Markinarch
Member
Hello All! After 7 months of waiting our Telluride was finally delivered and we were able to take it out for the first time on a day trip to Houston from San Antonio. Our trip was about 400 miles round trip and besides taking the car to XPEL for PPF and Discount Tire for a new tire (story for another day), this was the first time we drove the car.
We left our house at around 2am (went to Houston for a medical procedure at 6am) and got back home around 2pm. We loaded the car up with a cooler full of drinks and sandwiches, a snack bag, baby supplies, stroller, an overnight bag, two backpacks, the baby and my wife! My wife sat in the rear captain chair next to the baby the whole drive.
My (quick) Thoughts:
1. First off, this is not my daily driver, it is my wife's, but I like to drive and the Telluride has a lot more space than my Tesla that we usually take to Houston. For reference, I have also done this same trip in my our old 2008 Rav 4, and Jaguar F-Pace S.
2. There is soooo much room! After loading the car up we kept asking what we had forgot because we had so much extra space!
3. The seats are very comfortable and have tons of leg space in first two rows. This really made the trip so much more comfortable.
4. The ride is way smoother and quiet than the other cars listed which helped keep the baby asleep.
5. There is a stretch along I-10 in Lulling where you get a bad sulfur smell for several miles. The Telluride seemed to be the worst, by far, at keeping the gross smell out of the car. We tried recirculation on/off, opening windows - it was bad. Not sure what to make of this.
6. The instrument cluster and all lighting for the buttons up front are really bright in the middle of the night. I wish there was a stealth mode to turn most of these lights off. I did reduce the brightness but still felt like all the lights were distracting. Coming from a Tesla that doesn't have any buttons, I found this very distracting.
7. The Highway Driving Assist is pretty good! Once again, coming from a Tesla that has Enhanced Autopilot, I felt the system was easy to use and comparable. HDA is not as good as Autopilot, but it is good at what it is meant for and bonus points for it not trying to kill you at every other highway exit ramp - Tesla drivers know what I'm talking about
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8. It's really annoying to turn off Auto Engine Deactivation and to turn on Auto Hold every time I get in the car. Any way to program them to stay off/on?
9. I feel like it needs more power. Merging on the highway I didn't feel like I could accelerate to 75 mph fast enough to merge with the other cars on I-10 going 80+. I think this is a high speed problem as opposed to a low-mid speed problem since it didn't feel under powered in the city.
10. We kept getting surprised with cool features and technology we didn't know it had!!!
11. There is a little more body roll than I was expecting.
12. The ventilated seats are game changers in the Texas heat!
13. The Navigation is really good (not using UVO). Although, it has a really hard time finding addresses when I type them in, before the trip starts.
14. It's an attention grabber. Lots of people looking as we or they drive by.
15. Excellent fuel economy for this size SUV. Our round trip where we were going any where from 70-85 mph on the highway, depending on conditions, averaged 28mpg! Not bad with all the extra weight we had in the car.
16. Finally, I don't feel as bad about not getting AWD. I have never been a FWD fan but didn't want to wait X-months longer for the car and my wife didn't care one way or the other. I could tell the car is FWD on hard acceleration (some torque steer) but besides that didn't notice too much.
My Verdict:
We love it! Can't wait to have 7-10 years of road trips, soccer practice, etc. in the Telluride!
If I had One Telluride Wish:
Add a plug-in hybrid version with an electric motor driving the rear wheels. 35 mile all electric range with a sport mode to give an extra 100 hp and torque from the electric motor. Just saying
We left our house at around 2am (went to Houston for a medical procedure at 6am) and got back home around 2pm. We loaded the car up with a cooler full of drinks and sandwiches, a snack bag, baby supplies, stroller, an overnight bag, two backpacks, the baby and my wife! My wife sat in the rear captain chair next to the baby the whole drive.
My (quick) Thoughts:
1. First off, this is not my daily driver, it is my wife's, but I like to drive and the Telluride has a lot more space than my Tesla that we usually take to Houston. For reference, I have also done this same trip in my our old 2008 Rav 4, and Jaguar F-Pace S.
2. There is soooo much room! After loading the car up we kept asking what we had forgot because we had so much extra space!
3. The seats are very comfortable and have tons of leg space in first two rows. This really made the trip so much more comfortable.
4. The ride is way smoother and quiet than the other cars listed which helped keep the baby asleep.
5. There is a stretch along I-10 in Lulling where you get a bad sulfur smell for several miles. The Telluride seemed to be the worst, by far, at keeping the gross smell out of the car. We tried recirculation on/off, opening windows - it was bad. Not sure what to make of this.
6. The instrument cluster and all lighting for the buttons up front are really bright in the middle of the night. I wish there was a stealth mode to turn most of these lights off. I did reduce the brightness but still felt like all the lights were distracting. Coming from a Tesla that doesn't have any buttons, I found this very distracting.
7. The Highway Driving Assist is pretty good! Once again, coming from a Tesla that has Enhanced Autopilot, I felt the system was easy to use and comparable. HDA is not as good as Autopilot, but it is good at what it is meant for and bonus points for it not trying to kill you at every other highway exit ramp - Tesla drivers know what I'm talking about
.8. It's really annoying to turn off Auto Engine Deactivation and to turn on Auto Hold every time I get in the car. Any way to program them to stay off/on?
9. I feel like it needs more power. Merging on the highway I didn't feel like I could accelerate to 75 mph fast enough to merge with the other cars on I-10 going 80+. I think this is a high speed problem as opposed to a low-mid speed problem since it didn't feel under powered in the city.
10. We kept getting surprised with cool features and technology we didn't know it had!!!
11. There is a little more body roll than I was expecting.
12. The ventilated seats are game changers in the Texas heat!
13. The Navigation is really good (not using UVO). Although, it has a really hard time finding addresses when I type them in, before the trip starts.
14. It's an attention grabber. Lots of people looking as we or they drive by.
15. Excellent fuel economy for this size SUV. Our round trip where we were going any where from 70-85 mph on the highway, depending on conditions, averaged 28mpg! Not bad with all the extra weight we had in the car.
16. Finally, I don't feel as bad about not getting AWD. I have never been a FWD fan but didn't want to wait X-months longer for the car and my wife didn't care one way or the other. I could tell the car is FWD on hard acceleration (some torque steer) but besides that didn't notice too much.
My Verdict:
We love it! Can't wait to have 7-10 years of road trips, soccer practice, etc. in the Telluride!
If I had One Telluride Wish:
Add a plug-in hybrid version with an electric motor driving the rear wheels. 35 mile all electric range with a sport mode to give an extra 100 hp and torque from the electric motor. Just saying
