The Telluride has arrived in NJ! (And guess who took a test drive?)

[zhelder]

Maybe the first Telluride in NJ? This beauty is an 8 seat (bench middle row) AWD EX in Gravity Gray. It’s located at Liberty Kia on Route 17 South in Ramsey. The salesperson told me someone was supposed to sign the papers to buy it last night, but s/he didn’t come in. So, I got to check it out!

So, what do I think? Very simply, This is my next car (or the Hyundai Palisade). It is beautiful. It drives wonderfully.

OK, some specifics...

Some people have mentioned being “vertically challenged” and worried about whether they would fit in the car. I’m in the “horizontally challenged” club, so I had the same fear. But, no problems. Room is ample on all fronts, but especially the legroom. My other fear is that the seat belt wouldn’t fit me, I took a Pilot on a test drive last year and couldn’t get the seat belt to fit. It shouldn’t have been a problem, since I’ve owned two Accords and neither gave me a problem. The seat bet is uuuuuuuge. I got it on with plenty of room to spare.

The car rides beautifully. Steering is light in the standard drive mode (I didn’t have time to check them all out, unfortunately) but it was fine. The engine seems perfectly fine in terms of HP and torque for the car.

Gauges are very nice and easy to read, but a touch small. Ditto for the tiny 3.5” multi-information display in the instrument cluster. I was happy to see the MID has a digital speedometer view. The larger display in the SX may address some of these problems.

Now the EX is the first level to get the upgraded 10.25” infotainment system and it is nooyyyyce. The screen is big, sharp, and beautiful. It is very responsive, and pinch to zoom on the nav mode works beautifully. Graphics are top-notch. (The wacky Kia instrumentation font is growing on me.) The EX has the standard audio system (8 speakers?) but still has a subwoofer and it sounded great. Plenty of bass and detail. I can’t imagine how good the premium Harman Kardon system is.

Flaws with the car? Well, I can’t see myself being able to stuff my butt into the third row as the opening, even with the second row seats moved up as far as possible is a bit small for my horizontally challenged body (although captain’s chairs may help with this). That’s OK though. I need the flexible storage space more than the need to stuff myself in the third row. And Kia went a touch cheap with the standard MID display. It’s nice, but the screen should be larger. Again, if you spring for the SX, problem solved.

Overall, I was floored (no pun intended) at how beautiful this car is. This (and/or the Palisade) should easily take home a bunch of Car of the Year awards.

For a few reasons, I have to wait a few months before I can actually buy the car, and believe me, it took a lot of willpower to say no. So, if you live in Northern NJ and really want a Telluride now, this beauty may still be available. My salesperson was Tony, and Tony was cool, so give him some business if you can.

Here’s some pics to salivate over...

 

[Kamauxx]

Thanks for the review. I've seen a couple of EXs around here. And a LX or S (not sure but it had smaller uglier wheels than the EX).

I'm still waiting on a SX for my test drive. The closest one is more than 50!miles out.

 

[zhelder]

Oh, for those wondering, the EX does have a heated steering wheel, heated and ventilated front seats, and power folding mirrors. The heated seats were on when I got in the car and instantly nearly set me on fire. If heated seats are your thing, you’re gonna love these. The seating is “Sofino Leatherette” (fanciest ever way to say “fake leather”), but the material was actually really nice and soft. The steering wheel is tilt and telescopic, but not power.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

Maybe the first Telluride in NJ? This beauty is an 8 seat (bench middle row) AWD EX in Gravity Gray. It’s located at Liberty Kia on Route 17 South in Ramsey. The salesperson told me someone was supposed to sign the papers to buy it last night, but s/he didn’t come in. So, I got to check it out!

So, what do I think? Very simply, This is my next car (or the Hyundai Palisade). It is beautiful. It drives wonderfully.

OK, some specifics...

Some people have mentioned being “vertically challenged” and worried about whether they would fit in the car. I’m in the “horizontally challenged” club, so I had the same fear. But, no problems. Room is ample on all fronts, but especially the legroom. My other fear is that the seat belt wouldn’t fit me, I took a Pilot on a test drive last year and couldn’t get the seat belt to fit. It shouldn’t have been a problem, since I’ve owned two Accords and neither gave me a problem. The seat bet is uuuuuuuge. I got it on with plenty of room to spare.

The car rides beautifully. Steering is light in the standard drive mode (I didn’t have time to check them all out, unfortunately) but it was fine. The engine seems perfectly fine in terms of HP and torque for the car.

Gauges are very nice and easy to read, but a touch small. Ditto for the tiny 3.5” multi-information display in the instrument cluster. I was happy to see the MID has a digital speedometer view. The larger display in the SX may address some of these problems.

Now the EX is the first level to get the upgraded 10.25” infotainment system and it is nooyyyyce. The screen is big, sharp, and beautiful. It is very responsive, and pinch to zoom on the nav mode works beautifully. Graphics are top-notch. (The wacky Kia instrumentation font is growing on me.) The EX has the standard audio system (8 speakers?) but still has a subwoofer and it sounded great. Plenty of bass and detail. I can’t imagine how good the premium Harman Kardon system is.

Flaws with the car? Well, I can’t see myself being able to stuff my butt into the third row as the opening, even with the second row seats moved up as far as possible is a bit small for my horizontally challenged body (although captain’s chairs may help with this). That’s OK though. I need the flexible storage space more than the need to stuff myself in the third row. And Kia went a touch cheap with the standard MID display. It’s nice, but the screen should be larger. Again, if you spring for the SX, problem solved.

Overall, I was floored (no pun intended) at how beautiful this car is. This (and/or the Palisade) should easily take home a bunch of Car of the Year awards.

For a few reasons, I have to wait a few months before I can actually buy the car, and believe me, it took a lot of willpower to say no. So, if you live in Northern NJ and really want a Telluride now, this beauty may still be available. My salesperson was Tony, and Tony was cool, so give him some business if you can.

Here’s some pics to salivate over...

View attachment 92View attachment 93View attachment 94View attachment 95View attachment 96View attachment 97View attachment 98View attachment 99View attachment 100View attachment 101

Great pictures - and thank you very much for the review!

______________________________

 

[Chaos13]

Anyone in NJ area placed an order? Looking to see which trim you got and approx price that was placed. We are looking at EX AWD.

 

[ucinn]

Oh, for those wondering, the EX does have a heated steering wheel, heated and ventilated front seats, and power folding mirrors. The heated seats were on when I got in the car and instantly nearly set me on fire. If heated seats are your thing, you’re gonna love these. The seating is “Sofino Leatherette” (fanciest ever way to say “fake leather”), but the material was actually really nice and soft. The steering wheel is tilt and telescopic, but not power.

The EX has real leather, just not nappa leather. The LX and S has the sofina