kia's designers and engineers have delivered an SUV that does exactly that.
And remember. They all have the same engine. There is no balls-slow 4 cylinder or something, thankfully. And as mentioned above, even the models in the 30s offer tremendous value. Maybe they'll update the engine at some point. It seems like the only thing that would hold me back from a theoretical purchase.
The high trim w/ AWD runs 15.4 sec @ 90.5 mph or 0-60 in 7.2. It turns out that it is the perfect amount of performance for normal people. I'd want more though because this is slower than our (~12 year old) SRX. It is also very similar to a 90s B-body wagon w/ LT1.