2021 Kia Telluride Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Kia sells the 2021 Telluride in four trim levels in Canada, each with standard all-wheel drive (AWD): EX, SX, SX Limited, and SX Limited Nightsky Edition. Base pricing ranges from MSRPs of $46,195 to $55,695, not including destination charges of $1,895. A front-wheel drive (FWD) drivetrain is not offered.

While we think the Telluride EX provides significant value, many people choose the top-of-the-line Kia Telluride SX Limited trim, which feels more like a luxury SUV at a mainstream price. It adds premium stitched Nappa leather, a simulated suede headliner, a head-up display (HUD), and heated and ventilated front- and second-row seats.

A SX Limited Nightsky Edition is new for 2021. In addition to gloss black 20-inch aluminum wheels in a specific design, it gives the Telluride the popular blacked-out look, including a unique grille insert with a different texture. Our test vehicle is the U.S. equivalent of this grade, and along with a towing hitch, carpeted floor mats, and a carpeted cargo and seatback mat, the sticker price in Canada would come to $58,988 all in.

Most of the time, styling is what sells any vehicle, and the 2021 Kia Telluride looks terrific, inside and out. Nary a line, detail, or proportion of the exterior styling deserves criticism, and aside from some glossy hard plastic on the lower parts of the interior, the interior is a model of contemporary design and quality execution.

As just one example, consider the transmission shifter. Placed to the left side of the centre console, it preserves precious storage space. And when the driver uses it, which is multiple times with every trip, it feels solid and smooth in terms of its operation, imparting a sense of quality every time the Telluride’s owner drives the SUV.

Unfortunately, if you want an interior colour other than black, you need to buy SX Limited trim to access light grey leather. But that and the inexpensive looking plastic are the only flaws in the Telluride’s look and feel.

Technically a crossover, the Kia Telluride is offered with a single powertrain. It’s a 3.8-litre V6 engine paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission, supplying 291 horsepower and 262 lb-ft of torque. Kia’s Drive Mode Select technology offers a choice between Snow, Eco, Comfort, Sport, and Smart driving modes.

The Telluride’s AWD system and it includes a low-speed Lock function that splits power evenly between the axles for maximum traction. Combined with the SUV’s 20.3 centimetres of ground clearance, this helps the Telluride cover low-grip ground ably.

When Kia introduced the all-new Telluride to the media in 2019, weather conditions included a wintry mix of snow and rain, turning trails into a soupy, muddy mess. Nevertheless, the Telluride successfully churned through the muck and, during sudden blizzard conditions, safely got us through the snowstorm.

This time around, we drove the Telluride in a suburb and on our usual testing route in the mountains. And we noticed something new about this Kia’s ride and handling. It nearly eliminates the phenomenon known as “head-toss.”

What is head-toss in a car? It’s that feeling that you’re getting tossed around while driving, and it is most noticeable with regard to how your head is moving in relationship to the vehicle. It’s caused primarily by lateral rocking motion as a vehicle travels over uneven pavement or trail surfaces. An SUV’s taller centre of gravity and ride height tend to amplify the effect.

Without getting too far into the engineering weeds, suspension tuning determines the degree to which head-toss is a problem. Kia appears to have found a solution without compromising handling.

Starting with a MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension design, Kia adds a self-leveling rear suspension to the SX Limited and Nightsky Edition trim levels to ensure proper ride and handling when the SUV is loaded with people, cargo, or a trailer. Tuning produces an expected firm and connected sensation at slower speeds. As velocity increases, the Telluride softens up and becomes more compliant, almost gliding over the road and soaking up the kinds of surface anomalies that often cause head-toss.

A byproduct of this tuning is greater body roll when taking curves and corners at speed, but the 20-inch wheels and tires available on most Telluride trims provide commendable grip. And though this isn’t a performance-oriented SUV, it can hustle down a twisty two-lane road in a calm, cool, and collected manner, in part thanks to brake-based Torque Vectoring Cornering Control technology.

As far as fuel efficiency goes, Natural Resources Canada says a Telluride should return 11.3 litres per 100 kilometres in combined driving. We averaged 11.5 L/100 km on our testing loop, which included switching between Smart and Sport driving modes.

Stylish and enjoyable to drive, the 2021 Kia Telluride also excels in its comfort and utility.

Equipped with both a power lumbar adjustment and a power-adjustable thigh support extension, the Telluride SX’s driver’s seat offers 12 different ways to find an optimal position behind the standard heated tilt/telescopic steering wheel. If you prefer to sit up high, the Telluride will oblige you, while offering a forward view over the SUV’s squared-off hood that is not unlike the sensation of driving a Range Rover.

Both of the test SUV’s front seats offered heating and ventilation, and the front passenger benefits from 6-way power adjustment. Kia stitches the supple leather upholstery in a distinctive pattern that is refreshingly different from the quilting many automakers have cribbed from Bentley. Acoustic sound-absorbing windshield and front-door glass help to quiet noise for the driver and front passenger, too.

Our test SUV had sliding second-row captain’s chairs, and Limited grades add heating and ventilation to both as standard features. Side-window sunshades provide privacy or protection from the sun’s rays for babies and smaller children, and an overhead climate control panel gives passengers in the rear seats separate control over their environment.

Like in the Hyundai Palisade, adults can actually use the Telluride’s third-row seat, though it’s not quite as accommodating as what you’ll find in a Volkswagen Atlas. With the test SUV, a button automatically tilts and slides the second-row seat out of the way, making it easy to access the third-row seat. Alternatively, there is a pass-through between the captain’s chairs. When it comes time to exit, the same button moves the seat out of the way, and robust grab handles on the roof pillars help you hoist yourself out.

Regardless of the seating assignment, Kia supplies storage for your stuff. The automaker clearly takes smartphone ubiquity into account, providing a bin forward of the cupholders that holds a phone in an angled position. Long and subtle trays between the door armrests and the panel also prove perfectly designed to hold the devices.

The second-row seating area is tailor-made for modern families, with airline-style USB ports and plastic grocery bag hooks embedded into the front seatbacks, separate smartphone storage pouches on the seatback pockets, and large cupholders sitting atop the trailing surface of the front centre console.

Around back, as long as you have the key fob with you, the Telluride’s standard “smart” hands-free power liftgate automatically rises after a few seconds. It senses the fob within a certain proximity and assumes that you want the liftgate to open if you’re standing near the back of the SUV.

The benefit of this approach is that you need not hop around on one foot while wildly waving the other one under the bumper in a futile effort to activate a sensor. After all, when your arms are full of things you’d rather not put down, any action that reduces your balance is unwise. And that’s doubly true in winter weather.

The detriment of this approach is that if you don’t want the liftgate to open, you need to remember not to stand near the back of the SUV. Fortunately, Kia provides a way to turn this feature on and off.

When the liftgate rises, it reveals 601 litres of cargo space behind the third-row seats. That sounds more generous than it looks, even when considering the storage area under the cargo floor.

Fold the third-row seats down, and the Telluride supplies 1,304 litres of cargo space. The maximum number is 2,455 litres, and our test vehicle had buttons in the cargo area that automatically folded the second-row captain’s chairs, making it simple and fast to maximize volume.

Every 2021 Telluride has Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and SiriusXM satellite radio. The standard touchscreen display measures 10.25 inches diagonally and integrates a navigation system, and other upgrades.

You can pair two smartphones to the Bluetooth connection at the same time, and wireless smartphone charging is standard. Additionally, the infotainment system is simple and easy to use thanks to menu shortcut buttons, stereo knobs, and intuitive touchscreen operation. The voice-recognition system isn’t as good as it should be, but it mostly succeeded in responding to our standard test prompts without requiring specific pathways and commands.

A 10-speaker Harman Kardon surround-sound system is standard with SX trim. The fancy speaker grilles add to the sense of luxury, but the merely good sound quality does not. This SUV deserves a high-end audio option.

The Limited grades add a head-up display to the Telluride, and it provides a wealth of information, including blind-spot notifications when it is unsafe to execute a lane change.

Part of the Telluride’s standard collection of advanced driving assistance systems, the blind-spot warning is just one of eight standard safety features that Kia installs on every version of this utility vehicle. Others include lane-maintenance technology with lane-keeping assistance, forward-collision avoidance with both pedestrian- and cyclist detection, rear cross-traffic alert, a driver-monitoring system, and, of course, automatic emergency braking.

Additional safety systems include the standard adaptive cruise control, the Rear Occupant Alert that reminds you to check for children or pets left in the back seat, as well as a Safe Exit Assist function. This uses the blind-spot warning system’s radar to indicate whether it is safe to open the doors after parallel parking on a busy street.

Exclusive features restricted to SX trim include handy front parking sensors, a surround-view camera system, and a Blind-Spot View Monitor. This is a camera-based blind-spot information system that supplements rather than replaces the standard radar-based blind-spot warning technology. When the driver signals a lane change, it shows a video feed of what is in each of the SUV’s blind spots on the 7-inch screen nestled into the instrumentation display.

As far as crash-tests are concerned, the 2021 Telluride earns a Top Safety Pick rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). In testing performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), four-star frontal-impact results for both the driver and front passenger mar the Telluride’s overall 5-star rating.

Kia Canada offers a 5-year/100,000-kilometre powertrain warranty, 5-year/100,000-kilometre bumper-to-bumper warranty, and 5-year/unlimited-kilometre roadside assistance plan.

Historically, however, Kias have not done an excellent job of holding their value over time, and the Telluride isn’t winning any resale value awards (yet). But if you choose a new family SUV based solely on what it will be worth in the future, you’ll end up in a Toyota Highlander or Honda Pilot, and wishing you’d gotten the Telluride.

Based on this SUV’s design, packaging, equipment, utility, performance, and outright value, it’s a cost-effective choice in its segment. Not only that, but in our opinion, it’s the best 3-row midsize SUV money can buy, unless you want an electrified model or something made for outright on-pavement or off-road performance.