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- Ceiling Air Vents in All Rows:
- Flexible Sliding Second Row: The second-row seats slide on tracks, allowing families to adjust legroom between rows and improve third-row access depending on who’s sitting where.
- Built-In Second Row Sunshades: An underrated but incredibly practical family feature — built-in sunshades help keep kids comfortable without needing suction-cup window shades everywhere.
The Exterior
The Kia Telluride's exterior immediately grabbed my attention with its bold, upscale design that still feels rugged enough for weekend adventures with the kids. The strong lines and distinctive grille give it a confident look. It’s the kind of SUV that makes school runs, errands, and road trips all look effortlessly put-together.
On the 2023 model, they cleaned up the front… as in, no Telluride is badging on the front. I don’t know… I miss it. Am I crazy that I liked it there?
First Row
The steering wheel is beautifully designed and has tons of features right there like automated cruise control and bluetooth. The touch screen display is super easy to use and loaded with some of my favorite family-friendly features like passenger talk that projects your voice to the second and third row, quiet mode, which turns the radio off in the second and third row (great when the kids fall asleep), and sounds of nature, which is a built in sound machine that is also great for naps. The volume and climate control are pulled out of the touch screen display, which I like for ease of use.
The Telluride also comes standard with all the safety features and crash prevention technology that you want to keep your family safe like blindspot detection, brake assist, and automatic emergency braking.
Second Row
Jumping into the second row I am excited to tell you the Telluride comes with built in sunshades. These are a game changer. I don't know if I would buy a new car without them. I’ve bought a lot of aftermarket sun shades but nothing beats a built-in sunshade. The door cubby is pretty good sized and can fit a water bottle. As for knee and head clearance, I have plenty and the front seat is set for a tall driver. This car has one of my favorite features: USB outlets on the back of the front seats so anyone in the back seat has super easy access to those. There are also hooks on the back of the seat to hang a purse or bag. Back here we also have our own climate control and ceiling vents, which is so ideal for car seats.
There are lower anchors and tether anchors in both captains chairs so you can safely put two rear or forward facing car seats in the second row. In the third row there is one set of lower anchors on the driver’s side so you could put two rear-facing car seats back there either using the seat belts or one using the lower anchors. There are also 2 tether anchors in the third row, but, and this is a big but, the 2 tether anchors are next to each other and like I said before, the middle seat is super narrow so really there is only room for one forward facing car seat in the third row. This means you can fit at most 3 forward facing car seats in this car. Another thing to note, is this car does not have the car seat tilt so if you have the bench seat with rear facing car seats on either outboard seat there is no way to get to the third row. I have a Family Planning Map worksheet that helps walk you through all the car seat configurations of any car so you can better plan how a car will work for you and your growing family. I recommend it before any family buys a new car.
Third Row
To get to the third row of this Kia Telluride you have a few options. Either you can shimmy in between the captain chairs if there aren’t rear facing car seats in the way or you can press one of two buttons on the second row seats—either at the top of the seat or on the bottom, which is great so older kids can get in and out of the car by themselves at grade school drop off. The Telluride has one of the roomiest third rows and I could sit all the way back here for a long road trip and be comfortable. But 3 people cannot fit back here. The middle seat is basically nonexistent. It is 5.5” wide, which doesn’t fit anything. Can’t fit a human, can’t fit a car seat, can’t fit a booster seat. But, this is not to harp on Kia. I still think this is a great family car but want you to know this is a 6 passenger car—just ignore the middle seat in the third row.
Trunk
Mid size SUVs always disappoint when it comes to the trunk space, but the Kia Telluride does not. There is extra space in the floor that can be separated to throw in gear that you always want handy like blankets, diapers or wipes, or you can open it up to fit something larger. The Uppababy Vista stroller fits well even without the extra floor space. If you’re looking for more trunk space you’re going to either need a minivan or a larger SUV like the Expedition, Suburban or Wagoneer, which is going to give you about twice as much room.
Safety
The 2024 Kia Telluride is an IIHS Top Safety Pick+. It comes with an extensive standard safety with Kia's Drive Wise suite, including Forward Collision-Avoidance, Lane Keeping Assist, Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, and Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go, plus optional features like Surround View Monitor and Blind Spot View Monitor on higher trims.
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