Have you ever been in the unfortunate situation of too much choice? The sort that might have you second-guessing which option to go with, or at least reaching for a spreadsheet. Well, that feeling’s hitting the three-row crossover segment hard, and I’m not talking about entirely different crossovers. Kia has officially announced pricing for the new Telluride, and in the process, buried the lede that customers will have to choose from a selection of ten trim levels. Ten!
Granted, Kia isn’t setting a record here. When Mazda launched the CX-90, it offered its large crossover in no fewer than 11 trim levels. However, that included both low-output and high-output models, whereas the non-hybrid Telluride simply offers one engine: A 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-four pumping out 274 horsepower and 311 lb.-ft. of torque. Solid numbers, but beyond that, there’s a lot to wrap your head around.
The range of the new Telluride starts with the absolute base model, the $40,735 LX. Only available in front-wheel-drive, it’s quite modestly equipped for a flagship three-row crossover. We’re talking about a manual non-heated driver’s seat, a lack of a matching LED cargo area lamp, and a little 4.2-inch screen in the gauge cluster. Then again, it still gives you dual wireless phone chargers, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, tri-zone climate control, and a spare tire.
Want the option of more driven wheels? You’ll need to at least step up to the S trim, which stickers for $43,635 with front-wheel-drive and $45,635 with all-wheel-drive. While a $2,900 walk-up is pretty big at this end of the market, the S actually adds stuff that should make driving more comfortable. Features like heated front seats, an eight-way power driver’s seat with adjustable lumbar support, second-row captain’s chairs, a moonroof to feel the wind in your hair, an LED cargo light so you can see your shopping better, and a power liftgate with a programmable stop so it doesn’t hit the ceiling of your garage. A set of 20-inch wheels is a nifty addition, too.
It’s a smaller jump from the S to the EX (stop giggling), with the mid-range model ringing up at $45,535 with front-wheel-drive and $47,545 with all-wheel-drive. It does give you acoustically insulated front door windows, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, full faux-leather upholstery, rear side window shades, and ventilated front seats, but the tradeoff is that the second-row captain’s chairs get swapped back out for a bench. Not macho enough for you? The X-Line EX AWD costs $1,290 more than the regular EX AWD and gets you 21-inch wheels, blacked-out trim, projector fog lights, a heated steering wheel, and…second row captain’s chairs.
Four down, six to go, and the next rung on the ladder is the $50,335 Telluride SX, which is only available with front-wheel drive. That sounds weird at first, but it’s going to still sound weird later. Anyway, this is where the extras start to ratchet up a level, with toys like a second sunroof, mood lighting, a 10-way power driver’s seat with memory, a 14-speaker Meridian audio system, a 360-degree camera system, a more comprehensive suite of advanced driver assistance systems, and the big 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. Mind you, the Telluride SX does commit a sin because it costs more than the X-Line EX AWD and takes away the heated steering wheel, a move that’s frankly unforgivable.
If you’re wondering where the all-wheel-drive option suddenly went, allow me to introduce the $53,335 Telluride X-Line SX and the $55,235 Telluride X-Pro SX. These two trims might sound similar, but you have to be sure to pick the right one. While the X-Line SX focuses on Starbucks drive-through posing, the X-Pro SX focuses more on camping-down-a-gravel-road posing. The X-Line gets 21-inch wheels, the X-Pro gets 18-inch wheels with chunky all-terrain tires. The X-Pro gets recovery hooks, the X-Line does not. The X-Pro gets a household plug socket, the X-Line does not. Otherwise, they’re pretty similar, building on the SX trim with blacked-out trim, the aforementioned features, and a heated steering wheel.
Oh, but we’re not done yet. For some insane reason, there are still three trim levels to go. Let’s start with the $55,435 SX Prestige, where things actually get really nice. Think sueded headliner, heated and ventilated second-row seats, actual wood interior trim, part-suede upholstery, a power-adjustable steering column, a 12-inch head-up display, the sort of touches that take a car into luxury territory. Mostly material changes you can feel, plus the added sweetness of all-wheel drive. Effectively $2,100 over the X-Line SX for a much nicer interior seems money well-spent, but the pricing structure doesn’t top out there.
Yes, like with the regular SX, the SX Prestige also gets X-Line and X-Pro variants, ringing up at $56,435 and $58,335 respectively. You know the drill by now, blacked-out trim on both, all-terrains and recovery hooks on the X-Pro. At the SX Prestige level, the X-Pro adds “engineered carbon” trim, but that’s about it as far as unique bits go.
This is probably too many trim levels, especially considering how close the X-Line SX, X-Pro SX, SX Prestige, X-Line SX Prestige, and X-Pro SX Prestige are, five different trim levels all within a $5,000 spread. Oh, and we still don’t know how many hybrid trim levels Kia’s planning, as those won’t be announced until closer to Spring. There’s this concept of analysis paralysis, when consumers are overwhelmed by too many choices to the point of not choosing any of them, and I worry that’s going to be what happens when shoppers walk into a Kia showroom. Then again, knowing how the old Telluride sold, Kia probably won’t have any trouble shifting every last unit.
Top graphic image: Kia
And yet no package to provide normal door handles?
This annoys TF out of me. Mazda often has 5 or 6 trims for some models (the 3 and the CX-5 for example) and that feels like too many. Ten is ridiculous.
I miss when you could add individual options à la carte. What if you just jones for an upgraded stereo, but prefer the base trim and its cloth seats? Or maybe you just have to have a sunroof? Tying specific options into packages, and then making upteen different configuations of those packages different trims… it’s just overkill.
Couldn’t they have just brought back optional packages instead to simplify things? Really don’t like how every option is a bundle at a specific trim. What if you want surround cameras but no sunroof?
I’ve never seen sunroofs as a value add (every time I’ve had one I’ve used it a couple times, but not enough to actively want one), but apparently I’m in the minority. I wonder how many people actually use them on a regular basis.
I was like you most of my life. Three times a year, maybe – though I did love my BMW’s pano cover that coud be retracted with a button, as rear passengers could look up on a clear day or night and that was fun.
Now I’ve just gone one step further… to not want them. It’s not just the possiblity of it breaking and leaking, those things don’t happen all that much. It’s the tall dog and tall family of my spouse. They need vertical space sunroof taketh. So on our new family CUV, we bought one w/o sunroof. It had to be first year, low trim only. And we did not consider a used current gen RDX becuase one cannot be had without the problematic pano roof.
TL: i’ve gone from sunroof is not value add, to sunroof is value lost.
Thats part of the reason I don’t like them for sure, one more thing to break, leak, etc. My wife had a Jetta when we met that had a clogged drain that was soaking the carpet and causing mold. I’m a big believer in either buy a convertible or don’t, a sunroof, t-tops, etc are half assed headaches.
Also louder than a solid roof. The only time it was useful in the one car I had with one was when I held onto the Christmas tree on the roof of my Avenger after it blew off a bit the first go on the way home.
I was going to gripe about how it’s another ovoid shaped, tablet-operated, 4cylinder on wheels. Then I saw the back and side profiles and realize it’s directly gunning at Land Rover’s Range Rover. None of this really matters to me, and I don’t know why I’m typing. Thank goodness I don’t have to review them and write about them.
I will not. I will, however, wonder how long until we get a crossover episode with a Lexus TX.
I thought the CX-90 came in 22 trim levels. 11 with three rows of seats and 11 with two rows of seats….
Half of those are CX-70s but yes, I take your point. To differentiate otherwise identical vehicles as separate models simply because of the number of doors, or rows of seats seems needless too. And jeez… Mazda does too many ‘trim levels’ too, no matter how much I appreciate their cars for the most part.
What the hell is going on with the wheel wells?
I worked at Alia dealership about a decade ago. SX was the fancy trim then and those felt wild for a “Kia”. Nuts.
What the hell ever happened to design? This is probably one of the ugliest cars I have seen arrive at the dealerships. KIA should be embarrassed and fire whoever approved that… thing.
Sadly everything is going this way. Houses are now vinyl boxes with all the appeal of an Amazon shipping box. But as long as it has a shiny flatscreen dash, heated steering wheel and 30 way power everything, and available in white, putty, primer gray, black or brown, the population is happy.
Ugliest on the Kia lot or any lot? You must not have a BMW dealership nearby.
I’m not sure if the population is happy about the crappy choices. I have a sneaking suspicion that many people are focused on just getting by while worrying about the state of charge of the phone that’s glued to their hand. The mindless sheep are getting fleeced and are making 84 monthly payments on this rolling garbage. All my cars are old, and I’m not sure what I’ll be buying in 20 years when my stock of favorite vehicles is depleted.